Keeping Up With The Penguins

Reviews For The Would-Be Booklover

Cha-Ching! Best Book Bargains

Starting the Keeping Up With The Penguins project presented a bit of a problem: books ain’t cheap. I set myself a limit of $10 per book, but even if I stuck to that 100% if the time I would still end up spending north of a grand. Plus, in my soul, I’m a firm believer in compensation for artists. Getting the books cheaply is great for me and everything, but authors should get paid what they’re worth for their work. On top of that, I adore independent and second-hand bookstores. Every dollar that I spend with them means employment for the creative writing student, and bills paid for the small business owner, and support for small presses, and opportunities for emerging writers.

So, my life for the last year has been a delicate balancing act: finding books that fit within my budget, while upholding my own ideals about the book industry. I love the thrill of the hunt – nothing compares to finding a long-sought-after tome buried in a bookstore bargain bin, especially when you can take it home in exchange for just the shrapnel that you have in your pocket. It turns out I have a real knack for it! There’s a perception that buying books through smaller and independent retailers means spending more: I’m here to prove that’s not the case! I thought I’d share a few of the best book bargains I’ve found for Keeping Up With The Penguins.

Best Book Bargains And Where To Find Them - Text overlaid on image of stacked coins - Keeping Up With The Penguins

Dracula – Bram Stoker

Dracula - Bram Stoker - book laid on wooden table - Keeping Up With The Penguins

Dracula was one of my first bargain bin finds, and I walked home afterwards on cloud nine! I spied it at my local secondhand bookstore, marked at the princely sum of $3. You can get a copy almost as cheap here.


The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Used Book Store - Tel Aviv - Keeping Up With The Penguins

I’ll admit I broke the budget with this one, but I feel it’s justified! Technically, my $10 limit was just for The Picture of Dorian Gray (reviewed here), but this collected works edition contains everything that Oscar Wilde ever wrote, so if I average it out… it was a steal! I found this one in a tiny crammed bookstore in Tel Aviv (of all places!) while on my honeymoon. I paid 50 shekels, which converted to roughly $20 back home.

Yes Please – Amy Poehler

Yes Please - Amy Poehler - book laid on a wooden table - Keeping Up With The Penguins

When I set out to find Yes Please, I thought it’d be a fool’s errand. Poehler had reached peak popularity at the time, for her performances in Saturday Night Live during the American election. But I struck gold! I spotted her memoir in the window of my local secondhand bookstore, marked at $10 (right on budget!). It was super-early and they weren’t open yet, and I had to go into the city – so I messaged my husband immediately and made him promise to be waiting outside the door when the owner arrived, to secure it before someone else did. Because he loves me, he did just that, and that’s how it came to be this week’s review!

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

Moby Dick - Herman Melville - book laid on wooden table - Keeping Up With The Penguins

I got the best kind of bargain for Moby Dick: it was free! I actually “borrowed” (re: stole) it from my husband’s collection. Of course, in doing so, I ended up with a copy so excessively worn and dog-eared that I was scared to open it, lest it fall apart. Still, it (miraculously) held up, and it served me well! You can actually get it for free, too!

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak - book laid on wooden table - Keeping Up With The Penguins

The Book Thief was #1 on the Dymocks 101 list of 2016, so I knew finding a bargain copy was just a matter of patience. When a book is announced as a winner of any kind, there’s a rush to buy it and everywhere sells out, then there’s a lull as everyone reads it, and then eventually it starts showing up in garage sales and secondhand bookstores. Sure enough, I managed to pick up The Book Thief about twelve months after its nomination, for just $4. There’s a few copies almost as cheap left on Amazon, get in quick!

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins - book laid on wooden table - Keeping Up With The Penguins

I actually bought this one many years before Keeping Up With The Penguins was even conceived. I was picking up something else entirely from Big W in the small regional town where I lived at the time, and I spotted The Hunger Games marked down to just $2.37. I’d heard of the book and figured I’d want to read it one day, so I grabbed it. And, what do you know, I finally got around to it!

A Passage To India – E.M. Forster

A Passage To India - EM Forster - book laid on wooden table - Keeping Up With The Penguins

My purchase of A Passage To India is notable simply for the fact that I don’t often buy hardcovers, but this one was such a bargain I couldn’t resist! I find hardcovers bulky and annoying a lot of the time (even though many of them are beautiful, drool!). Still, when I spied this beautiful, perfect, pristine edition in that ever-giving local bookshop, I couldn’t resist! An absolute bargain at just $7. I reviewed E.M. Forster’s subcontinent classic here.


Now, just because I’m a local bookstore fiend doesn’t mean there aren’t cracking deals to be found through the bigger retailers. I’m not that much of a snob! 😉



Dymocks tends to run some fantastic 3-for-2 promotions, and I’m always keeping an eye out for deals on the Penguin Classics (particularly when they come with the gorgeous Penguin merch!).

Another hot tip: Amazon actually has hundreds of classics available for free on Kindle! Works that have passed into the public domain (after their author has been deceased for 75 years) are downloadable for free, or at least very cheaply! If you’re hung up on hard copies, though (like I am!), you can still get some amazing deals. Check out all the freebies here – you’ll be surprised at what you might find!


What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found on a book? Let me know in the comments below (or tell us over at KUWTP on Facebook!).

Cha-Ching! My Best Ever Book Hauls - Keeping Up With The Penguins

11 Comments

  1. Great finds!!! I hope you enjoy!

  2. Definitely some classics in there! I’m a HUGE Oscar Wilde fan!! 💖💖💖

  3. This is a great post. I also like exploring used bookstores and used booksales. We have a running used book sale at work. It is for charity so folks bring in books that they no longer want and donate them. I work in a building of thousands of people so the turnover of books is fast. I have found some amazing stuff.

    I tend to read a fair amount of of older titles and I read ebooks so I find the out of copywrite downloading phenomenal. Project Gutenberg is also a great resource.,

    I also believe in compensating authors. I never thought of used book buying an issue before. I think that it is ethical. Yet when I think about it I guess that it cuts into an author’s compensation.

    You go some great deals on used books. Happy hunting in the future!

    • ShereeKUWTP

      June 24, 2018 at 3:42 PM

      Oh my gosh, what a fantastic idea of a running book sale at your office! Brilliant! I once worked for a company that would have one periodically – every three months or so – and I managed to snap up a few brilliant reads for just a gold coin donation each time. Project Gutenberg is incredible as well, literature is accessible in a way never before seen in human history, which I think is just fantastic <3 Thanks Brian!

  4. Some great finds there. I’m always checking second hand and charity stores for a bargain find. I love that you also support indie book stores. I try to purchase a book a month at Dymocks and also make some purchases at Boomerang Books online. I would hate to lose these Indie stores.

    • ShereeKUWTP

      June 24, 2018 at 3:43 PM

      Yep, I’m with you, Veronica! It’s our consumer power that will keep them running <3

  5. I really like ebay for this, or if stuck bookfinder. Once upon a time Amazon was the greatest for cheap books but post kindle the emphasis seems to have moved elsewhere.

    • ShereeKUWTP

      June 28, 2018 at 8:34 PM

      I’ve certainly picked up quite a few on Amazon over the years – certainly can’t fault them for their selection! – but secondhand bookstores are my Mecca. 🙂 I’ve never tried eBay though, what a good idea!!

  6. I love it when I find the free Kindle Classics that also have the 99¢ and $1.49 added narration. 👍

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