My local town is well served with charity shops. Moving up the high street in order we have, Bernardos, Oxfam, Cancer Research, British Heart Foundation, Age UK and finally Phyllis Tuckwell (a local cancer respite charity). There is also a charity bookshop run by Rethink, a mental health charity. All told, it is a town well provided when it comes to used goods. Every now and again I enjoy a browse around their book shelves to see what I can find. I could have come away with a lot more today, but have to limit myself, otherwise my TBR pile will get out of control. The picture shows my small haul from today. I swear that none of them look like they’ve been opened so I could have bought them brand new at Waterstones. The various shops have differing views on pricing. Phyllis Tuckwell is by far the cheapest at a blanket £1.20 per paperback and Oxfam is the most expensive at £1.99. The British Heart Foundation has the most stock and best range of the classic charity outlets. But by far the nicest place to browse for 2nd hand books is the Rethink shop. The volunteers are friendly and chatty, the books are clearly priced, but if you go to the counter with an armful, they often take a look at what you’ve got and say something like “oh just give us £5 for the lot.” Of course, I always overpay on occasions like that. The only problem with Rethink is that it has notoriously unreliable opening hours. So when I wandered up there today, I wasn’t surprised to find it closed.
I am struggling to write my follow-up post for “Reading Around my Area”. I hoped to get it out this week, but am catching up on the reading I need to do for it. I will get it out next week, promise! This weekend I am walking in the South Downs with my bookclub girlfriends – I have a feeling we may get rained on.
A Fiction Habit 
There’s a second hand book market here in Madrid which boasts it never closes. But there are no second hand or charity shops. I have seen one second hand clothes shop but nothing like the average high street of any British town. I think there is a stigma attached to being seen to be doing something associated with being poor. Whereas a British person would say proudly “I got this for a fiver”, a Spaniard would never say that. Although I buy a lot of books from Alibris etc, I always visit the Oxfam store in Byres Road in Glasgow just for the experience (and also, to buy a couple of books).
Nice little haul. 🙂
I accidentally bought a whole rucksack-worth of books today. I blame the amor – he kept encouraging me! Should keep me busy for a while though…
Charity and seconhand shops are a danger for the TBR pile, aren’t they?! I used to live down in Exeter, where we had an Oxfam bookshop, the secondhand bookstall at the weekly market, the Read and Return (each book has a “buy” price and a lower “trade back in” price) and the Bookcycle (take up to three books per day and pay whatever you want). The whole city seemed to be some sort of economic experiment in alternative market structures for the more efficient circulation of the Danielle Steel corpus…