In Praise of “Old Books”
David discovers the joy of the second-hand Christian bookstore
Not only are there treasures to be found, but bargains to be had, in the second-hand Christian bookstores ... may I speak in praise of them? Easy places to get lost for an hour or so, and easy places to walk out of with a bundle of books you never intended to add to your library when you just “popped in”.
Not that there’s a shortage of new books being churned out these days, I can’t keep up - I still have “must read” new books on my shelf waiting my pleasure. However, right now I’ve been pleasantly side-tracked by Norman Grubb’s “Touching the Invisible” - the edition I’m holding being published a year after the Second World War broke out in Europe.
I am regularly sent the “hot” titles that Amazon.com have calculated I will want to read, reckoned from their analysis of my past purchases, and I’m continually checking the new stuff at conference bookstalls and what my friends are reading. That’s just the point about old books - they’re not being presented to you in their fine glossy, full colour and embossed cover designs - the old guys are crammed into cheap shelving looking tawdry, often with hostile font - but true gems to be mined from off of those old shelves.
Along with some Grubb, I’ve placed on my shelves some Foster, some Lewis, some Tozer, some Nee, some Baker . . . and I’ve added to my Bible translation’s sections with Philips, Moffat, Taylor and the 26 Translation New Testament; a few of which one might purchase new - but it’s not half as much fun, and my dollar lets me bring home four times as many classics!
Go on, have yourself some dusty old fun!
Evermore Books
9 Ellis Ave
Mt Roskill,
Auckland
09 626 2256
Christian Value Books
Unit 6, 14 Acheron drive
Riccarton,
Christchurch
03 343 5929
