So... lately i've been reading a lot more, due to being tied down to my couch nursing and my littlest one hating me even coming near this machine. So i've been wandering in and out of thrift and bookstores a lot more lately. I've bought a lot of books lately, some of which i might not even have picked up if i hadn't seen them or their authors on PBS.

Sadly, few of them have been on Wish Lists... which on one hand, makes me sad, because i'd love to send out more books, but on the other hand, my mother is always in need of reading material as well.

I've tried my hand a little at trying to find WL books specifically, with limited success, and i got home from an excursion earlier to learn part of my folly has been looking for authors that ARE popular (Nora Roberts haha i bought three of those today). On one hand, i've never really read any of her books yet but always intended to, and my mom is reading one of her books right now, so at least they don't have to sit in my house for a million years before finding a new home.

A couple times i have found books i knew were WL'ed or at least, i knew a version was and i actually bought a couple the turned out to not meet PBS standards, so freebies they shall be.

It's really a learning process here, and an eye-opening one as well, seeing what is out there and what people are reading. I never really cared before i joined here, what others were reading, and now i find i am a little more interested.

I have been doing my best to learn the lingo of books, as it were, in order to make my searching a little easier.

Something funny about that... today i went to my regular used book shop. It's a good one, not in that there are tons and tons of 'name brand' books as much as i have found more good books there that i might never have run across otherwise, and all books are a dollar or so, hardbacks 1.25 and popular hardbacks or newer ones range in the 2.50-3.50 range.

So a guy noticed i had a piece of paper in my hand and asked if i was looking for something in particular. I said, not really, but i do have some things i would buy if i saw them. I asked "Do you carry many trade sized paperbacks?"

He blinks at me. 'Uh, what are those?', he asks.

I think to myself... he's gotta be kidding me. Cuz he WORKS with books. Granted, they sell video games and comic books and some movies and various 'I play Pokemon and D&D' bric-a-brac but i mean, they are ABOUT books. Its even in the name of the store.

So i explain it to him as i learned it here (lol)... that they are larger paperbacks, not your average ones that are on all the other shelves. So he takes me upstairs and we look at hardbacks, and i see right off, THIS is where i am going to find trade paperbacks... they are shoved in with hardbacks because they're closer to the size.

So he asks me again what exactly i am looking for. I pop off a couple authors, he recognizes them and finds me a book from one of them immediately. And i mention i normall read sci-fi and fantasy with some romance and prehistorical fiction, but i am starting to read more popular fiction and chick lit.

He asks me 'What is a chiklit?'

*facepalm*

So i had to explain that they are 'girl books, but without all the steamy romance - you know, girls having fun sort of stuff'... and he blinks at me again, and he's like... 'Oh, i see.' I even gave him a couple of glaringly obvious examples that have been made into TV or movies, and he understood better.

*sigh* I was hoping my favorite store might be more knowledgeable, but i guess i am kinda on my own, as it were.

I just had to share... i find it ironically funny. I live in Nowheresville, USA, and its hard to FIND a used bookstore here that doesn't want 3 or 4 bucks for a paperback  or 7 for a hardback, because i just don't SEE paying that much for one used unless i am reading it or buying it because i just looove the author or it's part of a series. There are a couple other stores in the area of the one i am speaking of, but they are two of the same 'chain' and the best sales i get there are 3 for 10 bucks and that annoys me. Sure, i pay it often enough, but i don't like it as much as finding my books for next to nothing. I get less of a thrill that way.

I learn so much here, haha. My husband says i should open my own bookstore when the kids are older and i am a bored housewife with an empty nest, heh.

Ah Tracey, you know you're a confirmed PBSer when you can teach the bookstore staff!!

I'm lucky in that I live near a charity resale store that has great books, I find a lot of newer books for 50 cents or $1.00 and I buy them to post here.  After a while you get a feel for what people are looking for, but there are always surprises, I find some obscure books that turn out to be on someone's wishlist.  Now if I could just stop buying so many for myself!

I have been here for about 2.5 years and until I found PBS, I never knew there were different sizes of paperbacks.  Paperback was a paperback.  I can find some fairly current books at my Salvation Army.  I have a friend who buys paperbacks, reads them ONCE and then gives them to me to post.  I don't even thing the cover is creased!

My mom belongs to a Christian Fiction book club.  She reads them once, then gives them to me to post.  We don't have many UBS's around here, and our Goodwill store is outrageously expensive.  I have my best luck with garage sales and church rummage sales.  I picked up a bunch of great books at a rummage sale a couple of weeks ago for .25-.50, and several were WL.  But I remember making alot of similar mistakes when I first joined PBS (some of them are still on my shelf - LOL!).

I found one Goodwill that is good for book finds for cheap, but other than that i've been mainly counting on garage sale finds. The Salvation Army is mainly for poor people who needs clothes and things, they said they really don't do books and things, and they'r eonly open on Thursday... so that's out.

It makes me wish i had a blackberry or something with internet that i could log onto PBS and search while i browse a little, haha.

I am definately getting hooked being here... i am loving this site! It's like... Book Heaven! LOL

We have a Hospice Resale Shop close to where I live, and they sell used paper backs for $.10!  They have hardbacks as well, but I usually don't look at them to closely. My hubby always cringes when I tell him where I'm going, because he knows I'll be home with a ton of books. But honestly, what do you expect me to do when I have a chance to buy books 10 for $1?    :-)