Books: Foreign Editions

Buying used books is a fuzzy, analog activity.  Yes, the Borg and their bar code readers have made it less so over the last few years, but they miss most of the best stuff and even their binary experience of the trade requires flexibility.  In the shop, we don't have rules so much as guidelines, with our one hard and fast rule being that every rule has exceptions.

One of our more durable rules, trailing Never Buy Christian Science Books but ahead of Never Buy Book Club Editions is this: 

Only Buy Foreign Editions In The Original Language

Because the overwhelming majority of our customers are going to be English speaking readers looking for books 'in the original'.  The market for French language editions of, say, Irwin Shaw is functionally nonexistant, but we can sell the hell out of Proust.

Still, you always need to keep an open mind because sometimes you run across a group like this:

That's the first Italian edition of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye & Burroughs' The Soft Machine.
Sorry for the blurry pic, my phone ran out of battery before I could re-shoot.

So, no, we don't buy English literature in translation....unless they happen to be literary high points or exceptionally collectible Beat authors.  =P