At the Bookstore

[Curt]

It's one of those dark Fall days, my wife is working late, and I am all ready behind in my days work. Lacking motivation I went to a late lunch and stopped off at the local used bookstore. Someone had sold a bunch of Ansel Adams books and they were out for sale. I had some of them and the ones printed poorly weren't worth buying. I notice one book "Yosemite and the Range of light" which I have in paper back but took a look anyway because this copy was a hardcover. I saw the price on the dust jacket and it was $9.98 so I thought why not look inside. The first thing I saw was the $100.00 price. The next thing I saw was the card put into this book with a note that it was a special edition, and I saw the unmistakable signature of Ansel Adams. I bought it and three others for under thirty dollars.

I feel more motivated so I'm off to the darkroom to develop some 8x10 negatives of my wife and son that I took this last weekend.

Curt

 

[Krockmitaine]

Happy for you!
Now the book has found it's reader

Cheers
Marc

 

[Jim Chinn]

Congrats on the purchase. If not for used bookstores, my shelves would be bereft of photography books.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I love used photo books

It is rare there a new photo book that catches my eye - they all seem to scream 'digital this...' or 'photoshop secrets that...' these days.

My local symphony has a used book sale fundraiser project that accepts donations of books year round, and warehouses them at a mall that still is a worthwhile neighbourhood mall, but is past its glory of retail days (one department store has been converted to an an insurance company). One week a year , usually a few weeks after the kids are back in school, there is a sidewalk sale type of affair. The final day you can buy a large bag for $5, and fill it with whatever books you can get in it. We usually go early for the good stuff, and on the last day for a winter's worth of novels to read.

 

[Lee Shively]

I agree with Mike about new photo publications. Very little interests me in the popular press. I frequent used bookstores or go to the bargain table more often. I'm also a big browser at Amazon's marketplace for old books available cheap. I recently bought a very nice copy of the 1973 Leica Manual, several books by David Douglas Duncan, a book of Willy Ronis' photos and the biography of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

 

[Curt]

It's as though everything moved on and no one was looking, knowing or interested. I agree that the used book stores are a treasure trove for great books. I just need to frequent them more often.

 

[wheelygirl]

I'm always amazed what folks get "rid" of! Case in point: my roommate had bought for me, last Christmas, the beginning of my Time/Life book collection of Photography. I, then, find in my public library bookstore another volume of the set!!
So many good things--so little time to search for them all

 

[mikebarger]

You may want to sign up for Powell's email on used photography books as they receive them.

http://www.powells.com/rau?s=57&d=2..._20071111&utm_content=Find complete selection

Well, this takes you to the list, but somewhere on the site you can sign up to get the new list by email, every couple of days.