Arches Bookhouse -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Arches Bookhouse, Portland, Oregon

I'm curious if my fellow book bloggers prefer new books or used books?

Probably 90% of the books I buy are used. I only buy a new book if I can't find it used and either need it right away or have been looking for a used copy for a long time and give up looking for one.

I love everything about used books – the inviting shops, the vintage charm of the books, saving books from the landfill, the price, all of it. As much as I like to support authors and independent bookstores, used books almost always win out for me. Fortunately for me, Portland has several amazing used bookstores, from the huge Powell's City of Books to tiny, hole-in-the-wall shops you have to search for. 

One of my favorites is Arches Bookhouse in North Portland, near the University of Portland. They have a very good website for online orders, but I love going in to browse. I stopped in last week to sell Adam some books I recently culled from my office shelves. He carries all sorts of books, with an “emphasis on scholarly humanities books.” I figured he would be interested in a few of the Catholic Church books I gathered for my legal work and I was right.

If you've sold books to a used bookstore, you know you get way more in store credit than you do cash. A what book lover doesn't want more books? So, of course, I immediately used the store credit I got for the books I brought in, plus some. I can never leave that store empty handed. You can see from the picture why I would dawdle over the shelves. So many treasures!

Here are the Arches Bookhouse treasures I found:

• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim in a beautiful Folio edition, without the slipcover. He had one with the slipcover, but it cost more, so I got this one. I've been meaning to read this for years and hope this fancy edition inspires me.

• The Best of the Raconteurs, edited by Sheridan Morley & Tim Heald, also in a Folio edition, this one with the slipcover. This is a collection of humorous anecdotes and stories by Winston Churchill, Jessica Mitford, Joyce Grenfell, David Niven, P.G. Wodehouse and others.

• Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac. I went on a short Balzac jag when I was in law school then stopped. I would like to get back to his books. Also, I love vintage Penguins. 

• Loser Takes All by Graham Greene. I read this brilliant novella last year so was excited to find a vintage Penguin copy with the Paul Hogarth cover

• The Imitation of Christ by Tomas a Kempis is one I have in a later edition and with a different translator. But I couldn't resist the vintage Penguin edition. I'm reading this one in February with a group on Instagram. 

• Selected Stories by H. E. Bates. This author is unknown to me, but the description on the back sounds good, so I took a flyer. I particularly like vintage Penguin tribands, even if the cover on this is a vertical triband, not the better-known horizontal version.