Second Hand Books

 I love buying things second hand. It's a lot cheaper than buying things brand new, it helps reducing waste and most importantly, the thought of holding something in your hands that someone used to cherish is very comforting. 

That last point holds especially true for second hand books. Seeing the little notes that former owners left in it always feels like sharing a small moment of intimacy with a stranger. Someone before me held this exact book in their hands, their eyes glancing over the same letters, the same words as mine. 

Daniel Goleman, Emotionale Intelligenz

Especially when certain passages are underlined, I start wondering why they chose to highlight exactly that part of the text? What made it so important to them, what was going through their head in that moment? 

 

Even if these things might seem rather trivial, and maybe they really are, it is things like this that make me feel a little connected to the previous reader. It shows that someone was here, a proof of their existence.

Aldous Huxley,  Brave New World

Daniel Goleman, Emotionale Intelligenz

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

Siri Hustvedt , Was ich liebte (With chinese annotations)

The third picture shows a page of the drama "A Raisin in the Sun". Every few years our school goes through the books that are lying around in the storage room, and throws away those that aren't needed anymore. Most of them are text books, but there are a few novels amongst them here and there (I have no idea how they even got there). That year our class assisted with this whole process of sorting out, and we had to throw away a ton of books, which was a little heartbreaking. While I had no use for the textbooks, I did take a few novels and such with me. "A Raisin in the Sun" was one of them. The book must have belonged to one of the students before, which is why the book was full of little annotations, translating words and analyzing scenes. 

It was an interesting insight into the way someone else worked with the book. I could see all the words that they didn't know before, and the thoughts they had on the different characters, how they interpreted their relationships. This also reminded me of the books I got from my mother, with which she tried to learn German. They are filled with little translations, and you can follow the path of her slowly learning the language, word for word. There is something incredibly human about it. 

 

Oliver Sacks, der Mann der seine Frau mit einem Hut verwechselte

Lastly, I also found a few books with little messages written at the front. I couldn't quite make out of all them, but it still adds a personal touch to the book. 

This one translates to: "For Doris, best wishes for continued success and happiness in your apprenticeship from Martina (...), Neurology internship, (...), 03.08.2007". 

It must have been a gift from a neurologist, to someone who did her internship at her clinic. I wonder, what became of Doris, if she ever finished her apprenticeship? Are both of them still in contact? Clearly, they must have had a good relation, if Martina gifted her a book? And I wonder, what did Doris think of the book? Did she like it?

It does feel a little weird, almost intrusive even, to hold something that was meant as a gift for someone else. These little messages were never meant for me, they weren't written with me as a reader in mind.

And yet, I am now the one holding the book in my hand, and getting to read it, giving the book a second life, apprectiating the little traces previous owners left behind.

Paul Celan, Die Niemandsrose/Sprachgitter

Maren Gottschalk, der geschärfte Blick