TheRomanticWay

All romantics suffer from a terminal book habit. Hello. My name is Rod, and I’m a bookaholic. It doesn’t matter what; I just read. I’m fascinated with just about anything. Consequently, I don’t know a lot about anything, but I know a little about everything. And books just do it for me. I love the feel of books in my hands, feel the heft, run my hands across the pages and be it either new or old inhale the scent.

My advice is to not resist. Feed the habit. Here’s what I do:

Buy cheap. If you buy cheap, then you can get more books for the money you allow yourself to spend and you don’t suffer the guilt of having spent way too much on just one or two books. Here are some good ideas on how to buy cheap.

Half Price Books is a used and new bookstore that is very well organized so that you can easily find what you’re looking for. They’re easy to browse, and you have room to move around. They also tend to get some obscure titles that you’d never find in a chain bookstore. A bonus with Half Price Books is that if you’re strapped for cash, you can just bring in a stack of your old books, they’ll give you in-store credit and you can choose new selections.

Dusty old used bookstores are great if you have the time. In our town, there’s a coffee shop attached to one of these bookstores. You can examine your possible selections and even read some stuff you’ve no intention of buying while enjoying a cup of coffee. People watching is pretty good in these places as well. A good dusty old book store chain is Magers and Quinn. Check them out. There might be one in your area.

Buy on Half.com. I just now did a quick comparison for a few of my recent favorite titles on Half.com. On my first search for a Jamie Oliver cookbook I found a copy for 86% off the cover price. On my second search, I found Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way for 95% off the cover price or a measly $0.75. My last search turned up a 2002 Lonely Planet Istanbul for 73% off cover price or if I can settle for an older 1999 edition, I can have it for just $0.75. I can afford to shop for books here!

Buy used on Amazon. My fifteen-year-old son recently bought a Python programming book on Amazon and saved a ton of money. A teen-age boy has a limited income and has to make his purchases carefully. He looked his book over at the giant chain book emporium in the mall and decided it was what he wanted, though not at the $59.99 cover price. He searched on Amazon’s Marketplace and found a copy in very good condition for $17.31. These are sellers much like Ebay. They list their used or new items and receive buyer feedback so you can determine your level of comfort in doing business with them. My son received his Python book in just a couple of days and it was in almost new condition. He saved $42.68 leaving him some cash to buy a lot more books!

Watch for sales. Each year, a publisher near our home has a sale on all of their overstock. Throughout the day you can browse rooms and rooms full of books and buy at really deep discounts. We found the magic moment this year, however. At the end of the day we were able to buy a couple of bags and stuff in all the books you could carry. Unfortunately, once we’d paid and walked out the door we remembered that we had walked. It was a long way home.

Sell or give away your old books. Every now and then we clean out all the books that we’ve read and won’t read again or that just didn’t click with us. We bag them up and take them to Half Price Books. We get some credit and feed our habit again. I know that a lot of people can never part with a book, but my preference is to always have a fresh supply of pages.

If you found this site helpful, please leave a gift for Rod & Holly. You'll enjoy giving in the spirit of The Romantic Way.