I love my local used bookstore!! It's a wonderful place – the owner is friendly and knowledgeable about books. She takes all kinds of books but does not pay cash – only store credit, which is fine with me. Her romance section is huge – sorted by erotic, contemporary, paranormal/time travel, African-American, Harlequin, and Historical. She’s also got UF/Fantasy but it’s in the non-romance section. The YA section is hit or miss – sometimes I find a great selection, other times it’s books I’ve already read.
I spend quite a bit of money at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders (hubs, if you’re reading this, by “quite a bit” I mean almost nothing *smooches*), and sometimes after I finish a book I’m disappointed because I didn’t like the story and wished I’d bought something else, or it’s a series I like but don’t plan to re-read and I don’t want to clutter up my shelves with books I’m not going to read again.
There have been several occasions where I’ve tried a new author and didn’t get frustrated about DNF’ing the book because I knew I could just turn it back in and try something else. Here’s a few authors I’ve tried first through my Used Bookstore that I really enjoy (the * means this is now an auto-buy author for me):
Deirdre Martin*
Kristan Higgins*
Shelly Laurenston*
Linda Lael Miller
Opal Carew
Lauren Dane *
Erin McCarthy
Katie MacAllister
This is what I picked up this weekend, and I did not spend a penny:
Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler – I’ve seen good and meh reviews about this series. I’ve wanted to give it a try but I always end up buying something else. Her tweets are hysterical, so I’m hoping to fall in love with this series.
Cat’s Claw by Amber Benson – I read the first book in the series and remember thinking it was pretty good but never got around to picking up book 2 and I don't remember why not.
Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker - I've heard good things about this series but just haven't tried it up yet.
Bookends by Jane Green – new-to-me author, decided to give her a try. It was a nice story but not really what I normally like to read. I'll be turning this one back in.
Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (trade paperback size!) - Outlander is one of my all-time favorite books. I originally read the library book and went on to buy myself a copy, which is now well-worn. I also bought Echo in the Bone when it came out but I don’t own any of the books in between – lol, my book money always ends up disappearing too fast!
Do you have a used bookstore near you? Do you use it?
I am incredibly spoiled. :) I can walk to two decent used bookstores and am about 10 minutes from several others, including one that specializes in mystery/SFF/PNR/UF and another that specializes in romances of all sorts.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I haven't been to them much in the past year because I like reading ebooks so much more than reading paper books.
Years ago we had a book store that used the same 'trade' system - plus 10 cent a book at check-out. She had a good variety of books and that is where I found Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Sadly, she retired and her daughter took over the store - but moved it about an hour north - closer to her home.
ReplyDeleteWe have the Goodwill, Salvation Army and the Christian's Woman's Center - but most of the books found there are more than 10 years old. :)
M
There are 3 used bookstores near me that I absolutely love. This is where I go when I need some 'me' time and I can spend hours just browsing through the stacks :)
ReplyDeleteBTW...Nicole Peeler's Jane True series is one my favs, I don't think you will be disappointed.
The used bookstore about 5 minutes from my house is great. They have a nice selection of the genres I like and what's really nice is that they have a kids area. When me and my BF go with her kids they head straight there and read while we get to shop. Love it!
ReplyDeleteStephanie G
Paranormal Haven
No used bookstore here. I wish we had one, but we don’t even have a Target :) I hit up one when we were in Houston & had so much fun.
ReplyDeleteYep - I stop in often at a used paperback store near my house. I've also been known to stop in a Goodwill store -- you never know what you will find there, but sometimes they have great finds, especially old or first edition books from years past.
ReplyDeleteMy used book store is 70 miles away and yes I use it . I am a retired senior on a fixed income and have a limited book budget, so the used bookstore really helps me.
ReplyDeleteI did use it when the used bookstore was still practically in our backyard. But now they moved and I switched to reading ebooks mainly. Their romance section sucked anyway. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe only decent UBS near me with any kind of romance or UF selection is a Half Price Books store. However, it's in downtown Berkeley, parking is a beyotch, and they are terrible at giving any kind of value for trade-ins. All of the other bookstores around are too "intellectual" to cater to genre fiction. Therefore, I rarely go to the UBS, instead I swap online with Paperback Swap and BookMooch. The only downside is that takes awhile to work my way up the wishlist for popular books.
ReplyDeleteMy local used bookstore closed recently. I was a faithful customer for years; however, it eventually became difficult to find the types of books that I wanted there. People just weren't bringing in books anymore. I'd go stare at the contemporary or historical romance section and realize that many of the books there were ones I'd traded and that I'd already read the others. Since they rarely had what I wanted, I quit going and fell in love with the instant gratification of ebooks.
ReplyDeleteI kind of hate my used bookstore, it's a mess and the books costs almost as much as they do in a real bookstore o_O
ReplyDeleteI love my used bookstore too! It is so much fun to go and check it out. The one thing I wish was different is that it's romance section is just sorted by authors last name. So all of the harlequin, paranormal, historical, UF, etc are all mixed up. But I can live with that. They do give you money on your returns or store credit, which I always use the store credit. I know that I will plan on using them as a place to get rid of books that I don't want to keep on my bookshelf but it's also my wonderful place to go buy books that are on my TBR list. :-D
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