Floating around it seems you can pick up old books for not a lot at all these days. Despite most of my reading being like most orgasms in the modern world, which is to say done in front of a screen, I do still like to pick up older books. Most of these I get for less than most people pay for coffee (in the UK at least most charity shops double up as second hand book shops) so it is not an expensive game.
The main ones, when I can get them anyway, are probably going to be science and engineering books. I actually do find these useful as the more enjoyable part of what I do involves figuring out how a widget was made/worked from a shattered or smouldering remnant, for a device that had not been made in decades from a company that went out of business before I was born.
I have also picked up some 1930's- early 1950's cooking books (rationing in the UK did not completely end until about 1954, books were written accordingly) which are great.
My favourite one in recent times was a 1930's psychology book (itself a second edition of one written just after world war 1). Sadly it was not as hilarious/backwards as you might imagine, though I will go grab it for some of the great quotes later, but it does have some great use of language in there and being written before world war 2 it changes how things play out.
Do any others pick up certain kinds of books when they see them?
The main ones, when I can get them anyway, are probably going to be science and engineering books. I actually do find these useful as the more enjoyable part of what I do involves figuring out how a widget was made/worked from a shattered or smouldering remnant, for a device that had not been made in decades from a company that went out of business before I was born.
I have also picked up some 1930's- early 1950's cooking books (rationing in the UK did not completely end until about 1954, books were written accordingly) which are great.
My favourite one in recent times was a 1930's psychology book (itself a second edition of one written just after world war 1). Sadly it was not as hilarious/backwards as you might imagine, though I will go grab it for some of the great quotes later, but it does have some great use of language in there and being written before world war 2 it changes how things play out.
Do any others pick up certain kinds of books when they see them?
