The shop
A small shop with a large opinion about bookmarks
Second Verse opened in 2019 with two suitcases of books and a conviction: that a second-hand book should be sold the way a second-hand book should be bought — with a clear account of its condition and a reasonable price.
Where the books come from
Three places, mostly. Estate clearances, where whole shelves arrive at once and have to be read properly before anything is priced. University book fairs, where the marginalia is often the most interesting part of the book. And the occasional rickshaw, which we do not talk about.
We do not buy on speculation. A book is shelved only after it has been read, graded and priced by the same person who will pack it — so the description you read is written by the person who found the flaw.
How we grade books
Five grades, applied by hand, with a written note per copy. The grade tells you roughly what the book has been through; the note tells you what we actually found.
Shipping & returns
- Dhaka: delivery inside two working days, flat rate regardless of order size.
- Outside Dhaka: courier, 3–5 working days, charged at cost.
- Packing: kraft paper and cardboard. No bubble wrap, no plastic sleeves.
- Returns: fourteen days if the book is not as described. If the description was wrong, we pay the return.
- Bookmarks: included. We have never once forgotten, but we check.
Currently in stock
33 titles, starting at $3.00. The oldest is from 800 BC, which is either a very old book or a very confident claim — it is the former, and it is the one we keep behind the counter.
A note on our prices
We price by condition and scarcity, not by what a website says a copy is “worth”. A pristine first edition and a creased reading copy of the same book are two different products, and we sell them as such.
Questions
- Do you sell internationally?
- Yes, but slowly. International parcels are priced individually — write to us with the title and your country.
- Can I reserve a book?
- For 48 hours, free. After that we ask for a small deposit, which comes off the price.
- Do you buy books?
- Selectively. Bring them in, or send a list. We pay more for complete sets and annotated academic copies.
- Is the condition note the whole truth?
- It is the truth as far as we could find it. If we missed something, the return is on us.