/lit/ - Literature

>>3868594
Quite feely feely

I get you OP

I'll politely sage

;____________________ ;

This one time there was this used book stand at a flea-market and I saw they had The Great Gatsby, so I asked the man there how much it was, and he said 5 €. You can get a new copy for like half that price, so I didn't buy it. The man was old and looked so small and insignificant, and his face as I turned around and left was just heart-breaking. I swear to god up to this day I've been feeling terrible about not buying that book. And this was like 5 months ago. He just looked so sad ;~;

>>3868690
this kills the man

>>3868701
Worst part is, I ended up downloading the book for free and putting it on my Kindle. I'm a horrible human being.

I gave homeless-old cat-lady my sammich yesterday, that must count for something, she seemed happy then.

I know that feel.

There's an independent bookstore in my town which has great books, but they're all more expensive than amazon books.

You can disappear behind certain shelves because it's such a tightly packed shop so the guy can't see you, and he must have forgotten I was there because his phone rang and he had a ten minute conversation with his elderly mother, and had to repeat everything he said and told her about the debt problems with the shop and how the local council were hounding him to pay. He hung up the phone after it seemed she was shouting at him or something and let out the biggest sigh. I felt guilty as hell walking out after that and sometimes I pass and see him sitting thereon his computer looking emotionally numb

>>3868713
She isn't the man you hurt. If you gave her the sandwich to help yourself, then you didn't really help her

buy books and pay more than they're worth and if he doesn't want to take it, insist.

>>3868594
>>3868729
I spend so much money just to keep these places alive, and the owners happy, that I end in minus each month

>>3868730
Lol nah sorry not gonna make me feel guilty about giving food to homeless people. I didn't give her the sandwich to help myself, but it did feel good to see it made her happy.

And although I do feel bad about that man, I think it has to do with me more than it has to do with him. Hey, I asked for the price of a book and then left, which is something that has happened to anyone selling anything ever; I didn't rape his wife and murder his children...

>>3868594
In Germany we have something called 'Buchpreisbindung' what means that a book has to be selled to a price the publisher names, what makes books more expensive but gives small book stores the same opportunities as amazon.
Still the bookstores die since the population becomes more retarded and plebian every day

Sweet baby jesus.

q_q

>>3868594

I know what store you're talking about, unless there are more than one used book stores whose owners have a dog named Awesome.

They had a deal that if you bought more than 20 books, they were a dollar each. So I bought twenty books. Good deal.

>tfw there is no way in this economy that you can run a used bookstore where you spend all day drinking and smoking with your beta sidekick/best-friend, and your one night stand/possible love interest while you abuse the customers and generally be a lazy academic grouch.

>>3868730

If he gave her the sandwich to help himself, the lady was fed and he was charitable. It is a mutual win scenario.

>Tfw you'll never be a witty cynical alcoholic, owning a small book store, reading great literature and treating the costumers like shit as you waste away with hookers and write an amazing novel that will never be discovered

>>3869093
Also, you will never be Dylan Moran

>Move into a new town that has a small used bookstore nearby.
>Already have a sizable "to be read" pile but want to check the place out.
>Go there and browse around. Shop owner, a charming older man wearing a thick wooly sweater, asks me what books I like. We discuss books. He says it's nice to have someone "with literary taste come in for once."
>I grab a few books I've been meaning to read: Swann's Way, The Road, Freedom.
>Go back home. Add the books to my "to be read" pile.
>Read other stuff, etc.
>A couple of months later, bored one day. Go back to the store.
>Looking around. The guy is there again and talks to me.
>Think, "Oh shit. Surely he can't remember me or the books I got."
>He asks how I liked Swann's Way.
>Lie. Tell him it was great. He asks about Freedom.
>I swallow, awkward pause, then say, "It w-was good. Really good."
>He watches me silently. Poker face. He knows.
>He looks away. "Yes, well. I'll be around if you need me."
>That feel when crushing shame.
>that feel when I leave without buying anything.
>that feel when I can't look at those three books without thinking of him and I'll never read them now.

>>3869178
All we need is a balding anon and a femanon who wants to drink and read and be opinionated,

>>3869214
I can shave my head

If I ever win the lottery I'm going to buy a bookstore and run it the way I want, whether it makes a profit or not. I will hire University students to run the register and sit in the office reading or watching tv/playing games with friends. When people ask me what I do for a living, I will say I own and operate a used bookstore. when really I'll just be a lazy book-reading layabout.

>>3869229
Only if you also use the position to try to make people read good books. Especially good books that aren't read enough.

>>3869229
>lottery

>>3869233
Oh I'm going to push the lit-core and pure enjoyment books like crazy. I'm going to arrange and print out my own book lists, and hand them out to any one who I feel is searching for something good. And behind the desk will be a copy of Twilight stacked on top of a copy of 50 shades of Grey, stacked on top of Atlas Shrugged, with a sword running through them.

But mostly, I'll read and shit about in my cozy office and write my inane self-indulgent absurdist doorstopper, and drink coffee.

> this man who lives inside a small used book with his dog store

>>3868594
Why must these feels exist?

>>3868594
Right in the feels.
Go more often.
Become his friend. I'm sure you won't regret it.

>>3869200
Why would you lie? Just tell you haven't read it because you read something else. You could probably talk about the stuff you read. It's not like the guy expects you to read everything you buy the minute you get home.

He's probably fucking the dog.

>>3868690

fuck that shit. If he can't compete for a better price and the book is not old enough or rare enough for me to buy it for that price then he can go fuck himself.

If he doesn't like his business he can go and get another job. I'm not overpaying if I don't see a point. If I wanted to give charity I'd go to a homeless shelter.

>>3868739

so you're bailing out others while sinking yourself.

What a martyr...jesus would be proud...

>>3868594
>tfw that man is your grandfather who lives alone on the other side of the continent

>>3869373
If you were my grandson, I'd move to the other side of the continent too.

>>3869376
If you were my grandfather, I'd accept hot anal from you erryday

>>3869092
London, Ontario?

>>3869301
i should really proofread my posts. oops.

>>3869301
>would rather proofread than feel
this is why your dad hates you

>>3868730
>If you gave her the sandwich to help yourself, then you didn't really help her
this doesn't make sense. whatever his reasons, the sandwich calmed her hunger, so he did help

>>3869365
the biblical jesus probably would, to an extent. if that's what you meant

>>3869075
Fucking Germany, always one step ahead! has it ever got anything wrong?!?

>>3869497
They didn't get to complete their magnum opus

>bookstores in my city are owned by jews that are obviously rich as fuck

more bookstore stories, please.
thank you for the opportunity to read those posted thus far.

>tfw i steal from used bookstores

never again after reading this thread

>visit a charity used bookstore run by retards
>i'm looking at the books
>one of the retards gets between me and the bookshelf to neaten up the stacks
>"sorry if i'm in your way" he says
>i watch him attempt to straighten the books and re-shelf stray ones
>all the books fall over domino-style
>he makes on final attempt to arrange them correctly
>throws a coloring book on top
>he walks away, apparently satisfied with a job well done

>be in Montreal for uni
>famous used bookstore right next to my apartment
>too socially awkward to vist
>every day walk past it and try to work up the courage to go inside
>spend a month doing this
>mylife.png
>never make it, go home each day and order books on amazon instead

>its OK, they have a b-better selection a-anyway

>go to indie bookstore
>books on all walls, piled up in pillars around the room
>cd player is playing jazz
>section on jazz books as large as the poetry section
>internet-free-zone
>roses made from books on the tables
>buy 3 books
>change is kept in an old ashtray
>owner offers me a free tea
>over 50 kinds of tea to choose from
>gives me a small pot of tea
>pick your own teacup
>toilet out back lit by a lamp, walls hand painted bright colours with quotes from books all over
>jazz nights
>poetry readings
>indie book launches
>old hippies and academics
Image related

>>3869994
also

>>3869941
You better spend a months pay next time you go, anon.

Do you see? I'm saying you're NEET; I'm so funny

>>3870002

>>3870002
Where is this?

>>3870006

>>3870002
>implying bookstores are all of that
>implying it's not just a place for people to buy novelizations of the latest popular movie adaptation

>>3870002
materialist faggot. go smell a book.

>>3870008
The Albion Beatnik in Jericho, Oxford. I found a photo of the toilet.

>>3870011
Maybe in your town.

>>3870013
Smells good.

Why haven't you set up your own independent library, /lit/?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/nyregion/at-a-do-it-yourself-salon-in-brooklyn-books-obscure-and-arcane.html?_r=1&

>>3869075
>but gives small book stores the same opportunities as amazon.
The Amazon model works because people can buy niche books, not so much because the books are cheaper. The cheapest books on Amazon are by and large offered by bookshops selling over Amazon. What this allows bookshops to do is compete with big box supermarkets that can often negotiate serious deals for new bestsellers. So in effect, you can go to your local bookstore and buy a bestseller at a higher price than most countries. Congrats.

>>3869093
I know a guy who do just that