That old bookshop trope of yours always makes me cringe a bit. I see your point, I think : there is\was a certain snobbery attacted to books and the internet has wiped all that away, but a story if you have time.

When I bought a ten volume set of 1920s story books the clerk asked, "do people actually buy these?", (assuming I'd resale them). I don't know, I said, I buying them for myself. She replied after a short, confused pause, "just think of everything that's 'not' in them."

I read them daily to my mother. She though there was plenty in them.

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Tolkien was a bit of a book snob, too, if you want to called him that. He didn't like paperbacks!

letter-to-rayner-unwin