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My Newest Bookish Obsession: Thrift Books

Jaime Herndon

Contributor

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA in nonfiction writing at Columbia, after leaving a life of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child health work. She is a writer, editor, and book reviewer who drinks way too much coffee. She is a new-ish mom, so the coffee comes in extra handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

As book lovers, I know we can tend to get…obsessed with certain things. Whether it’s the best way to arrange books (by genre, by alphabetical order, by color, or not at all), cover preferences (I harbor a fierce love for the Penguin tri-bands that aren’t available here in the States), or whathaveyou, we all have our THING. And I found my newest one — ThriftBooks.com. Let me say right now, I’m not affiliated with them, I don’t know anyone there, and I’m certainly not being paid or anything to write this. Nope – quite simply, it’s my new favorite thing.

What is it, you may ask? Do we really need another book buying website? The answer is yes. They have new books, but mostly old – and I would say the majority are under five dollars, with most being under four dollars. It’s a downright dangerous site for readers. Anything over $20 gets free shipping, and they have a rewards program on top of everything else — one that’s actually really easy to benefit from.

I’ve been super happy with everything I’ve bought – for myself and for my son. They have a ton of board books, which is great when you want to build your child’s library but don’t want to spend a ton of money.

My absolute favorite thing about this? It’s also an app. I’m not sure why that pleases me so much, but it’s come in handy when I suddenly remember a book, and add it to my cart, or when I’m inexplicably suffering from insomnia and lying in bed, scrolling through my phone.

What bookish obsessions do you have?