Top 25 Books of the Past 25 years, as voted for by Waterstone's customers: (1 Viewer)

[Squiggle]

I have a kind of a phobia about second hand books - If I buy a book it absolutely has to be new. I can't stand the dusty smell of second hand books.

Really? I love second hand books. There's nothing I like better than finding a treasure for a couple of Euro. I love the old penguins, the colour coded ones, and old hardback books. They look great on a bookshelf too.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Really? I love second hand books. There's nothing I like better than finding a treasure for a couple of Euro. I love the old penguins, the colour coded ones, and old hardback books. They look great on a bookshelf too.

I really like them too. They have history and, for some reason, I think its kind of cool to know that somebody once held them and read the exact same words.

I once found one with a shopping list folded between the pages. Red grapes with seedless undelined twice and a "make sure" in brackets, was top of the list.

I also picked up a copy of High Fidelity in Australia with a handwritten note at the beginning saying "dearest Ev, happy birthday, love always, Tara.... Ev probably got about $5 for it.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Really? I love second hand books. There's nothing I like better than finding a treasure for a couple of Euro. I love the old penguins, the colour coded ones, and old hardback books. They look great on a bookshelf too.

Those orange penguins are WMD's as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't let Hans Blix near one.

I love opening a nice clean crisp book and I love the smell of the ink.

 

[Squiggle]

I really like them too. They have history and, for some reason, I think its kind of cool to know that somebody once held them and read the exact same words.

I once found one with a shopping list folded between the pages. Red grapes with seedless undelined twice and a "make sure" in brackets, was top of the list.

I also picked up a copy of High Fidelity in Australia with a handwritten note at the beginning saying "dearest Ev, happy birthday, love always, Tara.... Ev probably got about $5 for it.

I love stuff like that. The copy of the Seven Seas that I have has a Recessional Hymn hand written in the front of it, and a poem, also hand written, with a dedication "Millicent Higginnson from HSH, December 1896"

I also have a tiny old hardback bible that has a decication dated 1853.

My Dad once bought a book that had a Brighton Deck Chair ticket in it as a bookmark. The ticket was dated, can't remember the date now but it was 1910 or 1911. Called up all kinds of interesting images.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I can't stand the dusty smell of second hand books.

That's the best bit!

also, I got a postcard in a second hand book recently.
To a Joe Booker in Leconfield Road in London.

"What a thrill to hear you so clearly, as if in the next room! It's still summer here and nice and hot. I've been to Bantoll (?) and am going again in November. In the meantime I sit here trying to write another book. Lots of love xxx, Granny"

As if the next room! Priceless.

 

[Jim Daniels]

I love stuff like that. The copy of the Seven Seas that I have has a Recessional Hymn hand written in the front of it, and a poem, also hand written, with a dedication "Millicent Higginnson from HSH, December 1896"

I also have a tiny old hardback bible that has a decication dated 1853.

My Dad once bought a book that had a Brighton Deck Chair ticket in it as a bookmark. The ticket was dated, can't remember the date now but it was 1910 or 1911. Called up all kinds of interesting images.

Thats deadly!
Like walking through a graveyard

I once found a really cool, red leaf in one, used as a bookmark, so I picked up on that idea. My sister found an old Irish tenner (they were really big!) once in a Stephen King Book. Nothing as cool as yours though..

 

[MDR]

The hardbacks in chapters that I was talking about are new, not second-hand.

I never buy second hand books as they are usually the former property of people with terminal illnesses who coughed all over them and who left flakes of skin between the pages. Also, I'm allergic to dust.

 

[Squiggle]

Thats deadly!
Like walking through a graveyard

I once found a really cool, red leaf in one, used as a bookmark, so I picked up on that idea. My sister found an old Irish tenner (they were really big!) once in a Stephen King Book. Nothing as cool as yours though..

Ah, those are great! The person who lost that tenner must have been really devistated... would have bought a lot once upon a time. I found flowers pressed in the pages of an old book my Dad picked up somewhere too. Now if I ever have roses I press some of the petals in a book. It's fun to pick up a book you haven't read for a while and find stuff in the pages that brings back memories. Yeay for old books. Someday I'll inherit all of my Father's collection... I'm going to need a lot of bookshelves.

 

[MDR]

I'm going to need a lot of bookshelves.

I hate getting rid of books, but they seem to have sex with each other and multiply on my shelves so I'm going to have to do something.

 

[Squiggle]

I hate getting rid of books, but they seem to have sex with each other and multiply on my shelves so I'm going to have to do something.

I've discovered that I have multiple copies of some books, not sure how that happened, so I'll be taking them along to Oxfam or whatever.

 

[Mitchum]

I hate getting rid of books, but they seem to have sex with each other and multiply on my shelves so I'm going to have to do something.

Try www.bookmooch.com

 

[magicbastarder]

i was staying with relatives in the south of spain once; he's irish, she's english.
anyway, i was browsing through their bookshelf, and pulled out an old book which looked interesting. it fell open on a page with a photo inserted; the woman in the photo was identical looking to my female host; so i brought the book out to her to ask what relative of hers it was. she'd never opened the book, and had never seen the photo before. the book had been bought in a car boot sale a couple of years previously.

 

[Jim Daniels]

i was staying with relatives in the south of spain once; he's irish, she's english.
anyway, i was browsing through their bookshelf, and pulled out an old book which looked interesting. it fell open on a page with a photo inserted; the woman in the photo was identical looking to my female host; so i brought the book out to her to ask what relative of hers it was. she'd never opened the book, and had never seen the photo before. the book had been bought in a car boot sale a couple of years previously.

Wow, is your relative Paul Auster?

 

[Lili Marlene]

i was staying with relatives in the south of spain once; he's irish, she's english.
anyway, i was browsing through their bookshelf, and pulled out an old book which looked interesting. it fell open on a page with a photo inserted; the woman in the photo was identical looking to my female host; so i brought the book out to her to ask what relative of hers it was. she'd never opened the book, and had never seen the photo before. the book had been bought in a car boot sale a couple of years previously.

g-g-g-g-ghost?

 

[Mitchum]

Wow, is your relative Paul Auster?

True story.
Friend of mine was reading Auster's Book Of Illusions on a train in northern Italy a few years back and when she arrived at her destination she noticed a man on a platform holding a sign saying 'Mr. Auster'...so being a fan of the Brooklyn writer she hung around to see if he'd turn up.

Paul Auster didn't. But a different Mr. Auster did.

Fascinating.

 

[sarah]

Try www.bookmooch.com

that's a cool idea, would people be on for having an thumped based bookmooch, thus saving on international postage and somehow being more cheap-ass/carbon-neutral.

excepting the used-bookaphobes of course.

 

[THRILLHO]

Before we moved here, I had to get rid of loads of my books. Very sad. I would have loved to put them all into bookcrossing, but I just didn't have the time. And also, being Dublin, I figured it was more likely to be picked up by some toe-rag that would sooner use the book to stab someone than actually read it.

 

[Lili Marlene]

what are the most checked out books from libraries i wonder? that would be interesting to know!

FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK THIS 3 YEARS AGO

because it just so happens.....


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...popular-library-book-author-of-noughties.html

most lent authors of the past ten years

The most lent authors of the last decade (numbers of times books lent in brackets)
1. Jacqueline Wilson (16 million)
2. Danielle Steel (14 million)
3. Catherine Cookson (14 million)
4. Josephine Cox (13 million)
5. James Patterson (11 million)
6. RL Stine (10 million)
7. Mick Inkpen (10 million)
8. Janet & Allan Ahlberg (9 million)
9. Roald Dahl (8 million)
10. Agatha Christie (8 million)



well done everyone again

 

[Andy_aurel]

Such round numbers.

 

[D0njo]

The Bible is really the only book you ever have to read