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Naio's avatar
Naio
Explorer II
Apr 13, 2015

For fans of hardcopy: Where do you get books on the road?

Gone are the days when every town had a store that sold used books! And new ones are too expensive to read once and toss.

I've tried thrift shops like Goodwill, but not found many with a large selection. Thiftbooks.com is pretty good, though, and I have sometimes had them send books ahead to an RV park I know I will be at in a couple of weeks. Same with used books on Amazon. When I'm in one place for a while, I get a library card.

Yesterday went to a local library 'book sale' and picked up a bunch of good stuff for cheap.

When I'm done with a book, I leave it at an RV park laundromat, with a little note saying, 'free', for the next reader.

Where do you get books to read when you are on the road?

39 Replies

  • Exactly the reason we gave up on physical books.

    No availability. Weight. Space consumption.

    Ebooks. Hundreds and hundreds of books in the palm of your hand. We carry iPad Airs everywhere anyway so all our books and magazines go with us.
  • When we stopped full timing and started snow birding I found that our local library has a e-book loan system. I can go on the internet and check out an e-book and read it on my Kindle. So I could sit there in AZ and read books from our library in CO.
  • I used to squirrel away paperbacks all year from sources mentioned by the O.P. Would start each long trip with a grocery sack full of books, donate them as finished along the way.

    Perhaps you could shop online for used books and have them sent to you along the way?

    Or, gasp, bite the technology bullet and get a Kindle or other tablet? Maybe a refurbished one to save money? I thought I would never let go of physical books for my recreational reading, but my kids gave me an iPad and I have never looked back. I check out e-library books or buy Kindle books to read on the iPad with Kindle app.
  • I love the used book stores. Can get pretty good books (not too old even) for a couple of dollars each.
  • Book exchanges at RV parks - libraries when we are sitting, thrift stores. Most Goodwill or Salvation Army stores I have been in have had thousands of books. Too many to take the time to select some as they aren't arranged in any order like at the library.
  • used book stores and Barnes and Noble. Also my wife does Harlequin romances online and has them sent to a Post Office near where we are and then picks them up.
    But mostly used book stores we stop at all we see

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