Written by contributor Megan Laing
I’ve always been partial to thrift stores, taking the occasional dip inside during my visits into town, then more actively shopping second hand when I moved out of my hometown and into my new university city.
Thrifting, or charity shopping as we call it here in the UK, is a great way of introducing some new material not only into your wardrobe, but also onto your bookshelf. The joys of thrifted books are endless: pre-loved? Check. Giving to charity? Check. New books at a low price? Check. The saying really is true: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
That being said, it does take a couple of attempts to sort through the trash to find the treasure and not everything you stumble across is going to be pure gold. Especially in my hometown, pocket of North London, and my current residence, it takes a lot of trial and error to not only to find the good stuff, but to also find your best local thrift stores.
Usually, my eyes are drawn straight to the hardback section because they’re usually dirt cheap considering what their previous owner probably would have paid for them. In most British charity shops, there’s also a shelf for all the dusty old books with a ‘collectors’ label which, I’m sure, harbour some hidden gems but are personally not my taste. After this, I move onto the paperbacks, doing a once over for books that I’ve heard of before diving into the rest of the shelf. This means that there’s a higher chance of scoring some books that have actually been on my radar instead of coming home with a heap of books I know nothing about. Research is key.
Read on to discover are of my favourite finds!
1. Nightmares and Dreamscapes & Desperation by Stephen King
I could barely contain my excitement when I walked in my local British Heart Foundation branch and saw these beautifully chunky hardbacks winking back at me. I had been wanting to read more Stephen King after I’d picked up (and promptly devoured) The Shining earlier in the year. The physical books themselves are in excellent condition, other than the fact they were printed in the 90s, you’d hardly know they weren’t bought brand new. I’m so excited to dive into these two!
2. Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
No, not Kate Moss, the model, but the author of the Burning Pages and Labyrinth, Kate Mosse. When I set eyes on the chunky, burgundy-and-gold hardback of Sepulchre in Oxfam, it didn’t really matter that I knew nothing about it or had never read anything by Kate Mosse. I knew instantly that I was going to love it, the premise seemed so infatuating and unique that I couldn’t not take it home with me and, priced at just £2, I thought that, even if I didn’t like it, it wasn’t that much and the money would be going to charity anyway – the beauty of thrifting books!
3. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Now, despite not being the most enthusiastic of classics readers, I am a huge fan of classic dystopian fiction (with the exception of Animal Farm – humans turning into animals and vice versa is where I seem to draw the line, I’m not exactly sure why I can’t stand it but it’s the same reason I DNFed Bunny by Mona Awad and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones). A Clockwork Orange is not an especially big book – in fact, it’s very small with lots of not-so-nice content – but it fits perfectly on my shelf.
4. James Bond books by Ian Fleming
Everybody knows of the James Bond franchise and probably has their favourite Bond (mine is Daniel Craig, because I was a 00s child). My granny is a huge fan of the books by Ian Fleming and comes with me to every new Bond film but I had never actually thought to read them myself until I stumbled across them in a local book exchange, amongst the shelves in a Tardis blue telephone box. Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Moonraker with their creased white spines sit proudly on my shelves now as I’m extremely proud of the fact that 1) I actually own them now 2) they all match and 3) I technically thrifted them.
(P.S. don’t worry, I didn’t just take the books from the book exchange – I put in three of my own in good condition!)
5. Sharp Objects & Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
When I saw Gone Girl, it blew my mind to the extent that I felt like the book had been ruined for me because of that twist. I was, however, desperate to get my hands on Gillian Flynn’s other books, more so when I discovered that Sharp Objects had also been adapted into a TV series with Amy Adams. Dark Places I’m yet to read but believe me when I tell you that I sped through Sharp Objects. Gillian Flynn’s attention to detail is phenomenal, her characters intricate, and her plot fast-paced and nail-biting. I had so much fun both discovering in my local thrift store and reading!
Now that I’ve discovered the wonderful world of thrifting books, I find it increasingly hard to actually pick up a book in my local bookstore chain and actually buy it. Maybe it’s because the frugal student lifestyle has taken a hold of me or maybe it makes me feel better to justify my book buying habits because the money is going to charity. Sure, having your own new edition of a book is great to own, whether you keep it pristine or break out the highlights and crack the spine. It’s great to say that it’s your book.
However, I love stumbling across the occasional annotation between the lines, the odd coffee spill and dog eared page as I’m reading. Books are meant to be loved just as they are meant to be read. Who knows? You might even discover a new favourite next time you rummage through the shelves!
