Wow. A milestone! The First Time I Saw One of My Books in a Used Bookstore.
Today, at the popular Book Exchange on Jamestown Road in Williamsburg.
Maybe a good thing? It means my stuff is out there, people are trying them. Not everyone will like what they read. Comix are a hard art form to navigate if you haven’t read any since Archie and Jughead when you were 7.
But I couldn’t stop staring — like finding one of my homemade cupcakes in the trash at the company picnic, with one bite out of it. I know in my head that used Chester Comix are out there — you can see them advertised on Amazon. But I’ve never physically come face-to-cover with one in all the used bookstores I love to cruise.
I resisted the urge to pull a Paddington and write a note to stick inside it: “Please take care of this book.”
Tags: Author's Purpose, Bentley Boyd, bookstore, Chester Comix, Revolutionary City
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 30th, 2010 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Author's Purpose. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
I just think it looks good sitting on the shelf like that!
True! It was in a place of honor, right in the window next to a bunch of other autumn/local books in the themed display. But now I have to resist the urge to swing back thru the bookstore this week to see if someone has snapped that comic up! 😉
My 7-year old just discovered the Chester comix at the public library last week and absolutely loves them. I bet that someone originally bought the book you saw at the Book Exchange for a child who has now outgrown it. Rather than leaving it to gather dust on the shelf, the parents passed it along to a bookseller so some other lucky child would have the chance to read it. Take it as a compliment that the original owner wanted to share the book and the bookseller jumped at the opportunity to add it to his inventory, knowing he was going to make a sale!
I think you’re right — and my book didn’t stay there long. I went back a few weeks later with my best friend and the copy of “Revolutionary City” was gone. A happy ending!