Charity shop books and a haul.

[SwanningOff]

I've been trying to convince myself not to buy any other books for a while but the other day I visited family and went into the charity shops in their town and one was selling books 5 for a pound so I bought 20. It included a Folio Society edition of The Warden which made my day. I also bought a nice illustrated edition of Peter Pan though that cost me £1.25. I don't know where to start but I'm looking forward to reading them.

Does anyone else buy a lot of books in charity shops?

Yes heaps.
Every time I go and drop in a bag of things I have cleared out I come out with a bag of books

Yes! This is my ‘to read’ shelf. All bought from charity shops or National Trust second hand book shops. No more than £2 each. Love a charity shop bargain!

Yes, I always have a snoop on the shelves. I recently found a first edition of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd for £1, complete with dust jacket. That was fab. Usually though I find more recently published novels, buy them and then re-donate them. It's also great for recently published cook books. I wanted a copy of Nigella's latest one but didn't want to pay £20 for it (sorry, Nigella!), so found a copy for a couple of quid not long after it had been published.

You have some great books there Swanning and Frogs!
We have five or six charity shops in our village and they’re a great source of books.
Can I also recommend Wob (used to be called World of Books) for online purchases. They scoop up the books unsold by charity shops to resell. Excellent site where you can search by tithe or author and delivery in the UK is free.

I love a day spent wandering round charity shops looking at the books. Often we choose a place to visit based on how many charity shops we think it might have!

Not exactly charity, but I do buy from used-book stores, partly because I'm usually most often interested in older books. And I love Strand Books with its supposed eight miles of books. But lately I've been buying cheap books at a local library - and I hate myself for it, because I don't think books should be regarded as so worthless that we only pay pennies for them.

I haven't bought so many very recently - I buy a lot of books as Kindle deals but I love checking out the bookshelves in charity shops. They are generally a lot more expensive here in London and in the sort of places where I check them out. In the summer I bought lots of books in Deal Oxfam Bookshop, and a few others in other charity shops there - my DS1 (15) had to help me lug them all back to London.

@MsAmerica

I get what you're saying, but new book bookshops often have quite a limited selection and don't have what I'm looking for.

I also borrow a lot of books from the library, and I figure that often libraries probably buy up a big proportion of a hardback print run and significant numbers of paperbacks. Plus I put in suggestions and requests for things, and again, if I borrow the book(s) and so do other readers, that may encourage a library service to buy a copy or even 3 or 4 of the next book from the author.

None of this stops you buying new books sometimes as well if you have the money. Plus the money goes to good causes, and you can get books for family or friends too if you can afford it.

We have a really good second bookshop about 5 mins walk from my house, it's a St Giles one. They have a shelf which is new releases and they are £2.50 each and the other fiction books are 4 for £5 or £1.50 each. Childrens books are 50p to a £1 each.

I love second hand books!!

I recently decided it was time to tackle Wolf Hall and get the book the next time I saw it in a charity shop. I managed to get it on my first visit. Then a couple of weeks later I went into a different charity shop and picked up Bring Up The Bodies, followed by the third in the trilogy at another shop. So the whole trilogy and a huge amount of reading for less than a tenner.
I am trying generally to buy second hand including WOB when I can, but I also can't resist the temptation and inspiration from a visit to a new bookshop

That was an incredibly successful charity shop run @ButtonSister !

I got this lot from a charity shop once, 20 cents apiece!

I always go round the charity shops to stock up on books! DD17 is even into it now, when I convinced her that they do have her kinds of books, and she saw how much she was saving!

Oh my God!! They'd be worth a fortune on eBay.

Actually, @Natskucan I ask you about the second one in the top line "So many steps to death"? I've never heard of it, is it a foreign edition?

Its the American edition, they got slightly different names for some reason

There were quite a few French and German translations there too, which makes me wonder who donated them.

I get most of my books from charity shops, we have some really well stocked ones and people give away books in amazing condition. Also pick up quite a bit for the DC - got the whole series of Scarlett & Ivy for DD for £8 a few weeks ago.

Ah, I see... I'm really

It was my best charity shop find, made my day!

Oooh are old editions of Agatha Christie worth selling? I have lots and some are doubles so could be sold. Jealous of that haul tho.

The old editions definitely are, yes.

Just browsing on ebay haha so many for sale tho. I really love the old Fontana editions from the 60s with the bizarre front covers.

Might have to bid on some

Try Etsy. For selling, I mean. Scabby old copies for upwards of a fiver 😄

My best charity shop bargain was Agatha Christie related too. These were £1 a bundle just before we went into lockdown. They kept me very happily entertained while stuck inside.