Five Reasons Why We Need to Bring Back Used Bookstores

For a world-class nerd like me, one of the best things about New Zealand was the bookstores.


In the States, bookstores are rapidly disappearing. Used bookstores are almost nowhere to be found! They are a dying breed and a bit of my heart is dying with them.

In New Zealand, however, you can still find them tucked away in street corners or resting peacefully beside shopping centers. They. Are. Everywhere!

So here are five reasons why we need to keep these beautiful places alive.


1. There's something for everyone


Collectors, connoisseurs, and amateur readers alike can wander into these beautiful stores and get lost in the piles of books that stretch haphazardly from the floor to the ceiling.

They have children's books, reference books, histories, biographies, textbooks, classics, mysteries, overrated YA fiction, etc. Anything you are looking for, you'll probably be able to find it there.

2. They're frozen in time

Modern book stores are so worried about competing with the digital age that they are desperate for you to come in, buy the book, and be on your merry way. They don't want you to sit and read a chapter or two because they're worried you won't end up buying the book after all! They're a business, not a library.

Well, the used bookstores of New Zealand see things differently. There are all sorts of chairs, benches, cushions, seats, pillows, and stools in various corners of the stores, hiding between the overstocked shelves. There is no rush. You can climb a latter to the top shelf, grab a book, and then settle in for an hour or so reading to your heart's content!

The hustle of the outside world fades away as you get lost in stories told on paper.

3. Sentimentality

There's something a little magical about opening a book to find little notes in the margins or dogeared pages where the previous owner marked their place. Sometimes, you'll find a heartfelt note written on the inside cover, telling you that this book was once a gift to someone.

To me, that says that this book was so important to someone that they wanted to share it with a person they cared about. It's hard for me not to buy the book, knowing that.

4. Bookkeepers

In every used bookshop I wandered through (and believe me, there were many), I struck up the most intriguing conversations with the staff. They were so kind and helpful and passionate! To them, this wasn't just a job to pay the bills. These books mattered to them. The customers mattered to them. They were guides in these readers' lives, almost like matchmakers setting up readers with the book they've been searching for.

It's a nice change from the disgruntled retail workers back home.

5. Technology is temporary, but books are permanent

Sure, accidents happen with water damage, hungry pets, or loans that are never brought back, but for the most part, the books on your shelves will long outlive you and your grandchildren, and even their grandchildren.

Ebooks are amazing, PDF files of textbooks have saved my life, but nothing can replace the bound paper books I love so much. The books that I fall in love with will be passed down to my children someday, and maybe they'll send it off with their own children. The books I read as a child are sitting in my parent's library, waiting for the next wave of babies to come through and read them, too.

Maybe they'll notice that little tear in the page of the Dr. Seuss book where my sister and I fought over the right to turn the page.

Maybe they'll laugh at the pen marks on the Scooby Doo book where I tried to draw in my own character.

That's something we can't really offer online.

Even though they're not the most convenient, used bookstores are a rare and precious gift to the world. They hold something intangible and marvelous in their shelves.

Let's fight to protect that.

Turn down the Ebook offer.

Switch off the Kindle.

Go find a bookstore and buy the used copy of the book you've read over and over and start leaving your own marks on it.

It's worth it.



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