At the Library - Dirty Books

I’ve mentioned that as a volunteer at the Library Used Book Store, part of my job is to review donated books and list those more valuable titles for sale at our Amazon site. We look up pretty much everything, because you never know what is going to be worth a fortune. What I find even more interesting than what is “valuable” is “what is going to sell before I even get home”.

The first time I saw it happen, it was a faith-based book on maintaining (or reigniting) a healthy sex life throughout marriage. I think I listed it for $8.00, but it sold instantly. I had certainly never heard the title before.

Last night, I found a trade paperback that looked to me like your standard romance novel. Kind of a modern-western romance novel, set in Colorado. As I flipped it over to find the ISBN, I saw a warning about explicit sex. I looked at the cover again. How dirty could it be?

I opened the book to a random page. Oh. Very dirty. Very, very dirty. I almost set it aside for a “Do we even want to sell this in our little Library Fundraising Shop?” I looked it up as I thought it over – then listed it for $7.00. No one would know at first glance that this was a dirty, dirty book and anyway - listed books are shelved in a different place from the standard $1 or $2 titles that our local patrons purchase. I thought it would be ok.

Certainly was. That book sold before I got home last night. The moral of this story is news to no one:

Sex sells.