As a rare book dealer, my job is to place books and related artifacts into the hands of long-term custodians, like collectors or institutions. But some books linger in my mind long after they have sold. This list collects 10 favorite books sold in 2019 that I still think about: half from my time at Honey & Wax Booksellers, and half from my new company Type Punch Matrix.

In the late 1940s, Chandler was a conflicted admirer of Orwell, writing to the critic...