You've given away my preciousssssss....

[sleigh]

Denise and I stopped in Half Price Books the other night, and as is my usual pattern, I went to the SF/Fatnasy section for ego-scanning.  I saw two of the old "Stephen Leigh" books -- Crystal Memory and The Bones of God. I leafed through them... and saw that both were autographed copies, with personalized inscriptions to a "Dave." 

Nothing quite so humbling as realizing just how precious your personally-autographed books were to somebody...  :-)

Comments

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

Maybe Dave loved and treasured them but he died and his wife who only reads romance novels and never understood what Dave loved about SF sold them and all his other books and belongings because now that he was gone she was moving to Detroit to be closer to her daughter and two grandchildren.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking as well. Another possibility is that they were given as a gift to "Dave," and they weren't to his taste. It happens.

Or, as in my case, I work in the industry and often we would have authors do a signing in the building for the employees. I almost always went to these, even if they weren't my favorite author (we were encouraged by the PTBs to attend). But a couple of times I've moved, and tossed books that I didn't want to bother moving. I'm sure some signed books wandered out the door that way.

I've occasionally had to recreate a book from tearsheets. The author usually provides copies, but frequently we've had to buy used copies. It's amazing how often they have inscriptions in them.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That's both funny and sad.

I see my books in used bookstores sometimes. Once I found a personalized galley.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

But now you have the opportunity to send them to the most recent "Dave" friend you've made.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Funny; that's what i was thinking!

K.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

The events that cause autographed books to wind up in used-book stores are generally sad: Either the owner has passed on, and the family is cleaning house; or the owner is needing to find money in places they wouldn't normally go to - such as selling off their books.

The real problem is that used-book stores are vanishing. Most books don't get a chance to be re-read; they're in a landfill. Be glad that the book didn't have that fate.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

This is when you buy them, re-inscribe them "still with best wishes" and send them to Dave.

[beccal.livejournal.com]

My father's name is David. Close enough? I'd send them to him happily.