Buying Used Books Online

Now I will admit something a little unusual about myself. I used to be a bit of a book snob. I used to read only NEW books. There’s something about the feel of a new book. I loved knowing that I was the first to flip through the pages. That no one else had read it but me. My dad has the same issue with newspapers. He likes to be the first person in the house to read the morning paper. He likes to read it while it’s clean and neatly folded. He hates when my mom reads the paper first and turns the pages inside out and mixes up the order of the sections. That’s probably weird, but nonetheless true.

But over the last few weeks as I’ve been reorganizing my home and removing unnecessary clutter my perspective has changed entirely. As I was cleaning I realized that there were tons of books on the shelf that I had only read once. It seemed so wasteful to destroy a tree, so that I could read a book once, and then let it sit on the shelf forever. So I took the majority of books off the shelf and donated them to the local library. I’m not sure when I became such a tree-hugger, but in keeping with the theme, I also decided to stop purchasing new books.

Now I buy books from half.com, ebay, or used from amazon. Most of the books I’ve read cost less than $1.00. Add in shipping and I’m up to $4.00. But then I’ll either resell the item on eBay or donate it to the library. It’s a win-win-win. The books are inexpensive, I feel like I’ve saved the earth just a little, and the books are no longer wasting space in my home.