Giving Used Star Wars Books a New Chance at Love
Star Wars books do no good sitting in a box.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I did something unheard of — something I had never done before, and will likely never do again: I walked into a bookstore and made money.
To be clear, the goal of this adventure was not to make a profit, but that’s how it ended anyway. The real objective — and I swear I’m not saying this to sound all warm and fuzzy — was to give more people a chance to read Star Wars books they may not have otherwise found.
This all started about three years ago when I moved in with my now-husband. What sometimes ends up happening, when two readers and book collectors merge lives, is that they also merge book collections. We quickly found ourselves with a number of duplicate Star Wars books — ones we had both acquired while living separately. I love Star Wars books, but there just isn’t the room — or a need — to keep exact multiple copies of the same book.
It’s one thing if it’s a special edition with a different cover or unique elements. But when you have two basic copies of Light of the Jedi that both came from Amazon, you don’t need both.
So when we rearranged the bookshelves in my office, all those duplicates ended up in a box. And that box ended up in our basement. And that box had been there for years at this point. It was taking up space, and we weren’t using them. I wanted to give them away, but that process is tedious and — fun fact — a lot of times when people win giveaways online, they never respond to your outreach for their contact info so you can actually send them the book they won.
Anyway, it was going to be much quicker and more efficient to take them to one of my favorite places, Books and Melodies in Syracuse, New York.
The books were in pretty good condition, but I hadn’t been there in a while — I didn’t know the current state of their Star Wars section, if they already had copies of a lot of these books. So when we walked in on Small Business Saturday, I was completely fine with just giving them the books without getting anything in return.
But who am I kidding? They did offer me some cash for the whole box, which I ended up spending on more books. No book lover is going to say no to what feels a lot like free spending money.
But as I said in the beginning — I did this for a few reasons, one far more important than the rest: I wanted these books to go to good use. And they weren’t of any use to anyone sitting in a box in my basement.
My hope is that someone will stumble upon these books as they brwose the shelves of this amazing shop and find something to read that brings them joy. These books have brought so much hope and love and purpose into my life, and it’s my obligation, as a fan, to pass that opportunity on to others. The books in that box meant little to me — I already have copies on my shelves of much more sentimental value. But in the hands of someone else, these stories may mean the world.
So if you also have books in a box somewhere in your house or apartment or in storage, I encourage you to dust them off and find a way to give others a chance to fall in love with them. We’re in the middle of a season of gratitude and joy and new beginnings. If you’re no longer giving these books the love they deserve, give another person a chance to do so instead.
It may end up being the greatest gift you’ll ever give.
Now This Is Lit is a podcast (and newsletter!) about Star Wars books, the people who make them, and the readers who just can’t get enough of them. You can find the show wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to the Substack for more deep dives, guides, interview transcripts, and book love.