Books, and their "value"

As many other internet go-ers, I stumbled over the concept of buying things over the internet.

As I was looking around, I noticed how the values of a book is graded. When you buy a book from a store you usually pay around 7 British pounds for it, or 100 Swedish crowns. After that book has been read once, if it is a pocket-book, it will re-retail for around 3 British pounds.

Isn't that crazy? We pay so much for a new book, and after one read, it is barely worth anything.

And even though it might sound a bit weird, I get a bit emotionally attached to all my books. Recently I decided to sell my Hunger Games trilogy through the Swedish Ebay "Tradera" against better judgement.

I thought it wouldn't be so bad, since I did not enjoy the series particularly much. But when it came down to it, I do not want to send them off! I read them, cried over the protagonists, and hated the antagonists. Now someone else will put them in their bookshelf. The only comfort is that the series had clashing colored covers and did not fit in well with the rest.

All that is left is to package them, and then ship them away...


So I ask you, dear reader; how do we value books? It is not so much about their story after the first read. We hand them off to a new pair of hands to grasp them, and cling to the pages, ripping their hair out over the plot twists, just like you did the first time you read that exact, same passage.

How do we know they do not just become a pretty addition on someone else's bookshelf?

And why do we care?

By Yours Truly,
ETBlogsHome 2013-12-07