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In the last couple of weeks I have purchased several hundreds of dollars worth of books for less than $50.00 total (including shipping when purchased online) by choosing to buy used books instead of new ones. And my expenses would have been even smaller had I chosen to go with paperbacks.
Now, I am perfectly aware that the publishing industry cannot survive if everyone went to purchasing used books instead of new ones, so please, do not follow suit with me. Go out. Buy a new book (hardback please). Enjoy it. Sell it to a used bookstore so I can buy it.
I recently set myself the goal of reading far more than I have (which is already considerable), but lacking an enormous paycheck I started to look at used books with serious interest. Between a couple of local (ie Reno) shops, ABEBooks, and Amazon, there is the entirety of human invention in the form of the written word available for the inexpensive picking.
I picked up for example,
Adventures into the Unknown Interior of America (by Cabeza de Vaca) for only $3.92
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (by David Grann) for only $0.24
The Complete Tales of Washington Irving (by Washington Irving) for $12.00
A Collection of Jack London Stories (Call of the Wild, White Fang, et al) for $1.12
Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea (by Steven Callahan) for $0.01
The Red Badge of Courage (by Stephen Crane) for $0.99
And so many more, all in hardback of course.
It sparked something in me. A sense of connection to the past, of obtaining something valuable for little expense, and it has caused me to look at other expenses where I would have previously turned down "used", such as clothing. In the past, used clothes - from a thrift shop for example - served only as a source of Halloween costumes and the like. Now I must consider whether I can do all my clothes shopping there, and where-else this frugality learned from used books might lead. The subject of a Part 2 at some point.
-Brent
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." - Mark Twain
