I love libraries and I love used book stores.
I used to frequent the Antiquarium in downtown Omaha back in the mid 1970's. I recall being fascinated by the varied and obscure titles.
In the early 1980's, I discovered Paradise! I was visiting friends in San Francisco and they took me to Berkley. It seemed like every other business was a used book store. My arms were sore from carrying all of the purchases I had made. I came very close to needing to purchase an extra suitcase to get all of my treasures back home.
Not long after that I started my first career in radio broadcasting. By the very nature of the business, to grow in radio, you need to move from city to city. Within days of moving into any new city, I had visited the local used book store. Green Bay, Wisconsin; DeKalb, Illinois; Frederick, Maryland; Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon...the list goes on and on. I went to as many book stores as I could find. And it was very rare that I left empty handed.
My latest visit was to Bookman's Used Book Store in Tucson, Arizona. I was there this past weekend for a Society of American Magicians National Council meeting. Between our meetings, a few of us made our way to the book store and spent about an hour milling around and looking at books. We didn't just look at magic books, but all kinds of other books that caught our eye. We all left a few dollars poorer, but feeling richer with the treasures we'd found.
We also had a lot of fun talking about our favorite magic books and making recommendations to one another.
One thing I've noticed is that most of my friends...especially my magician friends, tend to be voracious readers.