Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

...is always a joy. The first thing I do when I open the door is smile and ask everyone how they're doing (the books, that is). It's like walking into a room full of old friends.

I'm getting caught up with email and messages from my long weekend off, and I had an email from a new customer, Todd, who was in last week and was waxing enthusiastic about books in general, and a book he just bought and read at my shop in particular: "...I find myself gleaming with enthusiasm." How nice is that phrase, particularly when it relates to books. He wants advice for a beginning book collector, so here it is: Buy what you love. Simple. What themes are you passionate about? English poetry, cookery, Turkish history, musicology, books published in the U.S. before 1800, Australian autobiographies, the history of roofing nails? Find the fields that you love deeply and often irrationally, and find out what books are considered the best in those fields - "best" is somewhat subjective, perhaps "classic" is a better term. Or "any" if your subjects of interest are obscure enough. Visit all the used bookshops you possibly can and hoover up all the books in those fields. Read them. Keep them neatly arranged in sturdy bookcases. Warning: this is habit-forming and will consume vast swaths of your lifetime. Luckily, it's heaven, and it's FUN.

A few reading suggestions for anyone who loves books but doesn't know how to begin collecting:

Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, St. Martin's, 1998. Gentle, easy reading about a book-loving couple who discovers the world of used books and booksellers. I think the jacket blurb for this said it was like A Year in Provence for booklovers. That about covers it - like a macaroon, it is light and fluffy, but enjoyable. If you like it, the authors have written several other books-about-books in a similar vein.

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2000. Lovely essays about being a book fanatic from a bookish family. My kind of bookish book. Highly recommended.

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes, Owl, 1999. Scholarly and well-researched journalism on the history of book collecting and a few of the odd characters attracted to this lifestyle. If this is your cup of tea (as it surely is mine), rush out and buy all of Basbanes's other books.

Just a few. I've already mentioned others below, either in posts or comments, that bear repeating: of course, 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. And Sixpence House by Paul Collins (which is the very book that had Todd agleam, in case anyone was wondering).