jacquesm5 days ago
I just helped clean up the estate of an uncle of mine that died. He'd collected an absolutely massive amount of books during his lifetime. Besides that he played the violin and had collected an equally impressive amount of music books.
I managed to save some of the rare works but I could find absolutely no takers for the bulk of the books, at any price or even for free. That generation is leaving behind an enormous amount of paper and it is mostly going to waste. Very frustrating, if I had had the space I would have been happy to take all of it. I would have read some and I would have tried to find a new home for the remainder but that takes time and the housing company only gave us two weeks to vacate the place, which was much too little time even for proper cataloging. Fortunately he had already organized things to the point that it was obvious which ones were the precious ones.
And the violin got a good home. The guy lived like a monk, the whole flat was just paper and shelves, and a tiny spot for a bed. You could have made the pictures in this article in his flat as well (I didn't make any, it was too sad of an occasion).
My own books I keep giving away on the promise that whoever gets the book will read it and pass it on. That way they stay alive for a little bit longer. Some books I keep buying again just so I can have the pleasure of giving them away once more. Douglas Adams' hhgttg is probably the record holder.
contingencies4 days ago
Here in Australia one of the charities runs huge book fairs every few months where vast amounts of literature are loosely organized in to subject sections. It's all volunteer labor and I believe the proceeds go to homeless people and victims of domestic violence. I have acquired some awesome old maps this way as well as rare and interesting works. Unless aggressively digitized, most of the data will become unobtainium at some point. One learns to respect previous standards of writing, editing, illustration, design, publishing and printing. Oh how the mighty have fallen!
mister_mort4 days ago
I'm curious about this - do you have the name of the charity in question?
contingencies4 days ago
https://www.lifelineh2hsydney.org.au/love-books/2025-book-fa... Lifeline: turns out it's suicide prevention focused. https://www.lifeline.org.au/ Not sure why they have two websites.
A recent event raised $300K: https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2025/09/02/31...
returningfory24 days ago
> That generation is leaving behind an enormous amount of paper and it is mostly going to waste.
But what is really the problem with this? (Assuming the paper in the books is recycled, to be clear.)
I disagree with the idea that books are generally precious objects. At this point in time we have many more books than we need, and many of the books in existence simply will never be read again.
pfdietz4 days ago
This is an example of a general phenomenon: people keep objects that used to be valuable, just because they used to be valuable (but no longer are).
Think of collections of fine china that you never use, antique furniture, pianos, artwork, old electronics, personal relationships, etc. You either spent money at some point to get the things or someone in the past spent a lot of money on it. Tossing it becomes a repudiation of that past value, a painful admission the value has decayed away.
ghaff4 days ago
I've been taking quite a few bags of books down to my local library for their annual book sale. I still have a ton but trying to winnow things down a bit.
So I give them a chance at a new home but having been at the sale on the second weekend I have no doubt that a ton end up pulpled.
WTFnsfw13 hours ago
"I could find absolutely no takers for the bulk of the books" : archive.org ...
black_puppydog4 days ago
Haha, yeah I've also given books away to one person, gotten a new copy, just to have the same book come up in a conversation with a different person and giving the new copy away. Rinse and repeat. :)
pavlov4 days ago
Sorry for your loss. It's sad that his collection didn't get the full attention it deserved.
> "the housing company only gave us two weeks to vacate the place"
It's a very good idea for a collector to own a place to keep the stuff.
The British book collection mentioned in the article is housed in a former youth hostel in the countryside. That kind of place can be surprisingly affordable to buy... But of course it's the renovations and upkeep that truly test the collector's wallet and dedication.
pjc504 days ago
> It's a very good idea for a collector to own a place to keep the stuff.
Perhaps, but even for valuable things like musical instruments the floor space ends up being far more valuable than the objects. Hence the relentless march of waste disposal. It's very sad but a core fact of modern life that land is money.
(the phrase "housing company" implies that the collector did not even own a house for himself, let alone the collection..)
Unless you go deep rural. I've been to a few "bookstores" that were basically somebody's house, but an hour's drive to the nearest town and therefore only getting specialist traffic or people in the area for other tourism.
pfdietz4 days ago
Used bookstores are increasingly online now, through abebooks or similar. In-store traffic has become progressively less important. This I think it was has really led to used book stores closing their doors. As long as the owner of the used book store can travel well enough to acquire books the business can sustain.
ninalanyon4 days ago
> It's very sad but a core fact of modern life that land is money.
It always has been. And it's an ongoing scandal that it is not taxed.
thevagrant4 days ago
It's a shame. I'd happily take good books (low cost or free) but storage and shelf space is the problem.
I used to imagine running some kind of second hand book business (non profit) when I retire. Sad that these days it may not be feasible.
ycombinete4 days ago
I've also started to do this. I've given away a few copies of Neuromancer now. One of which I gave away as part of a Android: Netrunner sale I made :)
aurizon5 days ago
The University of Toronto has a free store and they place items departments discard into 2 areas. 1 area can be grabbed by other departments for a month - then it goes into a public swap shop area for Wednesday AM. Lots of assorted stuff but they place cubic meter boxes of all manner of books, old journals, reference books etc. In the same vein, I have seen dozens of old book stores close over the past 20 years. Truly rare books and incunabula
https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/collections/incunabula
I think Ebay was the beginning of the end. Most books in the past ~100 years were printed in substantial press runs, and many had reprints. That meant they were not globally rare, just widely scattered. Ebay revealed their vast numbers and a level marketplace emerged. Books dealers snagged the truly rare and the vast bulk went unwanted and unread. As a Northern claim staker and mine engineer, I often passed by the Highway Bookstore, in Cobalt Ontario
bombcar5 days ago
Basically anything with an ISBN is catalogued, known, and sold.
If you want to find rare books of any value anymore, you need to know your pre-ISBN titles.
phendrenad25 days ago
I hope these books make their way to good homes! There are so many books that are out-of-print and, because they aren't widely known, and the author has passed away, they're very unlikely to ever be republished. Those books will become more and more rare with each passing year. This "great middle" section of books is slowly going missing.
rramadass4 days ago
Man, this makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I just love books, have a large collection of my own (though obviously not on the scale of the article) and am always on the lookout for offbeat books (old/new/whatever) on any subjects that i find interesting. With Internet Archives/Project Gutenberg/etc. you can of course have your ebook versions but there is nothing like having a hard copy in hand.
The right book at the right time can often be transformative opening up your mind to new ideas/possibilities and leading to better knowledge and wisdom.
For example; reading Bergen Evans' The Natural History of Nonsense (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77094) from 1946, one of the earliest books on skepticism w.r.t. people's irrational beliefs/thinking/behaviour teaches you the importance of critical thinking for yourself which is arguably even more important today. A good review from Goodreads here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2099042654
Another good collection are the excellent science/mathematics books from the erstwhile USSR many of which are now available at https://mirtitles.org/ A subset of those titles are available in hard copy form from low cost publishers on Amazon India. Checkout for example B.N.Ivanov's Fundamentals of Physics (https://mirtitles.org/2018/04/21/fundamentals-of-physics-iva...) and Roman Podolny's Something Called Nothing: Physical Vacuum: What Is It? (https://mirtitles.org/2013/11/24/something-called-nothing-po...) both of which are interesting takes on aspects of Physics.
petercooper4 days ago
The right book at the right time can often be transformative opening up your mind to new ideas/possibilities and leading to better knowledge and wisdom.
I agree. I'm a bit of a used book shop dweller and collector of oddities myself and I'm often struck with this sort of inspired feeling after reading the most random old thing that might otherwise have ended up being recycled. There's so much human experience packed into old books that simply isn't available online at all. Kudos to anyone who makes a serious effort to collect and archive even a slither of it (not me - anything I have will end up in the trash when I die).
rramadass3 days ago
People have forgotten that it was the invention of the printing press which made books widely available to the masses, which then became the main catalyst for the Scientific Revolution (by diffusing the knowledge/discoveries/inventions of an individual/small group across the entire population) leading to the advanced Technology based society we live in today.
We have become so complacent that anti-intellectualism has become the norm in popular culture and people see no benefit in learning "knowledge for knowledge's sake". The irony is that in today's world there are myriad avenues for knowledge acquisition and far more easily and cheaply than ever before. Because there is so much to learn the minimum that people should focus on is to get exposed to different types of knowledge i.e. breadth over depth. And both Non-Fiction and Fiction are needed here, the former to deal with Reality and the latter for modulating The Human Condition all with the aim of a well-rounded life.
ghaff4 days ago
There used to be a great used book store in Harvard Square but I suspect they sort of overextended (opened second location) at the wrong time though don't really know the story. There's another basically hybrid store--used books are in the basement--but I have to admit I haven't been in there for a while.
That area used to be a cornucopia of book stores generally but that's mostly gone.
petercooper4 days ago
I think they're a little more common where I live in the UK, at least. I actually thought the original post was going to be about https://www.the-bookshop.com/ in Scotland where I've visited a few times, but they have 100,000 books versus this guy's 150k :)
I don't know if the US has the concept of "book towns" but there's quite a few over Europe where you'll have used book stores very close to each other and some sort of annual book festival. Wigtown in Scotland is absolutely tiny (under a thousand people and far from any major towns) but has several, as does Hay-on-Wye in Wales. It becomes a bit of a tourist thing.
ghaff4 days ago
I don't think so. As I said, Harvard Square used to have a pretty high density of book and music stores. Not really so much any longer and I've never seen the equivalent elsewhere. Of course, Manhattan has a lot but, given the population density, I'm not sure I'd call it a book town.
pessimizer5 days ago
This can't actually be one of the largest stocks of second-hand books. That's just 50 of me, and I only have a couple walls full. He's got 25 rooms, which very much sounds like 50 of me. I'm poor, I'm not special.
I wish I could get rid of them all; when I want to read one again I just pirate a scan. I've literally thought about tightly wrapping them in plastic and burying them in a concrete vault. After the original texts of all "legacy" writing have been deemed too provocative, somebody could discover them and dig them up, show their friends how they've been changed since everything went digital, and shortly afterwards get arrested as a terrorist pornographer.
gerdesj5 days ago
"This can't actually be one of the largest stocks of second-hand books"
Any library can be described as a second hand store of books and it seems this one is pretty large!
"I wish I could get rid of them all"
You could donate them to the really weird collectors - see OP!
I used to have quite a large collection of CDs (and tapes but they are mostly buggered). It took quite a while to rip them to FLAC but they now take up quite a small amount of disc compared to photos and the rest. A terabyte is not particularly large these days.
"terrorist pornographer" - that is quite a job title.
unsungNovelty4 days ago
I can only imagine the feeling of visiting this bookshop. Hopefully these books will find a good home.
I just went to Chruch street in Bengaluru which is full of bookshops like this (obviously not at this scale). Bookworm (a new gem I found) and all 3 Blossoms bookstore (famous in Bengaluru) shops is what I covered on my recent visit. Morning 11:30 till evening ~6:30 buying 19 books. And happy to report that it was really crowded as well.
parodysbird4 days ago
I remember being a young boy spending summers with my grandmother who lived on Church Street. I used to spend whole days in those book shops, good to know they are still a major part of the neighborhood.
unsungNovelty4 days ago
It definitely is. This was my first visit after 7 years. Cos I only recently moved back to BLR.
And I do remember a time where there was a dip in visitors on weekends (Or maybe I felt?). But that has definitely changed.
Kind of annoying as well with way too crowded blossoms. Good problems to have. :)
There is also https://www.tumblr.com/overheardatblossoms
Looks like it is not updated anymore.
fancyfredbot5 days ago
Being a collector is an affliction. A huge house given over to his collection while he relegates himself to the groundskeepers cottage. A lifetime acquiring money to grow the collection. I hope selling it gives him some peace.
nl4 days ago
There's a big difference between being a collector and a hoarder.
In general a collector gets joy from their collection, whilst a hoarder finds it distressing.
From the outside both might look similar, but from the article this person both seemed to enjoy it _and_ make a successful career from it.
akk05 days ago
What a strange read on the situation. The man combined his hobby with his profession and is now retiring a millionaire. Best I can tell the guy must feel like he's had a rewarding, satisfying life so far.
pavlov4 days ago
The article mentions he spends six months per year in the Philippines. Doesn't sound like someone oppressed and impoverished by his book obsession.
remus4 days ago
> The man combined his hobby with his profession and is now retiring a millionaire.
Worth noting that the £1.5 million valuation is in the ball park of what the building is worth on it's own.
I think the parent's point is that while the collecting itself can be very rewarding it's far from guaranteed anyone else will find value in the collection. It does feel a shame to dispose of such a piece of work, but the real value is likely more in the collector than the collection.
fancyfredbot4 days ago
Yes, it's entirely possible he may loved every minute!
I don't know if the fact he's financially successful affects my read though. It's certainly obvious he had money but unfortunately I don't think the money precludes an unhealthy obsession. Infact it might make it worse.
Freak_NL4 days ago
Unhealthy in what way? The article mentions that he is (or was) an active seller as well as a buyer. His lifestyle doesn't seem particularly unhealthy either.
fancyfredbot4 days ago
My impression was that buying and storing books had become a compulsion. The article mentions that "he sold books primarily so that he could acquire more for himself". It also covers how he "deployed every little sliver of real estate" to 1.5 miles of shelving. To me this sounds like an obsession. It's possible that indulging the obsession made him happy but my understanding is that this is unusual.
It is perfectly possible I got the wrong impression here. I don't know him. All I can be sure about is that this was the impression I got reading the article.
[deleted]4 days agocollapsed
dyauspitr5 days ago
Depends on what you find important in life. I would love a life where I get to drive around the country, collect books and make enough money to retire a millionaire.
2b3a514 days ago
Iain Sinclair has written about his book dealing days as he was starting to write and be published. Perhaps a less romantic take.
pjc504 days ago
It's like having a family: on paper, they take up space in your house and cost you money.
fancyfredbot4 days ago
While you have correctly identified that a family and a book collection share some attributes I think you may have missed an important difference. The books won't love you back.
yourapostasy5 days ago
I love libraries of all kinds, and wish LLM training development will drive even greater preservation and digitization efforts. I sure hope someone preserves this collection, installs a dry fire extinguisher system, and digitizes into the Internet Archive what doesn’t already exist online.
hopelite5 days ago
It would be something a whole organization and public campaign would need to be built around.
We have also already traversed, unwittingly, into a post-ownership world and the IP issue would need to be dealt with since it was not dealt with to this point and the thieves have gotten away with robbery by default. Books were one of the first steps into a world where you do not own anything you buy, you merely possess it until the IP owner decides to revoke their authority for everything you think you own. I recall the ironic incident in around 2013 where Amazon without permission simply deleted people’s copies of a purchased book from their Kindles due to some IP dispute with a publisher, without even providing notice. The book … 1984, by George Orwell.
It is why in understand if people “pirate” or maybe better put, seize their rights.
Something you cannot share, trade, exchange, gift, pass down, sell, or often even move… is not something you own.
exe345 days ago
all my Amazon books were dedrm'ed and my kindle does not connect to the WiFi. I've stopped buying from Amazon since they removed the transfer via usb option.
lotsoweiners5 days ago
What was different about transfer via usb vs “send to Kindle” ? I’ve always used the latter.
lazyasciiart5 days ago
Probably the requirement to be online.
exe344 days ago
yeah and also I ran dedrm before putting anything on the Kindle.
araes4 days ago
Took forever, yet eventually found the place. Surprising lack of addresses for having stories in the Yorkshire Post and the BBC. Nobody actually linked to the address or a sale listing. Old Youth Hostel, Aysgarth, North Yorkshire. Corner of A684 and Church Bank. Shows up as the "Palmer Flatt Hotel, Leyburn DL8 3SR, UK" on Google Maps. Closest major city is Leeds at 1h 30m drive. Middlesbrough is maybe 1h 10m. Manchester is maybe 2h. Lots of very obvious books on every floor through the windows.
Notably, this is literally almost in the exact center of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This about as far away from "anything" as you can even get in the United Kingdom.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/A684,+United+Kingdom/@54.2...
Echo the sentiment that 10 GBP/book, perpetual storage, sounds good, with the caveat that its in the middle of nowhere.
sherr5 days ago
I can imagine the smell that greets you walking round this amazing collection of books. I'd love to browse. I have a Kindle but it has had a flat battery for years now because I just love paper books too much.
dang5 days ago
Those photos!
metalman5 days ago
over 1 mile of shelf, he wants 1.5mill£ for the whole estate, and he will stay on
jll295 days ago
10 GBP/book, perpetual storage space included.
Sounds a good price, no?
His worst fear resonates with me: if the collection is separated, all his collecting was basically a waste of time and effort. I share similar thoughts: how to avoid that the collection gets ripped apart upon my departure? How to ascertain continuity (if now growth, at least at the status quo level)? Where should bet books be located so as to maximize utility? And, worst of all, how to stop the decay in people's willingness to read books for curiosity's and knowledge's sake? Move the books somewhere else where knowlege is not taken for granted (e.g. Africa)?
bruce5114 days ago
At some level all collecting is a "waste" of time and effort. The joy of collecting is in the hunt, not the meal.
We collect because collecting is a hobby - it passes the time and provides enjoyment. 99% of collections have 0 intrinsic value. (Jay Leno's Garage aside.)
I collect Sci Fi books pre 1970. Their objective value is close to zero. Their literary value is zero. When I go they'll go to the recycling. That's fine. It was my hobby, not my sins.
Inheriting collections is not collecting. It's just stuff yo get rid of.
If there's anything valuable in your collection, sell it yourself before you die. Or put it in the "specials case". No one will sift your collection for wheat - it'll just all be thrown out or given away. Indeed that's a good outcome- some other collector will find a valuable tome in the charity shop for a few pennies.
frainfreeze5 days ago
As someone who often sees personal collections scathered around in the dust of flea markets, I would say there is nothing you can actually do to be safe. Even if your kids preserve it, their kids will _pay_ local gypsies to take it all away so they can renovate the houses and flats. From there it's as good as trash.
omosubi5 days ago
This is what I come to hacker news for - great post
andrewstuart5 days ago
I wonder if an AI company will quietly buy and scan.
petesergeant5 days ago
Scanning non-destructively is much more expensive than scanning destructively, and arguably first editions of books and obscure and old books provide inferior training material than to newer versions. Easier to just bulk-buy 2nd hand books by weight.
Cthulhu_4 days ago
Google has been scanning books for just over two decades now, and likely has used their scans to train their AI. I wonder what percentage of this collection hasn't been digitized elsewhere yet.