My Reading Life: Grassroots Books

I have hundreds, literally hundreds of books. Some still live at my mom's, some at my dad's, but most of them live with me where they belong. And that collection is ever-growing. (sorry husband). I know I should use the library more, it's about a ten minute walk from my workplace, but there's something about owning the books, seeing them on the shelves, knowing that they're mine that I find irresistible.

If I were buying only new books, even at Amazon prices, this would be a significant financial investment. I've already highlighted Thriftbooks one of my favorite ways to get my paws on used books, but the place I can't tear myself away from is a place that made me pretty sure Drew and I were meant to be when he took me to: Grassroots Books.

Grassroots is amazing, you guys! For most of their books, their pricing is easy: $1.99 for paperbacks and $3.99 for hardcovers. Since they are a business with people to employ and everything, they do have recent/popular titles individually priced for more, and they do keep a stock of some new books that they sell around list price. But that means there are hundreds and hundreds of other books at their baseline price (which is either two or four dollars, again). This is cheaper than Thriftbooks, where the lowest price is usually about $3.60. You CAN find cheaper secondhand at Goodwill/thrift stores, but those tend to be treasure hunts, scouring loosely organized shelves for what you're looking for. Not so at Grassroots. They are categorized and alphabetized like they would be in pretty much any other bookstore, so it's easy to find where what you want should be and if they have it.

And that's not even the best part! Not only does every shopper get a free book every year (!!!), there are also monthly warehouse deals, where the books that they don't have room for in the proper store (i.e. things in less-than-great condition because they only sell things in good shape, things that there a million copies of like Twilight) are sold for just $1. And if you wait until Sunday (the sales usually start Thursday and end Sunday), you can fill a grocery bag for $5. It's definitely a warehouse, books are NOT in neat order so it's a hunting expedition, but $5!

If you live in Reno and love to read and you haven't been (ever or in a while), you should go! They're open from 9 AM to 8 PM every single day and their calendar with information about when sales are happening is on their website. Happy reading, Reno!

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My Reading Life: Grassroots Books

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookworm Delights

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!This week's topic: top ten bookworm delights, so ten things that make my reading soul happy. This isn't something I ordinarily really even think about, so it was a little work to flesh out this list, but here are ten things I love in my bookish life!



Finding the right spot on the couch to get cozy: The eternal struggle! Find a spot that makes your back happy, realize it's making you lean on your arm funky. Then your neck starts to ache from looking downward all the time. So you readjust, and your back starts to hurt, so you move again and lather rinse repeat. Finding that perfect spot is the greatest thing.

A new bookstore: That feeling of walking into a brand new store full of books to explore and run your fingers over and figure out how it's laid out is an exhilarating feeling! When we travel and are out exploring, I like to find a local bookstore to poke around in. You never know what you'll find!

Snagging that book you've been looking for secondhand: When there's a book you've had your eye on and you stop in a secondhand store and there it is...it feels like fate. I recently picked up an apparently new hardcover copy of Seveneves, which has been on my TBR list for a while now and even the Kindle book is like $13.99, for $1 at the SPCA thrift store and I couldn't stop grinning triumphantly to myself for hours.

Finding someone to talk to who loves the books you love: It's pretty rare for me to meet an actual real-life person (I know all you lovely book bloggers out there are also real life persons, but I mean in my own real life) who enjoys books like I do. So when I meet someone who tells me that they've enjoyed The Virgin Suicides or The Secret History, my eyes light up like Christmas morning.

Quiet time to read: I love my fiance with my whole heart but he enjoys playing video games and watching TV. While I can mostly block out the noise, some uninterrupted quiet time (well, quiet besides the weird noises my pug makes) to get my read on is just lovely.

A gift certificate to buy books: Money to spend at a bookstore, for books only (not like Amazon where the temptation to replace a dying hairdryer can be hard to resist) is a rare treat. And I hardly ever splurge on new books, so it's a double treat!

Bookish decor: I've been looking for a print of Arya Stark's lesson from her dancing master Syrio- "Fear cuts deeper than swords"- for forever (I actually found one I liked and then as I dinked around deciding whether or not to pull the trigger, they stopped making it). But finding quotes that I loved from books that I loved as decor or coffee mugs makes my heart sing.

Someone loving a book you recommended to them: For most of us serious readers, the books that we love are more than "just books", they're little pieces of our heart. So recommending one feels like revealing a long-held secret...it's so personal, and if they're not receptive it just feels like a slap in the face. But when they love it? You feel so on top of the world and bonded.

Finding out they're making a movie/TV show of one of your favorite books: This is delightful and also frightening. Some book adaptations are the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and some...are The Hobbit. It's hard to tell until it hits the screen but casting announcements and director choices are so fun to react to and talk about!

Little Free Libraries: The actual library is the bomb, but it can be located at quite a distance from your house or have restrictive hours that makes it hard to get there at the right time. Which is why neighborhood-based little free libraries are such a thrill to find in the wild! Just people sharing books with other people. It's fantastic.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookworm Delights

My Reading Life: Thriftbooks

As much as I wish it could be true, I don't actually have a money tree in my backyard. I don't even have a backyard, we live in an apartment. Books can be an expensive habit: with shelf prices about $25-30 for a hardcover and barely cheaper at $15-20 for a paperback, that adds up quickly. Even if you go the Amazon route and pay $10 for a paperback, that's still not an insubstantial sum, especially if you're looking to acquire several books. And while local used bookstores/thrift stores can be great, they can be a substantial investment of time to devote to digging, trying to remember if you have a copy of that one already, maybe leaving empty-handed. Enter Thriftbooks.

It's easy enough to describe: it's an online used book outlet. Prices range from $3.59 and up (depending on the book, its condition, hardcover v paperback, etc). You get free shipping if your order is over $10 (so, basically three books). I personally use the everloving bejeesus out of Thriftbooks. For fairly popular titles, I'm willing to make a trip or three to the local secondhand joints to dig for something cheaper because I can be relatively sure I'll be able to dig it up. But for older, out of print, or even newish-but-not-old-enough-so-that-it'll-be-easy-to-find-secondhand? Thriftbooks. That website has enabled me to expand my library farther than I would have thought possible without bankrupting myself (sorry not sorry, fiance). If they don't have a title that you're looking for in stock (or you want to watch the price to see if it drops), you can add it to a wishlist and they'll send you alerts when they get a new one in.

Here's the deal: if you click the link embedded above (at the end of the first paragraph), you'll get 15% off your first order (and I'll get the same off my next one), so if you're inclined to check it out, please click on the link and it'll take you there!  So if there's a book that you're looking for and you're not fussy about whether someone else has read your books before you, definitely check it out!

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My Reading Life: Thriftbooks