Be sure to check out Shannon’s Works For Me Wednesday Motherlode of Links, but then come back and read mine!
We rarely go to the library. We love books, but we actually find it more cost-effective to buy them.
Every trip to the library that we don’t make saves us enough in gas money to buy 1 or 2 used books online – books that we can keep forever without fear of overdue fines or having to replace them at full price if the library thinks we lost them.
(what’s that? the cost of additional bookshelves? not listening…la la la la)
Every trip to the library that we don’t make also saves me plenty of time in weeding through tripey, trashy titles in hopes of finding something that:
a) we don’t already own
b) is appropriate for children (i.e. not entirely at odds with our own worldview), and
c) is worth taking the time to read
I appreciate libraries, but we have been blessed to be able to build up a substantial library of our own and we take great joy in adding new titles.
Big Fat Tip: Thrift stores and library sales are great, but you can’t count on finding a particular titles that way.
To find the best deal on used books when you’re searching for something in particular, don’t limit yourself to Ebay, or even Amazon. Try AddAll, to quickly and automatically search all the major booksellers at once for new or used books. This is always the first place I shop for used books.
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gasp! I had not heard of that! I bookmarked that site the second I read that!
I still love my library, though!
Have you checked out paperbackswap.com? I recently started to use this.
Our library has the complete card catalog online. I can go online find the books I want and reserve them then we just go straight to the counter and pick up our stack. We can also renew online. Now if only there was a good way to keep library books from getting mixed in with the books we own.
Hey, any tip that encourages me to buy books WFM…. I love the library for books that I know I don’t need to buy (and I also use the online catalog and requesting so they are ready to go). Those resources are great (thanks Rhonda, too). powells.com is a great bookstore in Portland, OR which also sells online. Goodwill is a great source for us, especially for kids books, which are almost new for 50 cents. Some stores have more books than others, but the one near me seems to get a lot of books.
great tip! i am sooooo terrible about getting my library books back on time that my late fees are seriously ridculous! I could definitely afford some used books on what I have paid to that darn library!
Thanks for that site!
I can NEVER get enough books
I forgot about that site- thanks for reminding me and for your great tip!
Thanks for the site! You need a library closer to your house tho
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My mum got the library to change its borrower policy single handed. Once you had a library card you could borrow an unlimited number of books, with no restrictions on what anyone can or can’t borrow.
They were asking for trouble. I’m just surprised that the trouble took so long in coming.
I managed fine. I would walk down there every Saturday and borrow however many books I wanted. I carefully kept my receipt and every week got a new complete one, listing all of the books I still had out. I don’t think I ever got an overdue fine until one of our nannies got one for me at the age of 11.
Julie was a completely different story. She borrowed more than 300 books on one occasion, several of which were entirely inappropriate. They were all overdue, and lost in the abyss that was her room. I had to walk down and get a seperate list of Julie’s books so that we could hunt for all of them.
So my mother complained long and vocally.
Immediately the library change its policy. No more than 30 library items in total, and there are other limits as to DVDs and books on tape. Children under 15 who borrow ‘questionable’ material get their parents called to check that it is all right, unless their parents have already specified that they can borrow what they want. Mum cut Julie’s card up and she had to borrow a limit of 5 books under someone else’s card and they got to be responsible for them.
Well, I’m a member of 8 different library systems now, which helps me find the books I want. I always read a book from the library first, then if I want it I put it on a list of ‘to buy’ materials. But I don’t have any kids yet. The goal is to have a huge personal library before I have kids so I can read all material before they do and check its ok.
Samantha,
Great idea – start building that library now!
Before deciding whether I want to get a book from the library (often a very long wait since ours is small and books have to be requested from other branches) or buy it, I check the reviews on Amazon. That’s saved me from making a lot of purchasing mistakes. If I’m buying, my first stop is half.com, which has cheaper shipping than Amazon, and more savings on shipping if you buy more than one item from a seller. Next stop is Amazon, next is usually Addall.