No book is entirely useless — let's support all of them

Otago Daily Times

6 days ago

Warwick Jordan in his Hard To Find Books bookshop. Photo: Linda Robertson
When Rudyard Kipling wrote "a man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition" he probably had me in mind — apart from the ammunition, of course.
Thus, I almost choked on my pinot noir when I heard the National Library plans to destroy half a million books.
Mark Crookston, encumbered with the title "National Library director of content services", informed us "most books haven't been requested in decades", which tells us more about the acquisitions policy of the National Library than about the quality of the books themselves.
With a number like 500,000 in the firing line I feared that some of my works would be on the bonfire. However the books facing the death sentence "cover a range of topics like bibliography, religion, philosophy and computer science".
Intellectual stuff — nothing of mine there.
But is any book so unwanted that it should be pulped? Warwick Jordan, the standard bearer for second hand books, thinks not.
Jordan started his second-hand book business from his Auckland garage in 1983 and eventually had nine outlets.
His Hard To Find Books (But Worth the Effort) book stores were book lovers' meccas.
The big move south came in 2013 when Jordan found just the place he needed to house 250,000 books. It was the 1873 Hallenstein building in Dowling St where once three hundred workers toiled making about 3000 garments each week
"I love Dunedin: the people, the architecture and the climate," Jordan enthused.
"I'm able to get a central-city location, the kind of space that would cost me $1million in Auckland."
Container loads of books arrived in Dowling St and row upon row of shelving was gradually filled with thousands more books to now total 500,000. Among them were the personal libraries of Edmund Hillary, Robert Muldoon and David Lange.
When my own big shift from Dunedin to Patearoa came along it was Jordan who turned up, offered a fair price and most of my books found a home at Hard To Find, including a few I should have held on to and may have to buy back.
Many a university-type's library has found its way to Hard to Find and thus the lifetime collections of a professor of English or a highly respected historian await your perusal.
Before long, the word spread and Dunedin's book lovers were making regular visits to the Dowling St treasure trove, using the irresistible chair lift at the front steps if they were getting on a bit. On cruise ship days you'd see the visitors happily clutching parcels of books they'd never find elsewhere.
There's usually about three staff working at the Dowling St shop and when there's a vacancy applications flood in like the books themselves have.
If you can talk your way into a guided tour behind the public area, you'll be in a bibliophile heaven. Stretching before you in every direction books, books and more books. Not arranged as you might find in a library but shelved as they arrive in an efficient system known only to the staff. Thus, the joy of tumbling upon the unexpected.
But Jordan's David and Goliath battles with two formidable adversaries, the Catholic Church and the National Library, are making times tough for a man dedicated to books.
Over 20 years ago the National Library was also in disposal mode and Jordan tendered successfully for about 30,000 books. More recently the library offered 45,000 books to Lions clubs to sell as fundraisers.
Jordan believes only about 5000 books were sold and the library gave him the leftovers. Now, with another 500,000 books on death row, Jordan knows what type of book is involved.
He believes about two-thirds of them would find a buyer and admits the rest could be junk which no-one wants. He knows his books and I wish him success.
On the other hand, troubled waters for Hard To Find Books in Auckland could benefit the Dowling St treasure house.
Jordan told the ODT last week he was looking at relocating all the Auckland shop's stock to Dunedin even though Dowling St was "already pushing it for space".
If that happens it's "highly likely" Dunedin would become its sole retail outlet.
Meanwhile Jordan is off to London to pick up an International Antiquarian Bookdealers' Study Scholarship to the University of London.
Dunedin has been home to the country's largest second-hand book shop in the past when Newbold's in George St reigned supreme.
Hard To Find Books in Dowling St carries the banner today and may yet be even larger, thanks to Jordan, the man who believes too many books is never enough.
I'll drink to that — a red, of course.
- Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.