Virginia Woolf’s comment on second hand books is for all those of you who love the look and feel of them, the randomness and surprise of finding them in old boxes, or lined up in a charming bookshop. 

I hope that, like me, you also enjoy second guessing the history of their ownership and their travels, wondering about the person who signed their name on the title page or the inside cover, or wrote a dedication, or scribbled in the margins.  

Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.

Source: Virginia Woolf (provided by Christiane Stahel)

Photo credit: BlueSnap at pixabay