What are Odd Books?

One of the reasons I love the bookstore business is the sleuthing required almost every time we receive a batch of used books. Almost everyone likes a puzzler, an enigma, a conundrum. We deal exclusively in used books, and you’d be amazed at what people drag through the doors--sometimes literally, in large garbage sacks. Even with information widely available online, we find treasures among the moldy and buggy books (this is humid Hawaii). One example. A local organization collected used books for several weeks for a fundraiser then after the sale brought the leftovers to us. In one of the boxes was an old Bible in Hawaiian: a special, hard to find book that is fairly easy to identify.

It’s the older and obscure titles that engage my curiosity, those with issues such as unusual signatures or inclusions like letters that describe a history to the book’s past ownership. Should the book command a higher price? Should we separate the letter from the book? Who are these people? Sometimes with research, I can resolve the confusion and set a reasonable resale price on the book; but over time, the stack of books with unresolved issues has grown. And I’m curious. Someone out there must know something. Thus, the Odd Books Blog. I hope you enjoy this blog, or if not, I hope it attracts the occasional bibliophile who will take the time to comment with details on the books I profile.