Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Stacie is talking about charity shops and why she buys her books so cheaply..
As the titles suggest, this week this discussion is charity shops. What made me come up with this idea? Well my dear friends it's simple, a few months ago after putting Caitlyn into school, I walked down to my local town center to pick something up for dinner. I'm lucky enough to have 3 charity shops in my town center and decided to have a quick look in there to see what books they had. Well I came out with a virtually brand new copy of Vampire Academy for £1, so I thought to myself 'well you can't grumble at that'. I've only got one book out of a charity shop before, which was New Moon for around £2.50, and I still thought that was a bargain. But when I was younger I was more inclined to pay top price for books only to have them sit on my shelf for months unread and unloved. Now I'm really careful about what I buy book wise because I just don't have the money to be getting book's because they look good and not read them. Thanks to charity shops (and the kindle, but that's a discussion for next week ;).) I can buy maybe 5 books for around £5/£7 and they are always one's I want.
Now don't get me wrong, if I had the money to be spending on full price books I would be, there is just much more choice in a book store. But I'm lucky enough that my charity shops seem to always have a book or two that I would want and though it's not much money I feel good that the money spent is going somewhere useful. Over the last few months I have bought around 15 books from the charity shop, I have spent no more than £20 for them and they have all been in top notch condition. I'm not telling you to abandon your books shops or online stores, but I honestly do think that if you are going out to get some books, why not stop at your local charity shop before going to the likes of waterstones or whsmith. Not only could you find a book you've wanted to read for a while cheaper but the money goes towards a good cause (not saying full price books don't)
Used book's aren't always for everyone. I'll be honest, at the start they weren't for me. But i think the problem is people see used books as maybe bad condition which isn't always the case. Yes some of the book's I get from the charity shop have lines in the spine but I no longer look at it as a reason to leave it. For the price it's ok, and I like that someone loved it that much that they obviously read it a lot. (I guess it doesn't look good for City of Heavenly Fire, no spine lines or signs of being touched at all for only £1 haha). And it's not just the shops you have to go to, oxfam do an online books store, they might not always have some books you want but I had a look on it and they have a few I would get, and Amazon... I love Amazon. When you are buying a physical book on there it almost always gives you the option to buy a used one, they have countless stores on there dedicated to it. You get get preloved books anywhere these days.
I guess this post isn't about charity shops as such or even one that you will really need to interact with, it's basically me just stating why I love used books. If you've read this far, well done, but don't feel like you need to comment. However, if you comes across a charity shop don't be afraid to poke your head in, you never know what you might find :)
What great bargains! I love the idea of charity shops. Is the saying not "one man's trash is another's treasure"? That being said, I have the worst luck. Book wise, the shops around me don't exactly stock ones (YA wise) that would catch my eye (but I have hauled some great classics before!)
ReplyDeleteI'ts exactly that, and the ones around me don't stock one's that have come out recently all the time, but they do stock books that interest me. I don't know, maybe it's because I have 3 charity shops local to me and a lot of kids in the area :P (or so I'm guessing.)
DeleteI could not agree more with this post! More people should utilise their charity shops more, just like their libraries and it's a shame people don't just because they want new and sparkling. It doesn't matter what the book looks like, it matters what's inside. If you can get the same book with a slit cress for over half the price, then do it, don't be picky. Good topic! :)
ReplyDeleteI know right? of course everyone wants a book of their own so falling in love with one you've got out of the library because you don't have the money for it isn't always an easy thing (or borrowing it from friends/family which I do more of right now). But I would much rather have read and loved the book, then bought one only to stay on my shelf or to hate it. If you borrow it, or buy it very cheap, it doesn't matter either way.
DeleteWonderful discussion, Stacie! I loved reading your thoughts and experiences with charity shops. Having spent a lot of time (especially when I was younger), with both of my gandma's trawling through charity stores, I've always gotten used books. I'm still fine with purchasing them as long as if they are in reasonable condition. However, here in Australia, it's rare to find a book I REALLY want in a charity store. They don't seem to get many YA books in, and when they do, they're usually very popular series/more cheesy vampire series such as Harry Potter, Twilight, Vampire Academy, Morganville Vampires, Blue Bloods et cetera.
ReplyDeleteHowever, although I haven't read a lot of the following books this year, I do read a lot of adult crime fiction as well as crime fiction, and I only purchase adult crime fiction books second hand, as I'm not so picky with my series matching and et cetera with my adult books. I don't know why, it's a bit strange now that I think about it, but I guess that's just me. :)
Aww bless ya, I myself never did that but my other half spent a lot of his younger years looking in charity shops with his nan and it's still a very fond memory of his 20+ years on so it's lovely you had that.
DeleteI know what you mean, they don't always stock ones I want, in I'm coming away with less and less that I want (I blame the summer holidays and the pesky kids having snatched them up already haha) but they always have the popular ones like Harry Potter and Twilight.
Nah it's not strange. I want to get back into reading adult books because I read a lot of them when I first started reading for pleasure, but if I buy them all I would never be able to get the YA ones so they are priority now. Saying that though, One Day and Starter for Ten by David Nicholls has been in one for a few weeks, I think might have to go back and see if I can get it haha. They've been begging me to buy them for ages and I'll probably go back and they will already be gone :( LOL
Your wording threw me off for a moment-we call these stores thrift shops :) I don't collect books at all (I don't own one single book, except for things like the Bible lol), so I don't look for books at these types of stores. But 99% of my clothes come from our local Goodwill store (thrift shop). I get name brand, in style clothes for a fraction of the retail price :)
ReplyDeleteHaha sorry, I know you call them something different over there. Done a little research and apparently we have some over there too, I'm just not sure if they go to charity or not.
DeleteYou don't own any books? :O. Are they all ebooks then? haha.
Yeah I know what you mean, it's what I like about them :)
Nope, I'm just a public library addict :) I live like 6 minutes away from it and go there at least once a week!
DeleteI'm with Finley on the wording. We call them thrift stores. Most of the time they're connected to a charity but occasionally they're for profit. I do love a used book especially if it has unusual cover art. I supported my reading habits in college with a great used bookstore that was just off campus because there was no way I could have bought all new books! In fact my Agatha Christie collection built almost entirely of paperbacks found in various thrift stores are my favorite books just because I remember finding each one. Way more fun than just picking the exact one you want off a bookstore shelf!
ReplyDeleteI love charity shops myself. I am lucky and have 6 just in my little town centre. I managed to get an unopened boxset of the whole His Dark Materials series for just £4. That's three books, completely new and unused for just £4. I already own them but now I can gift this new set to my cousin for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I travel further into London I have a ton of favourite charity bookshops that I love to visit. I usually come home with 5-10 books and barely spend £20 to get them all. It's amazing. I usually only buy ones that are in excellent condition though, I'm fussy like that.