First, do you have somewhere in your town that offers second hand books? If so, do you take advantage of these cheap finds in order to expand your book collection?
Back home I knew where all the great used book stores were. My favorite was one called Twice Sold Tales. It was a two story building, a bit dusty, a bit unorganized however the owner was just wonderful and friendly and she knew everything about her books. Here in Waco, I have yet to find a single used book store. In fact, the only book store I have found is just one small Barnes and Noble.
Yes there places where you can buy second hand books where I live they are mainly charity shops. I do take advantage of them, why not the books are in good condition and at a snippet of the price. What's not to like?
There are a couple of dedicated second hand book stores in my town. They are both close to the university so they get a lot of textbooks but they have a good variety of other books as well. I like to go in there and browse. I will often pick up a half dozen books to take up to the summer place where I have no other forms of distraction. The books sold are usually in reasonably good shape and often only a year old. We also have a number of second hand stores that have a few bookshelves. I have looked at these places, but their selection is usually limited and often contains several copies of the fad book from a year or two ago. Our library system has used book sales once or twice a year. They often will buy several copies of a book that is popular but when it is no longer popular, they reduce their quantity. These sales are a good way of picking up a selection of formerly popular materials.
There are many little book stores in downtown Toronto that offer second hand books as well as text books for school. I do indeed take advantage of the second hand text books for classes because if I were to purchase them new I'd be spending at least a couple thousand. As for my personal book collection I prefer to purchase them new rather than second hand because I like having my books in perfect condition.
Yeah there is a store over here called "Book Sale", and they all sell 2nd hand books. I have bought some books there before, but since my area of interest is on the esoteric side, I find it hard to find books there that would really interest me.
We used to, but they've all closed now. With books going out of style in general because of e-reader popularity, it's hard enough for commercial book stores to stay open, much less local mom 'n' pop used book stores. They often have too many old books, too, instead of new books that people really want to read.
When I traveled a lot, there was a town I visited where they sold virtually everything on the streets. Second hand books, used DVDs and so on. The books I learned, from one of the locals, were obtained through questionable means. Some were stolen from school libraries, while others were sold by students who just wanted to make some good money. The books were relatively cheap but having heard tales about how they were obtained I never did buy a book from that place. My only wish is someone would open a store nearby and sell us old books.
There's a store in Warr Acres (on Route 66, or close to it) called Second Chance Comics & Books. Most of my shopping there is the $1.99-Table out front, but you can guess that most of their sells are resells. ---'Over 60-word' length verified on LetterCounter.org, to prove that I'm really saying the first 40 words and not just saying 'good' or Ctrl+V-ing this from some copyright-protected text somewhere on the InterWebzNetWorldz
