Comment by giraffe_lady
1 day ago
My local (but big city) library had a circulating copy until about five years ago. It mostly stayed in my home, once or twice a year someone else would request it and I'd give it back for a few months. It's in library use only now but I took great care of it lol.
The only book less likely to be sold was "voyage to Arcturus" which is the worst most depressing Sci fi fantasy ever. That, or future shock by Alvin toffler.
I've been in second hand bookshops that sprinkled their copies of The Da Vinci Code around the shelves so it wasn't so obvious how many they had.
(When I was a kid, Dennis Wheatley paperbacks were everywhere. Now I never see them. They were pretty cheap paper, maybe they literally fell apart).
A lot of older paperbacks seemed to use a lower grade of woodchip fibre and truly awful glue. Admittedly I live in the subtropics which is very unkind to books but it's my airport thrillers, cheap scifi and old penguin and pelican books.