if you could buy any buk book for $1

[the only good poet]

thanks roni,

and i thought lending books and not having them returned was scraping the barrel! i wldn't mind if i thought they actually read the things!

 

[mjp]

Hmm, I don't think it's stealing to pay a ridiculously low price for a valuable item. If the seller doesn't know what they have, they are no worse off for getting your $2 for it. Unless you then dance around the store and wave it in their face singing, "Thou-sand dol-lar bo-ok, Thou-sand dol-lar bo-ok!"

I think it would be kind of weird, actually, to say, "I would like to buy this book please. Now, you realize that you are asking $2 for it and it's really worth $1000, right?" Who would do that?

Like hooch, I might tell them if I wasn't interested in the item, but be honest, if you shop in used bookstores and thrift stores you're dreaming about making one of those "few dollar" scores. That's why you walk into those joints.

A while back there was a chance that someone had listed a 1962 copy of Run With the Hunted in an eBay auction along with some other Bukowski books for a "buy it now" price of $60. As it turned out it was not the 1962 Run With the Hunted, but when I hit that "buy it now" button when there was still a chance that it was, I felt not a pang of remorse, I guarantee you. ;)

 

[nymark]

Do you know the old adage "let the buyer beware?" It works both ways. Let the seller beware as well.

A few years ago I was outbid on eBay for a copy of HARLEQUIN (true!). It went for $700 and I couldn't pay more than that. I contacted the seller and told him that if the sale fell through to contact me. He was a second hand bookstore owner and was completely shocked that it sold for that kind of money - he didn't know what he had. If I had scored that copy for cheap, I have to admit that I would have felt no remorse whatsoever.

 

[Ponder]

In the foreword to 'The Roominghouse Madrigals' he states:
"I don't even have some of my early books. Most of them were stolen by people I drank with. When I'd go to the bathroom, they did their shit. It only reinforced my general opinion of humanity. And caused me to drink with fewer people."

I think it has to do with drinking. I drink.

When you are observing people when you drink you become somewhat loose...This has a important reason when you're a writer, because when you write, it's in your system, 24/7. So you let it happen, plus, when you are a drinker and a writer, or otherwise, you "think", you have someting to write about. And when you drink with a reason you think you don't manipulate, yourself or other people.
Just a truth, like the statement of Hesse in Steppenwolf, there is not 1 truth, there are many truthes ( spelling?)

And caused me to drink with fewer people."

Totally logical to me.

Don't take me too serious, though.

 

[Weddle]

A signed copy of It Catches My Heart in Its Hands would be at the top of my wish list.

 

[HenryChinaski]

oh yes, for sure. thats very very on the top of the list.

 

[Brother Schenker]

Confessions of a Man Insane Enough To Live With Beasts

 

[Rekrab]

My pick would be FLOWER, FIST AND BESTIAL WAIL.

I recently bought a rare book worth $50 on eBay in very fine condition for 99 cents and $2.50 shipping. I felt a pang of guilt and sent them $6.00 to make it worth their time. Glad I did. How much of a bargain do I need?

 

[roni]

Rekrap, Good Guy!

 

[hobart]

Man, I just searched on the ol' amazon website and it catches ... is going for $2445. So I reckon ... Indeed it would have to be It catches ... for me.

 

[Rekrab]

Rekrap, Good Guy!

Thanks for the sentiment, but I was really only acting out of guilt. The funny thing was I already had a copy of that 1920 first edition of THE STORY OF OPAL, in ratty condition, and I paid $20 for it. Then a near mint one for 99 cents. Go figure. It balances out, I suppose.

 

[Rekrab]

Man, I just searched on the ol' amazon website and it catches ... is going for $2445. So I reckon ... Indeed it would have to be It catches ... for me.

Crap. And I sold mine for about $100 in the 80s. Guess I'll never be able to replace it unless I luck into a cheap copy.

 

[skbruce]

A copy of Horsemeat and The Wedding.

 

[mjp]

Man, I just searched on the ol' amazon website and it catches ... is going for $2445. So I reckon ... Indeed it would have to be It catches ... for me.

You can get a copy of It Catches for about $700 to $800. Less if you aren't too fussy about condition.