Entry tags:
So, Conundrum
Every once in a while I buy used books online. It's practical, especially if you're looking to buy books that aren't very common. It's usually a good experience.
Except that one book I just bought arrived on time, intact, but with a very large "Not for Sale" sticker on the front. The previous legal owner, you see, had decided to participate in one of those programs where you leave a book lying around and get people to borrow it, read it, and then leave it somewhere else. It's a neat idea.
Except for that I've already paid money for it, because somewhere a bookseller got ahold of it. No doubt eventually I'll read through it and set it down somewhere as the previous owner intended, eventually, but the fact that I paid for it makes me grumpy. Why do I have to pay for something I'm required to set free? Grump, grump, grump, etc., etc. The universe is unfair, blah, blah, First World Problems.
In the meantime I have a book to read.
Except that one book I just bought arrived on time, intact, but with a very large "Not for Sale" sticker on the front. The previous legal owner, you see, had decided to participate in one of those programs where you leave a book lying around and get people to borrow it, read it, and then leave it somewhere else. It's a neat idea.
Except for that I've already paid money for it, because somewhere a bookseller got ahold of it. No doubt eventually I'll read through it and set it down somewhere as the previous owner intended, eventually, but the fact that I paid for it makes me grumpy. Why do I have to pay for something I'm required to set free? Grump, grump, grump, etc., etc. The universe is unfair, blah, blah, First World Problems.
In the meantime I have a book to read.
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I keep getting free unsolicited calculus textbooks in the mail, all of which have some sort of language like "review copy do not sell" on the cover. I need to figure out an ethical thing do with them, because I don't really need more calculus books and there are people who _do_, but if I give them away I want to make sure they don't just wind up in the used textbook market because a student wants to make a paltry $20.
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