Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Remainders

Went out and bought a new pair of walking shoes tonight. My feet demanded it. Fall is the season where I spend a lot of time wandering the city and my cheap old sneakers just weren't cutting it. Much better now.

While I was out I passed by a Book City. In the window was a remaindered hardcover copy of Michael Winter's This All Happened selling for 5 bucks. Talk about conflicted feelings.

There's a part of me that hates the remainder racks. I just can't stand seeing really good books being sold off for a fraction of what they originally sold for. I don't mind so much if the book is bad - and there are more than enough bad books being printed every year - but the good ones deserve a better fate.

Right now, I can go to any big bookstore in the city and find Alice Munro's Runaway, Jim Harrison's Returning to Earth and also his True North plus a number of other great books being sold off at bargain bin prices. These are books that everyone should read, books that should not have wound up tossed on the heap.

On the other hand, the only reason why I read Returning to Earth was because I had picked up a remaindered copy of True North on a whim and was blown away. Nick Hornby's High Fidelity was another bargain bin find for me. So there is some benefit to this system, I guess.

As for the Winter book, I bought it. Scruples be damned, I'd never seen a hardcover edition of the book before and couldn't resist. It's a truly amazing book and one of the few that I have reread and will reread again.

I'm really looking forward to Word on the Street this weekend. There are just so many great writers that will be there. I'm aiming to see Andrew Pyper and Russell Smith plus whatever else strikes my fancy.

ps. - If you haven't read Pyper's The Killing Circle yet, you really must.

4 comments:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

You have a word festival there this weekend? Ours was fairly recently and once again I did not make it to any of the events. Shame on me.

I also feel badly about good book (new ones at that!) hitting the bargain bin. But somebody must buy them and give them a good home.

I am intrigued now, and must look for the Killing Circle.

Remi said...

Yup. They used to shut down a big stretch of Queen St. for it. Now they have it in Queen's Park.

I guess this will be the first one since they put the statue of Al Purdy in the park. Somehow fitting.

John Mutford said...

Hey, Barbara's been here, too. Neat.

I have no qualms about seeing good books in bargain bins (Cds either for that matter). Cheaper to me.

Remi said...

Yup, I'm pretty sure my regular readership is up to 3.