Needy book lover

I didn’t realise how often I bought books until I decided to curb my spending. Admittedly I had got quite good about browsing the selection in charity shops and making use of the second hand books on Amazon (apart from my favourite living authors who I want to support by buying new) but I was still buying…rather a lot. And now I am feeling needy about new books. I go to my local library but the selection isn’t very big and there are particular titles I want to get my hands on.

Ah ha! I thought. You can order books from the library and they’ll get them in for you. Great. So I phoned them up, details carefully written down. They weren’t exactly helpful. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello. Is it still possible to order a book to collect at my local library? One they don’t have in stock?

Library man: Well yeah. But you can’t buy it.

Me: (Confused) Sorry?

Library man: (Impatient) You can’t buy a book from the library service. I mean, they’ll order it for you and they might have to buy it if they don’t have it in. But you can’t keep it.

Me: Well. No. I just wanted to borrow it. If you had a copy.

Library man: But you understand you can’t keep it?

Me: Yeeeees…I just want to borrow it. Sorry, is this not a service you offer? I don’t want to cause a problem.

Library man: (sighs) We can order it in for you. You just have to bring it back.

Me: Well yes. I am…familiar with the library borrowing arrangement.

And so it went on before I finally gave up. Am I being awkward? Can you still order a book from the big county libraries for their smaller counterparts? I got no-where and was amazed as the people in my local branch are so helpful. Maybe I’ll ask them next time I am in there.

Holly commented on a book she found inspiring – The New Spend Less Revolution: 365 Tips For A Better Quality Of Life While Actually Spending Less. I’d love to read it. Also, another book recommended by Fru over at Year of Living Frugally sounds great. Hence I am feeling needy. I am beginning to wonder if I ought to give myself a little book budget each month, though I did say I wouldn’t buy any more until I had worked my way through everything I own that I haven’t read yet. Trouble is, the books I have laying in wait don’t fit every frame of mind. You really have to be in exactly the right mood for Woolf, for example. And I’m not. I’m in the mood for thrifty inspiration. Grrrr. I thought it was all going a bit too well…

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Categories: Book love | 6 Comments

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6 thoughts on “Needy book lover

  1. I know what you mean about buying lots of books – I never thought I’d be able to last a year without a new one. I was spending around £50 a month on Amazon marketplace.

    As for your question about selling them, it’s really easy. Much easier than eBay because you don’t have to upload pictures and the info is all there. You just click to say which books you have, select your selling price and then you’re off.

    I find that you can get a lot more for them online than at a car boot sale where most books go for around 50p. I usually sell a fair few books within hours of uploading but this is always because I list my books at the lowest price in order to sell quickly. However, it’s best to monitor your prices as whoever lists the book next will probably undercut you.

    As long as you don’t mind popping to the post office every few days (always send second class) and can be frugal with your packaging (I wrap in bubble wrap then brown paper) then you can make quite a bit. They send your profits to your account every 2 weeks so you get a nice trickle of income!

  2. shoestringalley

    Hurrah – someone more addicted to Amazon than me! I have decided I def need a book budget…it seems it is the one thing I can’t give up (though obviously this buying will be done in a controlled, considered and frugal fashion 🙂 ).

    Thanks for the advice on selling through Amazon. Recessionista has just left me some info about Green Metropolis which I am going to look into too. A trickle of extra income sounds pretty good!

  3. cheryl

    hi shoestring! about your library borrowing…..i live in the states but here we can simply go online to the library website and order books to be borrowed. its so easy i never browse the library stacks anymore. when i hear of books i want to read, i simply access the website!

    and how bizarre that the man on the library phone thought you wanted to buy the books. doesnt most everybody understand how the library works?

    good luck with your blog! i love it so far!

  4. shoestringalley

    Hi Cheryl,

    It’s funny you should mention this as someone else mentioned the online ordering to me today. I’ll def be checking this out. I really am needy about books!

    Once I got over being annoyed by the library phone conversation I laughed a LOT. Why he thought I was trying to buy a book I’ll never understand but he must have thought I was crazy!

    Thanks for reading and leaving a comment 🙂

    Do you have a blog too?

  5. cheryl

    nope, no blog for me. i love reading them but i’m much to lazy to write my own. 🙂

  6. shoestringalley

    Well drop by any time!

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