It's become a pastime for me - buying books. Oh wait; it's always been a pastime... BUT, now, it is about buying books cheaply.
It's pretty simple; go to the thrift store, and pick up some books that look interesting. Even at the priciest thrift stores, used books are way cheaper than new.
And plentiful!
Granted, if you need a specific book NOW, it's easier to go the bookstore. But if you can wait a little while - get it through inter-library loan. I've been enjoying, though, building up a "transient" library of volumes that might pique my reading interest.
It doesn't hurt that I live close to a killer Salvation Army that has a furniture/book room (note the crafting section in the pic above). But I do this at any and every thrift store I go to, even antique stores: if I find a book that I think I might like, I pick it up.
This has led to some amazing reads. Granted, I have a pretty good sense of what will interest me, anymore. Sometimes I buy books for leisure/pleasure and sometimes they are more research-oriented. No matter what, though, if the book is lame, I stop reading it, and I feel no pain in giving it back to charity - what is 50 cents lost? Even at my local library, where used books are a little more "expensive", $2 for fiction is cheaper than $7-25.
So, therefore, I do have a kind of backlog of reading material, because I pick up books faster than I read them. But better than a backlog, than no books at all!
Now, on to reading the thrifted Sam Walton autobiography for research for my novel. So, for someday, that you can pick up a paperback copy of said novel at a thrift store. ;)
