There are no official data for the size of the second-hand book market. But according to a survey by Statista, in both the UK and the US more than half of us are choosing to buy books second-hand instead of new.
Patrik Oqvist from World of Books, the UK's largest second-hand book retailer, believes the market is growing by 8-10% a year.
"There's no stigma to buying second-hand now," he told BBC. "We take them to the beach and spill coffee on them, but they don't stop working because of that." Other reasons might be important for buyers as well, for example,the lower price, and the fact that they're recycling.
#2 Nothing Like Picking Up A Book And Finding A Photo (And Autograph) Of The Author Inside
And, of course, there's the chance of finding something unique. World of Books received a call last year from a grandmother in Australia who had ordered an annual that she remembered owning as a child, full of quizzes, mazes and puzzles. When she got it, she couldn't believe it was her own original copy, with the inscription from her parents to her.
#6 Note Found In "The Book Of Outdoor Gardening" By Smith And Hawken
#8 Somewhere Back In Time, The Former Owner Of These Glasses Is Still Looking For Them
#15 Found This Neat Little Metal Bookmark In "The Life Of Colonel Paul Revere" From 1909
#17 Found This In House I’m Tearing Apart In A Book Like Someone Wanted To Keep Them Don’t Think It’s Real Money
#18 My Mother Found A 108-Year-Old Ticket To A Fair In An Old Book Being Used As A Bookmark
#19 We Found This Lovely Lady In A Book We Listed Yesterday. She Has Been Trimmed From A 19th Century Women's Periodical Or Magazine
