Alternative Book Buying: Build Your Home Library With These Affordable Options
Woman standing on a ladder in a vintage bookstore. Photo by Noémi Macavei-Katócz.
This blog post was written by a human.Hello readers and writerly friends!
If you’re a returning reader, welcome back to the blog! And if you’re new here, thanks for stopping by! In this post, we’re taking a look at a few different ways to acquire books secondhand so you don’t have to pay full price to fill your bookshelves. Libraries are always great. Well, except for when they don't have that one book you've been looking all over for! Someone has had it checked out for weeks, or maybe your library just doesn't have the book anyways. Sometimes you have to pick up the book, yourself, but books can rack up quite a bill if you're a prolific reader.
If you're looking to get great reading material at low cost or maybe you're building your personal library, here's a few places to go book shopping for less:
Dollar Tree. This one might not seem like much, but depending on the Dollar Tree near you, it could have a wide selection of books. I've found books from best selling authors, and decorative books as well. And for a dollar, these books for certainly worth checking out!
Half-Priced Books. There's tons of these kind of stores around. The best part is at most of them, you can trade your old books in for a value towards new books!
Amazon & eBay. Sites like these carry a huge selection of books. They come in both new and used conditions. On Amazon, you can even find books for less than a dollar!
E-books. These aren't tangible copies of books, no, but they're still readable, nonetheless. Usually e-books are considerably cheaper than their physical counterparts.
Thrift Stores. This isn't always reliable if you're looking for something specific, but you can bet they'll be cheap. You can find filler books for decoration in your growing library, or find used books you've never heard of before. I once found the entire Warrior Cat series, most of the Harry Potter series, and several Alyson Noel books in one trip to my local thrift store!
The Library. Sometimes libraries do book giveaways when they’ve have books that sit on the shelf for too long without being check out on occasion. Check with your local library to find out if they do free book giveaways and when their next one is expected! Some of these ideas may seem obvious but are often highly underrated. Not only are these great ways to purchase books for a fraction of the cost, but stores such as half-priced books, libraries and thrift stores are a more sustainable way to collect books. If you know of any other alternative means for collecting books, comment below!
Let me know what your thoughts are on this list! I’d love to know any new tips or tricks that I didn’t mention! Comment below and let’s chat!
Bibliography
Futalan, Denniz (@denniz-futalan). “Person Holding a Brown Old Book.” Pexels photo, July 16, 2020 (Thumbnail photo).Macavei-Katócz, Noémi (@noemimk). “vintage bookstore 2.” Unsplash photo, October 14, 2019.
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This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.
