true customer tales: why do you want THIS one?

So she came back and the books were about what I expected.
Happily, I was able to find a couple of things we could use plus one neat old book in a cool DJ, How to Write a Song: as told to Henry Kane.  


It's much easier to buy a couple of books from a group than to reject the whole bunch- people tend to take it personally when you don't want any of their stuff, and no amount of logical palaver on the topic of supply, demand and saleability vs. literary value can soften the blow.

She was aghast that I didn't want a thrashed hardcover copy of Atwood's Cat's Eye lacking a DJ.
She was bemused at my selection of the songwriting book, picking it up daintily by one corner and asking

"Why do you want THIS one?"
"It's cool and I know we can sell it."
"But...who would BUY it?"
"Uh...people who like music, songwriters, people who like old books with dust jackets...lots of folk."
"Well...okay, I guess!"

This was about the best possible outcome for a crummy buy- one neat book, a couple of things we can sell to pad the total a bit, and an update.