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Building Your Home Library: where to buy books

This post is a response to Janae's post about creating a literacy rich home over at Bring Joy. Janae talked about buying used books, new books and using the library to build your home library. She mentions some of her favorite places to buy books.
I once found Shark vs. Train at a yard sale.
Score! We love this book
I would like to add to that list. 

First off, garage sales are also a great place to find books. I often like to glance through what's offered at a garage sale and pick out books that I consider gems. I never buy anything at a garage sale that I might read someday.  I buy the ones that I know I love and I can't believe someone else is selling for so cheap!

Buying from physical bookstores supports bookstores, authors and publishers. Buying online from a retailer that has physical stores (like Barnes and Noble) helps support the existence of physical bookstores in general, but buying in-store helps support the specific store you're in. 

Trust me, the loss of a bookstore in your town is a tragedy. About a year after we moved to Illinois, a local independent bookstore that had been open for more than 20 years closed down. I had had just enough time to fall in love with the place, and driving by its empty shell brought literal tears to my eyes for at least six months. (After that, the tears dried. But there was still such sadness in my heart!) And do you know what kills me? Five years later, no one else rents that space. It's such a shame. How many more books would I have paid a little bit more for, if I had but known? 

And let's not even go into the fact that when Borders went under, their space was taken by a liquor store. It was utterly depressing to me, as a teetotaler, that the place where I was accustomed to taking my children to play while I browsed was now so useless to me. You can't buy quality children's literature (or play at a train table) at a liquor store.
Yay for bookstores with train tables!

In summary, here are 7 great places to buy books, used or new:

  • Local independent bookstores
  • Local chain bookstores
  • Online retailers that have brick-and-mortar stores
  • School book fairs (I wrote all about my love of book fairs)
  • Thrift stores
  • Garage sales
  • Library book sales



plus also bookstores have author events!
At this event at Little Shop of Stories,
Amanda Kingloff taught the boys a craft from her new book, Project Kid.

What are your favorite places to buy books? 

Happy book buying!

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