Books for Holiday Gifting

This holiday season when you’re out hunting for the perfect gift, consider that a secondhand or “pre-loved” book is a thoughtful AND eco-friendly choice.  

Secondhand books are an economical choice for your pocketbook and the natural resources consumed in the publishing industry.  Many used books can be purchased for half the cost of the same book new, and some become valuable keepsakes over time.  Out-of-print books are no longer published, and especially unique out-of-print books may command higher prices.  These might include the first printing of a title by an acclaimed author or a copy signed by them.

You can also reduce, re-use, and recycle by buying used books, making an impact on deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions produced by the publishing industry.

Producing a new book may generate 8.85 pounds of carbon dioxide, while shipping a book 2,000 miles by ground may generate a fraction of this at 1.7 pounds carbon dioxide. See Bookfinder.com.  According to another source, a single tree, 30 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter, may produce approximately 118 books. See The Guardian.

 “When you buy a used book, you never know what you are going to get, [i]nscriptions in margins or dedications in the front page. You’re taking part in a shared history and better yet, you’re free to add your own little mark along the way too.”  See World of Books blog.

At Edgewater Books, we recently sold a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales to a person whose grandfather had read to them from the same edition when they were a child.  As this customer found something unexpected and special at our shop, wandering a used bookstore you may just find that special old friend you’d forgotten about, or a new friend you didn’t know you were missing.