Rare and Used: Adventures of a Book Scout's Apprentice

Dietz, Daniel

ISBN 10: 1962645746 / ISBN 13: 9781962645744

Published by Oregon State University Press, 2026

Seller Inventory # mon0004215979

Synopsis:

Coming home to Oregon to reconnect with his aging parents, Daniel Dietz discovers the rhythms and relationships of a changing book world. As the internet pushes bibliophiles away from used bookstores and toward digital commerce, Dietz's stepfather Michael, now nearing eighty, clings to the precarious trade of scouring thrift stores and library sales for rare books to sell. He explores the stacks, from garage sales in Eugene's Whitaker neighborhood to Portland's Powell's City of Books, for overlooked first editions and valuable rare books from the past.

With humor and tenderness, Rare and Used introduces us to Michael and to a dedicated and zealous community of book people, each with a grail book that they seek above all others. For Dietz, it's Beat poet Diane di Prima's debut collection This Kind of Bird Flies Backward—a book once owned by his stepfather. In his quest for the book, Dietz grapples with larger questions about possession, inheritance, and what we can hold onto. A tribute to books and booksellers as well as to family and place, Rare and Used explores what it means to return home to a community that shaped you.

About the Author: Daniel Dietz is a writer, policy analyst, and amateur book scout. He lives with his partner and two little boys in Eugene, Oregon.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Rare and Used: Adventures of a Book Scout's ...
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Publication Date: 2026
Binding: paperback
Condition: Fine