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If anyone tells you that all markets are perfectly efficient, (no one will),
then refute them thusly: used books don't always sell for what they are worth.
Case in point:
My senior year at the U of C, I went to the University of Chicago Regenstein
Library Annual Sale (or whatever they call it). The books for sale were
not only library discards, but also books donated from various corners of the
university community. They do a preview sale for library staff, and then
they open up to the whole university for a couple of days. Prices go down.
Towards the middle or end of the sale, I forget which, hardbacks were $1 and
paperbacks were 50 cents.
I bought several David Eddings paperbacks and boy am I happy about those -
I've since read and thoroughly enjoyed them.
But also, I picked up a hardback book by a noted language commentator,
William Safire. The book was in terriffic shape, and I peeked inside to
see whether it could be so pristine and also be a library discard. It
wasn't a library discard. I learned from the title page that it had
belonged to the late Professor James D. McCawley, of the University of Chicago
and fairly well known in the linguistics community. Impossible to overlook
farther down on the title page was the inscription in blue ink, to said
Professor. I hoped it was signed and inscribed by the author, but when I
saw that the first name started with a big B, I was discouraged.
Then I realized that the last name looked about right.
The signature was Bill Safire. The author.
And of course, it's a first edition (1988).
For $1.
End of story.
"Is sloppiness in speech caused by
ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care."
--William Safire
Books by William Safire
(O=own, R=read, E=enjoyed)
- Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House
- Big Government, Myth or Might (with Phineas J Sparer, WW Rostow, and Lewis
William Seidman)
- Coming to Terms
- The First Dissident: The Book of Job in Today's Politics
- Freedom
- Fumblerules: A Lighthearted Guide to Grammar and Good Usage
- Good Advice on Writing: Writers Past and Present on How to Write Well
(compiled by Leaonard Safire)
- I Stand Corrected
- In Love with Norma Loquendi
- Language Maven Strikes Again
- Leadership: A Treasury of Great Quotations for Those Who Lead (with
Leonard Safire)
- Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History
- Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella
- No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular On Language Column in
the New York Times Magazine.
- On Language
- Pictures of the Times: A Century of Photography from the Times (Peter
Galassi and Susan Kismaric, editors)
- Quoth the Raven
- Safire's Political Dictionary
- Safire's Washington
- Scandalmonger
- Sleeper Spy
- Spread the Word
- Take My Word for It: More on Language
- Watching My Language: Adventures in the Word Trade
- What's the Good Word?
- William Safire on Language
- Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice (Leonard Safire editor)
- You Could Look It Up: More on Language (O)
Links
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