When I worked at Goodwill last summer (2017), I was told not to put out any donated books that were torn or dirty--those went to resale-recycling.
GW didn't assign anyone to sort & select books---if they looked in good shape, they went on the shelves. So you got shiny copies of Real Estate License Study Guides from 2005, but no ragged Grove Press publications, like the Becketts I posted the other day, or this random collection I put on the Cool Old Books shelves:
☞ a warped Four Days about the John Kennedy assassination, with newspaper cuttings from the event tucked inside
✫ a tattered Thirsty Evil, by Gore Vidal (––according to the back cover, a novel about "a twilight zone of sexual inversion")
◆ Macaulay's Historical Essays
❧ and the novelization (I presume) of Disney's original 1969 Love Bug.
Maybe.
I don't want to push my boss on this, because I'm not sure my job is economically defensible, strictly speaking.
Anyway, since I have time to take care of the books, I reject lots of
shiny books and wipe down lots of dirty books. I do some basic repairs
too––mostly gluing spines and taping ripped dust jackets. (I know how, from my art-college library days, but I don't
repair the antique books.)
And sometimes it's worth it to do a little extra.
I was excited yesterday to nab from a Little Free Library a copy of a recent (2017) Y/A novel, The Hate U Give [T.H.U.G.].
The spine was stained, however, and, worse, the jacket was gone. If a reader didn't know the book, they'd have no clue that it's about a teenage girl who is the sole witness to the police shooting to death her unarmed best friend, a young black man.
I faded the stain with bleach, and I printed out a copy of the jacket and glued it on.
GW didn't assign anyone to sort & select books---if they looked in good shape, they went on the shelves. So you got shiny copies of Real Estate License Study Guides from 2005, but no ragged Grove Press publications, like the Becketts I posted the other day, or this random collection I put on the Cool Old Books shelves:
☞ a warped Four Days about the John Kennedy assassination, with newspaper cuttings from the event tucked inside
✫ a tattered Thirsty Evil, by Gore Vidal (––according to the back cover, a novel about "a twilight zone of sexual inversion")
◆ Macaulay's Historical Essays
❧ and the novelization (I presume) of Disney's original 1969 Love Bug.
SVDP has long paid someone to do books, 15 hours a week. (I work 20 paid hours: my other 5 hours are for online & writing work--the store's newsletter, FB, and some ebay.)
Even though book sales have almost doubled since I started, it's not like they make that much money above and beyond the Book Lady's salary to exactly justify the position.
The store would probably make the same profit if they just dumped books on the shelves... My nonreading boss said part of the reasoning behind paying a sorter is that a nice books section brings people in:
"If they buy a book, they might buy a couch."
Maybe.
I don't want to push my boss on this, because I'm not sure my job is economically defensible, strictly speaking.
But it is HUGELY defensible as Good for Civilization.
And people say they like the book section. Today a guy who comes in regularly (I think he lives in a nearby low-income high rise) told me, "You can't beat your books section with a stick!" He was showing me he was buying the six copies of the Economist I'd brought in (25¢ each): "An informed mind is a healthy mind."
People like bookstores.
I recently read that more independent bookstores have opened in the past three years. I can see that in my city.
Even Amazon has opened bricks-and-mortar stores in some cities (not here), though I hear (from Orange Crate Art & others) that those are pretty sterile.
Even Amazon has opened bricks-and-mortar stores in some cities (not here), though I hear (from Orange Crate Art & others) that those are pretty sterile.
And sometimes it's worth it to do a little extra.
I was excited yesterday to nab from a Little Free Library a copy of a recent (2017) Y/A novel, The Hate U Give [T.H.U.G.].
The spine was stained, however, and, worse, the jacket was gone. If a reader didn't know the book, they'd have no clue that it's about a teenage girl who is the sole witness to the police shooting to death her unarmed best friend, a young black man.
I faded the stain with bleach, and I printed out a copy of the jacket and glued it on.
And here's the book, ready to go on the Y/A shelf, for 99 cents.
Books-the one thing I can't live without. I like the old books including the ones with the torn covers or writing throughout. And to find a historically relevant one with newspaper clippings inside would be heaven.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to see that books that are often discarded by other places are at least having an opportunity to go home with someone.
Is perhaps limiting the type of books that are put out a form of censorship?
Kirsten
I'm glad to have your perspective Kirsten––I too would be thrilled to find ephemera in a book.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post this morning mentioning censorship---my main guide is limited space, and what sells.
I've added more shelves, so I can put out more of everything. Aside from some overtly racist books, I haven't censored political books.
I don't know about the former book lady. By the time she retired she was only putting out a handful of books---sort of odd selections, I thought---like she put out all the books we received about collecting antiques. Her interest, maybe? But they don't sell... (They've been there all summer.)
We get boxes and boxes of unsaleable books---mostly things like bestsellers from the 1970s, Readers Digest books, pop fiction hardbacks with no dust jackets... They all go in to resale.
P.S. Of course being selective about what goes out isn't censorship--I know you didn't mean that. But sometimes there's some crossover... :)
ReplyDeleteI try not to limit what I put out by my own taste and beliefs. Working in libraries for years helps!