The algorithm that through various combinations of variety and chance puts together the universe of books one finds at a secondhand bookseller’s stall is one that can never be deconstructed. This random, chaotic order offers in its confined space the best education anyone aspiring to a life in letters can have at little to no cost.

I would like to think that the exposure to these mismatched books from different eras and subjects is more educational than visits to libraries and bookshops, both of which are highly ordered environments that must, by their nature, compartmentalise knowledge in a vast space.

The secondhand bookseller, on the other hand, presents his stock in a much smaller space with little regard to compartmentalisation, and one can see in one glance both fine-bound texts on esoteric knowledge and battered editions of popular fiction.

The modern secondhand book market cannot be explained without the phenomena of book pirates, their pirated editions of popular fiction, and the readers who keep them in business.

A relatively newer phenomenon is the pirate-binder, who sends you a nicely printed and bound edition of your desired title at a higher cost than the mass-market editions hawked by the ordinary book pirates. However, the hand that guides the pirate-binder is of the pirate-reader, who is either unable to pay the price of a foreign-printed title or is unwilling to do so.

The secondhand bookseller is the life and soul of the market and runs what I would describe as the nitrogen cycle of books. He works closely with the raddi-wallas [waste paper collectors] who are the mirror-image of a highly efficient last-mile delivery system, the last, critical and most costly segment of the supply chain bringing goods from a local hub to the end-user.

The raddi-wala picks up old newspapers, waste paper and books from households in the neighbourhoods where he operates, and takes them to the local hub, which is the store of the secondhand bookseller. Each secondhand bookseller has his own speciality. He selects the books that he wants, or which he can sell at a premium to other members of his trade, and the raddi-wala moves on to the next store, where the remaining books can find a buyer.

At the end of the day, the raddi-wala has sold every single book. His profits are minimal but enough to make it a rewarding trade at a subsistence level.

The secondhand bookseller now sorts the books and puts aside those for which he can identify interested buyers from among his clientele. It is the privilege of clients with accounts in good standing to receive advance notice of the books that will be publicly offered in the market, and they can visit the store to have their pick or have the secondhand bookseller deliver it to their house.

The remaining stock, along with the past inventory, now heads to the old books market, which is usually held over the weekend, where one can still pick up great books if one arrives early in the day, when the gunny sacks are being opened. This thrill is reserved for those who have rushed out of their homes early in the morning without having breakfast, to beat other book collectors to the old books market.

The secondhand bookseller’s most important source of fine books is his customers. All people have their annoying habits, but the buyers of books, and especially the buyers of old books, make terribly annoying family members. Their books are never in the place where they belong, and shame the family by randomly appearing on the sofa or the dining table when guests are visiting. Long-suffering family members live continuously under the oppression of these books.

Luckily, mortality dogs humans and, sooner or later, the book collector’s journey in this world comes to an end. The word spreads and the secondhand bookseller receives the tidings. He is one of the first to arrive to commiserate with the family members and follows the funeral procession.

He shows up again at the soyem. By this time, the family members are more or less reconciled with their loss, their tears have dried and the bane of their existence can finally be dealt with, for their fate is now in their hands.

When the secondhand bookseller asks the family members what will become of all the books left behind by the deceased, and suggests that he can not only help purge them from their house, but also offer a nice sum for them, matters soon conclude. Later that day or early the next, the secondhand bookseller arrives with his rickshaw or pick-up to carry the books away on their new adventures.

The secondhand bookseller makes some calls to favoured clients, takes the remaining stock to the market and, in a week or two, the entire collection is spoken for. There is always more than one interested party for every book. A seasoned secondhand bookseller never misses an obituary notice in the newspaper.

Finally, some words about the book pirate. They are of two kinds: the industrial scale book pirate, who produces books that cannot be told apart from the original edition and is sold at the cost of the original edition without the author ever receiving any financial from it; and the small time pirate, who strikes out on his own using his knowledge and skill in sourcing paper, printing and distribution to bring out a pirated edition of a popular title, sells it at half the cost of the market edition, and ekes out a living.

While the first kind should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and shut down, I take a more lenient view of the small-time book pirate who, with his skill set, would ordinarily make a very useful worker in the publishing sector, if conditions were more conducive. While his work cannot be condoned, as a society we are all complicit in his trade because it is the reader who drives his trade, knowing full well that she or he is buying a pirated edition.

This cosmos of the secondhand books market, with all its various hues, contributes to the education of a society. It is difficult to imagine a cultured society where old books are not traded and whose literary culture is not enriched by the discoveries one makes in these markets.

The columnist is a novelist, author and translator.

He can be reached via his website: micromaf.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, May 17th, 2026