Estate sales. These are excellent sources of often near-new books. I’ve picked up some beautiful, apparently unused cookbooks for five bucks — they would have cost upwards of $30 new.

Volunteering to work at the library. Libraries will usually give their volunteers first dibs on books to be sold or thrown out, before the sale begins. This is a way to get free books.

Around here we have a Visiting Nurses book sale which used to be a very big deal (haven’t heard about it lately, come to think of it). It was SUCH a mob scene that, to my taste, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. I don’t enjoy being jostled and elbowed after standing in line for 45 minutes waiting for the door to open, just to save a couple of dollars here or there.

If we had a decent independent bookstore within driving distance, I would support my independent bookseller by purchasing most or all of my books there. But alas, we don’t. They were all forced out of business years ago by latte-peddling big-box imitation bookstores run by gigantic chains. It’s a shame, really. Today in most cities our reading choices are hugely limited because we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay a fair price to local booksellers who love and understand literature and publishing. It shows in the classroom, too.
.-= Funny about Money´s last blog ..What IS frugality? =-.