How I Saved $200 on 16 Books Without Amazon
Every last book finally unpacked and on the shelves, I stepped back from the bookcase of my dreams and was surprised to realize something — so many of my favorite books were missing. Not because they’d been stolen or lost — because I’d read them on audio (HUGE Libro.fm fan) and never purchased a real copy.
I thought I was just being spoiled. Surely I could just get over it, be grateful to have the books I have instead of focusing on what was missing. But every time I looked at my shelves, I couldn’t stop wondering where the rest of my favorite books were.
Enter the dilemma — with so much pulling the purse strings right now, I didn’t want to drop a ton of cash on books. I know Amazon sells books on the cheap, but ever since I read about the harm they do to local economies, their employees and independent booksellers (and so many others) in Danny Caine’s How to Resist Amazon and Why, I haven’t purchased one single thing from Amazon and didn’t want to break that streak for this.
So I quickly googled “independent used bookshop online” and struck gold when I clicked on Thriftbooks — the world's largest online independent used book seller. Browsing through their titles, finding every single book I searched for, most of them for under $6, my jaw dropped. I made another trip to the goog, this time searching “Is Thrifbooks legit” and found their story.
One week later, I have 16 of my favorite audiobooks in real life, living on my real shelves, and I only spent $121.13 getting them.
Links to the blogs I’ve written about these titles below ⤵
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Off the Clock by Lauren Vanderkam
Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (*no blog yet ~ stay tuned)
Euphoria by Lily King
A Million Junes by Emily Henry
If You Could Live Anywhere by Melody Warnick
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
Atomic Habits by James Clear
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw (*no blog yet)
The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben (*no blog yet)
Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott (*scroll to the bottom)
The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris
Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
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I’ve been noticing lately an uptick in fear — so many of us feeling like we need to be quiet and put our heads down because things are getting scarier and more appalling than ever in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and across the US.
I don’t have the answers, but I do know lots of people are hurting right now, and I believe anything we can do to increase our own humanity and our empathy as a human race has to help in some way. Research has shown again and again that reading does that, especially when we’re reading fiction. (An article from the BBC called “Does reading fiction make us better people” is especially intriguing on the subject.)
So let’s keep reading, my friend, and doing what we can.
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Wherever you are this weekend, I hope this little message brings a smile to your face and a fresh batch of hope to your soul.
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Until next Friday,
Celeste