I personally find thrifting very useful when it comes to the love of my life: books, though to tell you the truth, I used to dislike the idea of buying used books. Frankly, the main reason was nothing other than the struggle in trying to find a secondhand bookshop within my reach, so I never really understood how could someone possibly consider thrifting as an adventure. It's quite rare to stumble upon such shops in my town.
Well, if you want to know, it all started to change last year. Around mid-October or so, my mood for reading increased drastically I was almost sure that the nerdy side in me was on its peak-time. I was even proud enough to declare that most of my unread books weren't left untouched anymore (except for some, um, classic books which I felt like I needed a certain mood to start). It caused me an original bookworm problem later on: I started to get sucked in an endless cycle of buying new books regularly and insanely. However, being the college student that I was, buying too many books every week was not at all affordable. I hadn't had a job back then and truthfully thinking about spending too much of my parents' money for something only I liked didn't feel right—I knew I should rely on my own when it came to collecting books. Thankfully, a brilliant solution popped up to my head all of a sudden and I started looking for secondhand books online.
Well, if you want to know, it all started to change last year. Around mid-October or so, my mood for reading increased drastically I was almost sure that the nerdy side in me was on its peak-time. I was even proud enough to declare that most of my unread books weren't left untouched anymore (except for some, um, classic books which I felt like I needed a certain mood to start). It caused me an original bookworm problem later on: I started to get sucked in an endless cycle of buying new books regularly and insanely. However, being the college student that I was, buying too many books every week was not at all affordable. I hadn't had a job back then and truthfully thinking about spending too much of my parents' money for something only I liked didn't feel right—I knew I should rely on my own when it came to collecting books. Thankfully, a brilliant solution popped up to my head all of a sudden and I started looking for secondhand books online.
If you need proof, I'll be glad to present this to you: I bought this Indonesian edition of Kasie West's Distance Between Us the other day which is sort of difficult to find now for only Rp. 30.000,- (or about $2.14, exclude shipping). In other words, I got a pretty rare book in a good condition at a very low price which shows a multitude of benefits.
However, please remember that it's not wise to expect it to be 100% like new when you buy a secondhand book online. Of course, there were times when some of my orders arrived in some sort of questionable condition. But instead of being irritated when we get a book full of unknown handwriting, I make myself look at it from a new perspective. See it this way: why don't we wonder about what did the previous owner think when they annotated a certain paragraph? Or, why did they curse so bad on page 55?
Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kauffman is another proof of my book thrifting experiences.
I bought it for only Rp. 70.000 (or around $5, exclude shipping)
It's hard to deny the power of book thrifting. In a way, the thought of giving an unused copy a new home can be therapeutic too. From a student's point of view, thrifting is also much better than no books at all or worse, the unoriginal ones. In conclusion, I'm voting for an absolute big yay for thrifting. How I wish I could go visit an offline thrift shop in the future and discover a lot of hidden gems there. In my dream, I would go home with tons of new-but-not-new books courtesy of my imaginary visit and might even go to such shops in every different country. One day.
Cheers to a never-ending cycle of reading, searching, thrifting!
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