walking the boy!..in love with books..

the boy being of course my adorable toddler son marcus oliver who despite driving me half insane most days is one of the best things that ever happened to me...
he is watching 'pingu' right now so a few words before we have to get busy and go to the shops....
why books? well all my life i have loved very little more than to couch up with a book and lose myself in another world....
the saddest aspect of book selling is that one now tends to see a book for its market price rather than any intrinsic value....tho' some of my greatest books are scruffy bashed up soft backs and mean nothing in the collectors mkt..
conversly it amazes me that a book with to me no redeeming features what soever will be avidly sought and command high prices...
hers a good one over the years i have been asked a trilion times 'it only cost £2.75..when it was new why are you asking £15.00 /9.50 /25.00 for it..?
well hard to explain why to most folk...when you try to they stalk off hissing 'what a rip off i'm not paying that,cheeky sod' et al.....
so how do you explain the second hand value of a book?
you can try the 'think harry potter syndrome...you can point out that much as your house has risen in price since 1974 or so as will a scarce book
or you can clip the dust wrapper so the original price is not shown heresy i know but in some cases its the only way.....
so ...is anyone reading this?...well i hope so....would any one care to shower the author and his son with used £20 notes?..no didnt think so...which reminds me..as this economic mess the country is in stiffens and life gets tighter any one with a 'luxury ' vocation like book selling is going to suffer big time we certainly are a year or two back customers would happily spend on a regular basis and carry on building their collections..now it not quite as simple,customers are both thin on the ground and more cautious,naturally this is their perogative and so it goes however it is making book selling an endangered occupation as very few people consider books an essencial part of their life and budget and as money becomes scarce and jobs are vanishing credit is vanishing then so we suffer.....maybe i should have stayed down on the farm...so long and best to all....