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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Mint-on-sunday/  Letter from... a used bookstore
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Letter from... a used bookstore

Secondhand books often manage to surprise you

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Last week I went to the excellent Skoob Books store here in London. I love Skoob for several reasons. First of all its name is the word books in reverse. Cool bro. Second, they always have cheap used copies of Lindsey Davis novels. Third, there is absolutely zero cellular signal down in the basement of the Brunswick Building, where the store is to be found. So your phone never rings, pings or vibrates. A silent phone is not only good for reading, it is also great for browsing shelves upon shelves of books. Fourth, for such a large store it always seems to have fresh stock when I go there. I am never bored at Skoob. And finally they always, always, always have something I want to read. It could be a frothy little crime novel. Or a thoroughly daunting two-volume set of Braudel on the Mediterranean.

I pop in at Skoob once a month or so. And I always buy something. Not because I have to. I am the kind of guy who can spend two hours in a bookstore, and then leave in a thoroughly good mood without having bought a thing. So Skoob is really great. And the prices are excellent. 

I really do love used bookstores. And in no small part because of the stuff I keep finding inside used books. 

Many years ago, I bought a short history of Islam, or something in that ilk, from a used bookstore next to a church somewhere in Wales. And inside the book the previous owner had carefully placed several cuttings on Bangladesh. They were all from the 1970s and all made dire predictions for the country. I am glad to inform that Bangladesh appears to have belied all these expectations. 

Some months ago I bought another non-fiction book, the details of which I shall leave anonymous for obvious reasons. It was an online purchase, and on opening the packet I realized that the book was a first edition, signed by the author, and presented to yet another author. Why? Because the second author had agreed to blurb the book. Thus the guy with his name on the front had signed the book for the guy whose name was on the back. Who, for whatever reason, had decided to sell the book on. And, thirty years later, it had found its way to me. 

So what did I do? I tracked down the author of the book, now a respected don in a college at Oxford, and sent him an email. Some weeks later, following his invitation, I went to Oxford to watch a film and then witness a panel discussion. Afterwards he walked over and we spoke for several minutes. It was thoroughly amazing. 

Over the years I have found all kinds of things inside used books. Peacock feathers. Newspaper cuttings. Bus tickets. Receipts. Personal notes. Recipes. A Christmas shopping list, compiled in 1993, for someone with a massive and diverse family: Mr Smith, Aunt Jane, Uncle Amjad, Mr Mohan, et cetera. 

Once, many, many years ago, we moved from one flat in Abu Dhabi to another one, and I found an old Bible high up inside a cupboard built into the wall. It was a little bit creepy. I have vivid memories of sitting and reading that Bible cover to cover over a summer vacation. It had belonged to an American lady at some point. And the book was full of annotations and little notes and highlighted passages. And phone numbers. 

My most recent discovery inside a used book happened during my last trip to Skoob. I purchased a copy of Lindsey Davis’s seventh novel in the Falco series—Time to Depart—and on the train back home discovered the most delicious things inside. First there were a set of airplane boarding passes for a couple—a doctor of some type and his wife—from Ayers Rock to Cairns. Ayers Rock! In Australia! I’d read about Ayers Rock in a textbook in school. Magic. The trip took place on 14 September. Of some year. 

It is a Qantas boarding pass and a special logo in a corner reads “Proud Sponsor of The Australian Olympic Team". 

But which Olympics was this? The boarding passes looked ancient. Ten years old? Maybe 15? 

The other item in the book offered a clue, though. It was a ‘Regular Adult’ admission ticket for a Cezanne show held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dated 20 July 1996. The book itself was printed in 1996. 

So this is what I think happened. Twenty years ago a couple from Australia bought a copy of Time to Depart, and then took it with them on a trip to the US. Where they visited the Cezanne show… but could they have also attended some of the events at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics? The dates would certainly allow it. Perhaps they had so much fun on the trip that, two months later, he or she was still reading the book as they travelled around Australia. 

Two decades later, somehow, the book went up for sale at the Skoob bookstore in London. Where I picked it up. And will now carry with me for months and perhaps years to come. I say that because I never sell on any of my books. I hoard. And assemble shelves. And fill boxes. Lend. And lose. But I never sell on my books. 

But you know what? Maybe I should. And I should leave clues for the next buyer. So that they can take the little imaginary journeys, fantastic pilgrimages, brilliant adventures, and fanciful leaps of imagination that I go on every time I find a used book with things inside. 

Used books are the best. You get two or three stories for half the price of one.

Letter From... is Mint on Sunday’s antidote to boring editor’s columns. Each week, one of our editors—Sidin Vadukut in London and Arun Janardhan in Mumbai—will send dispatches on places, people and institutions that are worth ruminating about on the weekend. 

Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com

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Published: 20 Jan 2018, 11:35 PM IST
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