I am the particular type of book-lover that hates the idea of borrowing books from a library. I don't even like renting textbooks, but I do have to say that's an unrelated issue to books for pleasure reading. I'm the book-lover that does not want to let go of books that I have read. So the problem with libraries becomes evident: I have to give them back? No way!
I didn't always hate libraries. My disliking started around when I started high school because there were all these books I had read in middle school and just could not remember the titles or authors. I wanted to re-read them and remember the magical adventures they had taken me on. And I was not able to, all because I had borrowed them. I haven't borrowed a book from a library to read for my own enjoyment in at least five years. I have only been in the college's library a handful of times for tutoring. I don't even know where to go if I wanted to borrow a book.
Any book lover knows that new books aren't the cheapest of items. Spending $20-$25 on brand new books all the time isn't very ideal for parents buying books for their children, or us college kids who just want to keep buying books. I'm also the book-lover that prefers hardcover to paperback -- and that's another added expense. I personally have only ever worked over the summer and am currently paying for my own riding lessons (that's $35 every week, right there). I told myself I wouldn't buy any books this school year. That quickly turned into I'd only buy a couple of books this year. As it stands, I'm two weeks from the end of the semester and I have bought myself five different books.
Five books? That can't be a lot! But if you add up the cost those all would have been new, that's at least $100 spent right there. Here's the catch: I've only spent $20 on those books in total. There's this really awesome site called thriftbooks that sells books starting from $3.59. It has been my savior this year. A couple things about thriftbooks: they obtain "truck loads of books every day" and have stated that no book leaves their warehouses to go into a landfill. All books are either sold, recycled, or donated. On the business side, thriftbooks often have several copies of a single book for sale that they categorize and price based on the condition of the book. Thriftbooks will never sell a book that is missing pages or is illegible, but if something slips through the cracks, they are very cooperative in taking returns or sending their customers a new copy of the book. What I really like about thriftbooks, besides the incredible prices, is that if you purchase a copy that is $3.59 but it would be easier for them to send you a more expensive copy, thriftbooks will "upgrade" your purchase to the more expensive copy without charging you the difference!
I may be being a little nerdy with that last point, but thriftbooks has really saved my life this semester. I love reading too much to give it up because I can't afford it, but I sure am stubborn about libraries. All but one book I purchased from thriftbooks have been hardcopies, and my total spent has literally only been $23.03. The price of one brand new hardcover book has bought me five different books, none of which are more than six years old. Thriftbooks has saved the happiness of a reader.
