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Used books are like used bookcases: neither brings in any income to the guy who made it. However, unlike bookcases, books prominently feature the creator's name, so there's a lot better chance of a used book generating further sales than there is with a used bookcase.
I forget who said it here, but they were right: If ebooks, especially backlist titles, were priced to compete with used books, instead of priced not to compete with hardcovers, sales would soar.
Of course, that would kill the local used book stores, and in this day and age of bland corporate superstores, they're among the last of the real independents. No online community can duplicate the experience of hanging out after school at the used book store and discovering not only a world of books but a world of book lovers.
The used book store I grew to adulthood in is long since closed, its owner long since passed on to the great library in the sky, and yet to me, science fiction, fandom, even reading itself, are defined by that place, a little hole-in-the-wall store in a basement, with cinder-block shelves, hand-lettered signs, rare comics hanging over the register, and an outside light over the stairs that was never quite straight again after I whacked it with my head while swinging over the railing -- stairs were for wusses. I met lifelong friends in that store, and developed some of the interests that are at the core of my being. More than anywhere else outside my home, that store and the reading community centered around it shaped who I am. We're losing those special places, thanks to the decline of reading and the rise of ebooks. While it may be inevitable, it is nonetheless sad. As much as I like ABE, for instance -- where else can I find odd works on military history that have been out of print for decades? -- it will never be Book Swap.
Ah, lack of sleep makes me maudlin. Maybe BVC needs to establish store hours, so I don't buy a book late at night and find myself unable to put it down (or should that be turn it off?).
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