I love books. I’m addicted to bindings, paper, and ink. I become intoxicated by the smell of an old edition. I melt at a beautiful children’s picture book. I truly breathe only when the printed word is being read across my tongue.
My husband tolerates my addiction. I’m forever coming home with stacks and bags of books. He silently helps me move a new bookcase into the house. He understands my love for books, but not my passion. However, my collection is built mostly of books I didn’t have to pay for. Besides getting them as gifts, and ransacking the discount bins at the superstores, I am drawn to (at least) these ten places.
The Book Swap
Usually, the rules are congregate every so often and bring a book. Then, pick one of the books someone else chose, socialize, and go home. I love a well-organized book swap filled with people who like to read what I read. You might have to try three or four to find the right one for you.
The Library Card
Yes, this may seem obvious, but look at it this way: It follows much the same rules as the Book Swap. Once you’ve signed up, you automatically “own” every book in that library. The rules are enter your selection in the computer and bring it back after the allotted time as expired. If you don’t, you pay a fee, because that book also belongs to everyone else with a library card. Oh, and if the library doesn’t have it, there is always Inter-Library Loan. You can truly get (nearly) any book ever. Very nice.
The Library Discard
Libraries must always rotate their stock: remove old and worn books, duplicates of rarely-used books, outdated books, and I have no idea why else. But there are always stacks somewhere. Once a year, our library district holds a huge sale at the armory. Once, I bought 157 children’s books (good ones, mind you), two albums, and one non-fiction book for less than 40 dollars. It was just a matter of getting my husband to take them all home
The Teacher
Similar to libraries, educators frequently clean house. I have about a hundred books I got for free from the secret shelves in the literature department at my college. If there isn’t one where you want it, go knocking on professor‘s doors. Somebody somewhere is dying to thin out their collection.
The Dorms’ Dumpster
College students can be completely un-frugal when it comes to books. When the dorms are moving out for the summer, hit the dumpsters. Textbooks, novels, whatever just seems like too much of a burden can be found waiting for you to rescue it. I always feel like a hero when I extract printed matter from the toss pile.
Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity Home Supply Stores, and Goodwill
These charity places do not treat their book section like a used book store does. They price their goods at cents. I recently went to Goodwill, complained to myself about each book having a sticker on it, but was rewarded because they have “colored tag?” sales. Thus, I got several of my selections for a dime apiece.
The Organized Book Drive
No facades. “We’re having a drive for unwanted books to be redistributed throughout the neighborhood to families for free. Do you have any to donate? Thank you very much.” Pull the increasingly heavier Radio Flyer to the next house. Then, hold a free-book yard sale.
Surveys for Gift Certificates
Lightspeed Consumer Panel has rewarded me with a number of Amazon e-certificates, which I always end up using for books. One addiction affords the other, I suppose. There may be several sites with this kind of reward system.
Credit Card Reward Programs
Both of my credit cards have some sort of Book incentive for me. One, I get a discount when I order online at retailers. The other builds reward cash which, if you redeem it for credit at one of their partner stores, they will increase a certain percentage. Every time I use my card, I imagine the book I just put a few cents toward.
Project Gutenberg
This is an online free book archive. They record digitally with searchable text the many classic books of the world. Online readers: peruse, search, read, and most of all, enjoy.
(Image courtesy of kate hiscock)
James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, digital publishing junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.
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