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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: to be the utmost limit to the speculative turn of my competitors.
The _bonne bouche_ of the lot was, however, kept back by
the auctioneer, because, as he said, it was `a pretty book,'
and I began to respect his critical judgment, for `a pretty book'
it was, being a large paper copy of Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron,
three volumes, in the original binding. Suffice it to say that,
including this charming book, my purchases did not amount to L13,
and I had pretty well a cart-load of books for my money--more than
I wanted much! Having brought them home, I `weeded them out,'
and the `weeding' realised four times what I gave for the whole,
leaving me with some real book treasures.
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