On Saturday morning, a quiet group of bibliophiles—mostly men, mostly lean and professorial—was scattered through the musty, subterranean aisles of David Mason Books. They were drawn by the antiquarian bookstore’s third-annual, three-tier sale: 70 per cent off books under $150, 30 per cent off anything more than $400, 50 per cent off prices in the middle. Fliers taped to the high shelves showed customers how to move the decimal and figure out the discount; two cats kept to the corners, eyeing the men warily.
Of the roughly 60,000 titles on-hand, none will better help you navigate the shop’s corridors than the proprietor’s self-published pamphlet, The Protocols of Used Bookstores: A Guide to Dealing With Certain Perils Which Could Be Encountered in a Used Bookstore (2010, $10). This 44-point primer, culled from Mason’s four decades in the trade, helps novices learn the rules: Don’t bring in sticky food, don’t ask the proprietor where he gets all those books and don’t brag about that outrageously cheap first edition you bought off a little old lady at a church sale.
“I’ve been asked every stupid question in there many times,” said Mason. “The pamphlet was meant as an in-joke, but I just did a third edition.”
If you fail to heed the pamphlet’s fourth rule and inquire after the oldest book in the store, Mason will shrug and wave you toward the overflowing back shelves. There, you might pull down A History of Prostitution (1858, $225), a thick compendium of laws, festivals and brothels that devotes an entire chapter to “Syphilis in France.” An appropriate companion would be the two-volume Photographic Illustrations of Skin Diseases (1881, $500), though readers with delicate stomachs might instead appreciate a yellowing issue of the Toronto tabloid Hush (1958, $45), with its tantalizing headline: “‘Three-in-Bed’ Sex Triangle Explodes!! Gallons of Wine Inflame Lovers.”
For a more family-friendly choice, seek out Forgotten Children’s Books (1899, $150), which counts among its titles Felissa; or, the Life and Opinions of a Kitten of Sentiment and Proverbs Exemplified by Pictures From Real Life, where one is reminded that “a burnt child dreads the fire.” That’s still good advice and, until the sale ends on Feb. 10, it can be yours for a mere 45 bucks.
