Book Buying for the Blind

The stated moral of this poem, that each of us sees only part of the truth and should keep this in mind, make allowances for it when interacting with others (who, in turn, see different parts of the truth than we do), is straightforward and readily grasped. But there's a deeper lesson here that's often missed. The poem was written for us, not the six men of Indostan, and the truth is that most of us aren't at all blind, not clinically anyway; we can see pretty well. Thus, provided we don't stand too close, most of us can see at least half of an elephant at once, and if we're standing on one side of a specimen, we can readily extrapolate things, assume that we'd see much the same thing if we were standing on the other side. And we'd be right.

It might be more difficult to extrapolate to tarpaulin-sized ears, ivory tusks or a trunk if were we standing at the back end, nose-to-nose with the elephant's swishing tail, but even then past experience would probably suggest that there's likely to be at least a head, eyes, ears, and so on, up front, and tusks would not necessarily be something we'd be surprised to learn of if we also had knowledge of, for example, rhinoceroses. Given the similarity of a rhino's hindquarters to that of an elephant's, we might even surmise something horn-like, though likely we'd guess at one horn, not two, and be wrong altogether about tusks being horns.

There are flashpoints for big game hunters too, and clearly ivory tusks qualify as flashpoints in spades, but flashpoints on animals (as well as on books) aren't always easily spotted. Like blind Indostans, though we look, sometimes we don't see. Animals are often camouflaged by their environment. So are books. Put an exotic book in with some ho-hums, and it might be all but invisible. One of the most valuable lessons I was ever taught about deer hunting was not to look for deer at all but for branches that resembled antlers - and sometimes a deer might be attached to them. The equivalent lesson for booksellers is, don't look for valuable books; look for flashpoints, and good books may follow.

This kind of seeing, the capacity to extrapolate from parts to wholes, can be powerful, even in bookselling. If we look for tusks, that is, can elephants be far behind? But what if there are no tusks to be seen? And no elephants? Can we extrapolate to them anyway? Take an estate sale you've arrived late to. Or an FOL sale. Let's say there are bookcases lining the walls of a room and perhaps many 100's, maybe 1,000's of books, remaining. No blockbusters (elephants) in sight, but, here and there, there are gaps. Places where books obviously were. Or books fallen over because supporting books are no longer supporting them. No accumulation of books would've looked like this if it hadn't been recently ransacked. The only explanation is that books have been sold. If not entirely elephants, no doubt plenty of lesser (though still valuable) game. You've been left with a field of small, furred rodents.

Your first instinct at seeing a book sale hunted out might be to turn and leave, but if you're new or relatively so to the sport of book hunting, it could be very instructive to stay for a few minutes and study what's left. Believe me, almost nobody does this kind of thing, and there may be much to learn both from the evidence of things not seen, not to mention the junk that's left over.

Consider numbers first. Unless it's a very unusual sale, chances are most of the shelves are still relatively full of books. This should tell you - and perhaps this is too obvious by half for most of you - that books with value are remarkably few in number, but it should also tell you something else that's not widely appreciated: books that do have value are most often found in the large, sometimes obscuring company of worthless books. Camouflaged. The gaps confirm this time and time again, as will your own experiences at sales you arrive early at. In Bookland, you don't have to travel to Africa to find big game. It's everywhere, sometimes in the most unlikely places.

Also look at gaps. More often than not, if people have large numbers of books, they arrange them, group them in an intuitive manner, usually by subject or author. Look at where the gaps are. Then look at the books that stand nearby or actually form the gaps. There's a good chance that they will suggest some things about the books that are no longer there in the same way that two parts of an elephant might suggest an intervening part. A shelf with numerous books missing may be especially revealing. Make mental notes of what you see; make a habit of doing this at all big sales you arrive late at; and in a relatively short period of time you'll get very, very smart about books, know what's topically, flash-pointedly valuable, without ever having seen the books that were sold.

Look also, of course, at what you can see. A good exercise is to look for books that you'd probably buy at any time and any sale, not on the basis of having specific knowledge of their value but on the basis of their apparent value. Since you know going in that it's very likely that everything left in the room is worthless, try to figure out why books that interest you don't have value. Do this also with the ones you do buy. Don't just toss them aside in disgust.

Here are some specific things to look at, some obvious, some perhaps less so:

1. Copyright (and title) page. The most valuable information you can have about a book that you're contemplating buying is the number of copies that were printed, and some indication of this number may often be surmised from the copyright or title pages. A publisher with high name recognition, a reprint publisher (click for list), a number string that doesn't begin with "1," more than one printing date, a stated later edition or printing, differing dates on the title and copyright pages, the phrase "published by permission of" (the original publisher), a statement of number of copies printed that's well into the thousands, and so on - anything at all that suggests big numbers.

2. Book club edition. Almost all of us know that most BCE's lay large eggs, and most BCE's are readily spotted. However, some aren't, and it doesn't take long to learn the less obvious indications. Click here for more information.

3. No price on dust jacket. While this is often an indication of BCE state, it may also be an indication of reprint state. If you haven't been to a Border's or Barnes & Noble lately, stop in and take a closer look at those large, densely illustrated - and deeply discounted - coffee table books on the shelving or tables at or near the front of the store. None of them are BCE's. Most of them have no price on the dust jacket.

4. Fiction. The numbers aren't in our favor for non-fiction either, but they're much worse for fiction. For every book of fiction that has value, there are probably 10 or 20 non-fiction books that do.

5. Naked novels. Fiction absent a dust jacket, especially if published in the past 50 years or so, is, with microscopically few exceptions, worthless.

6. Lists of author's other books. If there's an extensive list of previous publications on either the dust jacket or inside the book, beware. Prolific authors tend to be published in big numbers.

7. Later work. If there's any evidence that the book was written later in the author's career, chances are better than 50/50 it's a loser.

8. Author's name in large type on dust jacket. This usually indicates two things - one, that the author is popular and often sells books on the basis of his or her name alone, and two, the particular title is a later work (see above). Both speak high numbers.

9. Remainder Mark. If one is present (typically in the form of a dot, stripe, light spray, or stamp either on the covers or the edges of the text block), this may suggest several things. First, that the publisher miscalculated the desirability or demand of the book, and it's likely that, in a used state, it's still undesirable. Second, that there are many more of the same title floating around.

10. Condition. This may seem painfully obvious, but values for otherwise desirable books in poor condition can plunge absolutely to the basement. Don't waste money on them unless unusual circumstances prevail.