For the love of books

I didn’t post last night because I streamed the documentary The Booksellers. Most of those featured sell antique books, but not all of them.

While cleaning out my dad’s house I found boxes of old books. Some of them were his mother’s school books. Many were older. I doubted they were valuable – my parents and their ancestors were not rich people who bought expensive things that couldn't be used. I didn’t have space for them and my siblings and descendants asked for only a few of the books. So I went to a book fair and found a dealer interested in looking at the collection. I received less than $200 for them all. So that’s been my exposure to book dealers.

The movie starts with the big annual book fair in New York. Several of the sellers talk about what they do. They’re all in it for the love of books. Some are in the business to collect, some to make sure old books get into the hands of people who could keep them. Some of them love the hunt for particular books (though the internet makes the hunt way too easy).

Some collect works of a particular author and also search for the author’s papers to get a more complete view of the person. One woman collects books by and about American women. These collections will likely go to a university. Another woman is collecting artifacts related to hip-hop, the popular modern music – it’s been around long enough there is a history?

Some collectors have white hair and wonder what will happen to their profession when they’re gone. A 500 year history of printed books is a good run, perhaps time for something new. Some are quite young and see positive things in the world of books that will keep on going. One of those things is observing many subway riders reading books are in their 20s. Those reading electronic readers tend to be in their 40s. One woman noted that when she started the business was about 85% male. There was a lot of talk of getting more women into the business. And now, years later, it is … 85% male.

Some collectors fear that when they die their collection will go to auction. Some prevent that by donating to a museum or university. Some are glad that an auction will get the books into loving hands again. A book auction doesn’t get the high prices of an art auction because most books are not one of a kind.

New York used to have over 300 bookstores (if I remember the number right). Perhaps 40 of them were on Fourth Ave. Now there is only one on Fourth Ave. They’re there because they own the building. They get several offers a week from agents wanting to buy the building. They aren’t selling. In the city now there are about 70 bookstores.

People tend not to throw books away. We feel they are too important for the trash. They contain too much humanity. Which is why book burnings are such important symbolism. Burning books is a big attempt at erasure of a culture.

I found out about this documentary because I get the Detroit Institute of Arts / Detroit Film Theater newsletter. Because the DFT is closed they’ve worked out how to stream the movies they would have shown. I paid the distributor to watch it. Half of the fee went to the DFT.