Used or secondhand?

"And of course, they're not really used books, right? They're antiquarian."

Barney, character in The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler

At this point in Deborah Meyler's novel, narrator Esme Gardner goes off on an interior monologue about the adjectives most commonly used to refer to books once owned by somebody else. Are they used books or secondhand books? And when, if ever, do they become antiquarian books?

She concludes, "There's no such thing as a used book. Or there's no such thing as a book if it's not being used."

Her thinking is that the word used suggests something that is no longer useful. The example she gives is a used condom. Yet we commonly speak of used cars and used furniture without suggesting either have lost their usefulness. Perhaps the word preowned favored by dealers will eventually catch on, but most of us regard that as a euphemism, not more precise terminology.

So what of the word secondhand? To me this word suggests a higher grade of merchandise than used.  One finds used books in a thrift shop or at a garage sale. Secondhand books, even if they happen to be the very same titles found at thrift shops and garage sales, are what's available at stores specializing in such books. These stores generally sort out the chaff, such as ragged paperbacks and former bestsellers that already have been read by everybody who wants to read them.

Antiquarian suggests rarity, quality and age (although some of the books most eagerly sought by collectors are relatively recent, such as A Is for Alibi). Each spring I try to get to the Florida Antiquarian Book Festival held in St. Petersburg. Many of the books there have the authors' signatures. Most are first editions. Almost all are costly. People who buy them tend to be collectors, not readers. Oh, they probably read books, just not these books.

Antiquarian books are too valuable to read. Secondhand books can be read at the beach. Used books can be read while eating a jelly doughnut.