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Print I love to buy books. I love to read books. I am a book junkie. So, how can I, a self-proclaimed book addict, afford to keep up this expensive habit of mine? I think I should ask myself—and you—what is the relative value of a book and why should I not purchase new ones from ye olde Brick-and-Mortar? The answer, I believe, is the same answer I would give about buying a new car off the lot: don’t do it! “Wait a minute,” you may say, “What do cars have to do with anything?” Well, when you buy a new car, you should open the windows as you spin tires off the lot, the wind in your hair, your pocketbook lighter and freer feeling. That’s because the “new” will be rushing right out the window, that intangible difference that will cost you about $5000 on average. Wait a year, buy the same car used, and the car will have depreciated that much or more. Now think about books. My favorite author at the moment is Pulitzer Prize-winning Dave Barry. Last year he co-authored a novel about pirates, Peter and the Starcatchers, for sale new at Barnes & Noble or Amazon for $17.99. Today, I can order that book on Amazon used for four dollars. That’s a savings of nearly 14 dollars (give or take a penny)! Is it used? Yes. Is it clean? Yes, like brand new, read only once, probably, and from a non-smoker/pet-free home. And I’m enjoying it just as much as if I’d bought it the day it hit the shelves.
Revaluing My Reading The same principle of used book buying can be applied to CDs, DVDs, and Starbucks coffee (although I hope they won’t sell you a year-old cup of coffee). Yet books are my passion, and I have to afford them via the best methods possible: my methods. When a new book comes out that I want, I’ll look it up on Amazon and add it to my Wish List. That way I won’t forget about it, and when Christmas, Birthday, Bar Mitzvah, or Anniversary comes along, I simply direct would-be gift buyers to my list. Then there’s ebay. I can buy a book for pennies, as long as I check to see the shipping costs, too. The favorite trick of book auctioneers on ebay is to sell you a book dirt cheap but charge you five or ten bucks for shipping and handling. Avoid these auctions and find the book you’re looking for with reasonable shipping charges (around $2 or less). Okay, I’ll admit I’ve tried that once myself when I auctioned a book I bought at the Dollar Tree store for, you guessed it, one dollar, and started the bidding at one dollar plus five bucks shipping. Too bad no one went for the deal. Since P.T. Barnum once said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” then his truth will certainly be applied to you as long as you feel the obligation to continually purchase new books and other depreciable items. Barnes & Noble will appreciate your business and won’t mind if you spend all day Saturday hunched across one of their plush armchairs. They probably won’t mind if you spill some of your $4 Starbucks coffee on the fabric, on the carpet, or even on the book you’re reading for free. They won’t even turn off the air conditioning, but keep it purring along while you vacate your own electricity-bill-generating-home for the day. As long as you buy new books. Oh yeah, that’s my other method for avoiding buying new books: I read them at Barnes & Noble (did I mention that already?). If I really feel the itch to check out the latest novel after reading it up in the New York Times Book Review on Sunday, then I cruise over to B&N and peruse the first chapter or two, enjoying my experience immensely. That is, until strange men begin sitting in the surrounding chairs and taking too many glances at me. That’s my exit sign. That, or a baby wailing in the kid’s section.
Imitating Thoreau I took the road that Thoreau took when he claimed that he possessed a library of 700 volumes, all of them his first self-published book. I, too have amassed a library of some 400 volumes after self-publishing my not-yet-discovered book, Firework (not available yet in stores). But I’m putting one of them up for bid on ebay this weekend. Shipping is cheap—only five bucks!
ninetyandnine.com © 2005, Stuart D. Kent --------- Stuart D. Kent has read nothing but Nursing textbooks for the last 16 months. He will become (soon) the fourth fireman in his department to become an RN. His wife waits patiently for that day to arrive so he can clean out the garage full of junk. * My Life is actually non-fiction, although certain members of the U.S. Senate may beg to differ. At least I didn’t mention Monica Lewinsky (whoops!). |
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