Yes, I count myself as a huge fan of books, of all shapes, sizes and themes. And my older son (9) is as well. As yet, the younger one, now 8, prefers to stick to Captain Underpants and the Beano, but we’ll grow that love of reading in him somehow….
Anyway, as part of my campaign to encourage people to think of the festive season as something other than the obligatory dismal trudge through town looking for gifts that people don’t want (but you can afford) or gifts that people do want but which you can’t afford, I thought I’d mention the second hand book trade.
No, I don’t mean dusty little shops staffed by dubious men wearing pince-nez glasses and probably living with their 85 year old mothers. I mean modern second hand book buying and selling.
Guess where you’ll find it? Yep, quite right, here on the internet. Of course, there are sites for all the main book sellers like Waterstones etc. But my personal favourite is www.greenmetropolis.com. On Greenmetropolis, you sell your books for £3 including postage and you buy your books for £3.75 including postage. There’s the possibility to add more postage if the book is larger than a standard sized paperback.
But if you read and sell on your books, each one costs only 75p, in effect. What a fabulously economical way to help booklovers without felling more trees!
Personally, I find this site great for finding little gems that I would never think of buying new and that would never been on Offer of the Week at the local bookstore. I bought a fascinating read called The Riddle of the Titanic (eventually fascinating – got to admit, the first 30 pages nearly killed me with boredom), replaced my lost copy of Making Love, tried out a David Sedaris book etc etc.
And you can also make out a wish list for a book you might be interested in, which is not in stock at the moment. So I have flagged Mary Roach’s book Bonk for when it becomes available – they will e-mail me when it comes in. I’ve already forgotten why I thought this sounded like a book I wanted to read, so there is no way I would ever find it, if I had not added it to my wish list.
Most recently, they have added a forum facility, and I believe you can even buy GreenMetropolis gift vouchers.
Anyway, that’s my tip for today on getting hold of interesting books at sensible prices, and moving your own books on when you no longer want them.
