Oh man, if I had a penny for every inscribed book I have bought used.
Most appear to be gifts.
But if I am being honest, there is a touch of sadness to it.
Either thru death, or need, or indifference, a personalized present has lost its intended home.
You can’t keep everything though, believe me, I get it.
Oh man this is so true.I long ago, as a collected author, came to accept this. Probably at least 85 percent of the books I’ve inscribed both to friends and strangers have found their way into the market, and often rather rapidly. (I recently bought a book that one well-known Texas figure had inscribed to another well-known Texas figure—it had taken only three days for the book to be given, inscribed, and then sold to me, 265 miles up the highway.) But, that’s the book biz.
-Larry McMurtry, Literary Life