Rare and Used: Adventures of a Book Scout's Apprentice by Dietz, Daniel

Coming home to Oregon to reconnect with his aging parents, Daniel Dietz discovers the rhythms and relationships of a changing book world. As the internet pushes bibliophiles away from used bookstores and toward digital commerce, Dietz's stepfather Michael, now nearing eighty, clings to the precarious trade of scouring thrift stores and library sales for rare books to sell. He explores the stacks, from garage sales in Eugene's Whiteaker neighborhood to Portland's Powell's City of Books, for overlooked first editions and valuable rare books from the past.

With humor and tenderness, Rare and Used introduces us to Michael and to a dedicated and zealous community of book people, each with a grail book that they seek above all others. For Dietz, it's Beat poet Diane di Prima's debut collection This Kind of Bird Flies Backward-a book once owned by his stepfather. In his quest for the book, Dietz grapples with larger questions about possession, inheritance, and what we can hold onto. A tribute to books and booksellers as well as to family and place, Rare and Used explores what it means to return home to a community that shaped you.

Author: Daniel Dietz
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Published: 09/01/2026
Pages: 196
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.40w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781962645744

About the Author

Daniel Dietz is a writer, policy analyst, and amateur book scout. He lives with his partner and two little boys in Eugene, Oregon.