I get the books my home climbing library needs from online shops like Chessler Books, proper bookstores like Top of the World Books, and used book sales. The used book sales might be a crap shoot, but the victories are consistently the most satisfying.

This month I found my favorite discovery yet: A first-USA edition, of the book-of-the-month club (BOMC) variety, of Annapurna by Maruice Herzog and published by E.P. Dutton in 1952. I love it because it was worthy of a BOMC version and it’s stunning compared to the current paperback edition I bought around 2000, not because it is worth a lot of money, which it’s not. I’m also proud of it because my persistence found it!

The used book sales are my favorite because, well, they’re special events and you have no idea what to expect. You’ll likely walk away empty handed most of the time, but once in a while you will find something worth, well, emailing me about!

By used book sales, I don’t mean used book stores. The used book sales I am talking about are usually once-annual events fundraising for a cause, like the public library. My favorite was the used book sale at Stone Ridge in Bethesda, Maryland, which ended after a 46-year run. It was a huge event and my hunt for climbing books included a search across 40 tables in three gymnasiums. I always came away with something worthwhile, even if it was a duplicate I would give away.

There are four rules I follow for my hunts. These rules are not comprehensive or limiting. They’re just what I do.

1. Find Charitable Book Sales — I prefer these, not because they support causes, but because they’re annual affairs that collect a lot of books over a year to be sold during just a few blowout days.
2. Shop on the First Day — The prices are usually the at their peak on the first day but selection will be as good as it gets.
3. Search in Various Sections — I have not yet been to a used book sale where all the climbing or mountain-related books are in one section. So look everywhere. I start in Sports, and then Travel, followed by Nature, Science, History, and Coffee Table Books.
4. Have a List — Make a list of books you’ll buy automatically, because you never know. But also keep a list of books you have, especially if you find an old American Alpine Journal. Do you know what issues you already own?

So that first-edition of Annapurna turned up for me because I had already searched through the histories, sports — where I found a paperback by Dee Molenaar, which I also bought — nature, travel, and coffee tables and stopped. My wife called her mother about a book she found and I noticed a science section in the corner I hadn’t noticed earlier. There, standing upright between a book about flowers and a conditioned paperback of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, was Annapurna, blue, hardbound, and elegant.

May you reap what you sow.

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