How To Build a Library

This weekend our library reached 1,000 books. This is fairly surprising since I used to hate books and avoided them at all costs. Since the spiritual revival in my life in 2005 I have been on a Bible and book reading/buying tear and have seen this massive growth from one baby bookshelf of around 30 volumes. Truthfully I probably haven’t spent over $3,000. Also, I have finally given in and allowed myself to be coined a collector. However, this is not like a stamp collector or a coin collector. I am collecting a reference library for the spiritual benefit of myself and those around me. It’s a collection that is meant to be used and battered not protected under glass. That said, if you want to borrow a book, send me a line and see if I have it and if I do I’ll loan it to you. My library is meant to be used :)

Now, let me just give some brief advice on how to build a library.

1. Get friendly with your local librarian (probably at your local seminary bookstore, bible college, or just plain library). By this I mean, make friends. A real librarian already has all the connections you could possibly ever want to make and having them as a friend means you have immediate access to a wealth of knowledge you don’t have and a person who knows how to get books inexpensively and easily.

   
   
2. Try out www.paperbackswap.com. This hasn’t been of much use to me because you get out of it what you put into it and I haven’t put much into it. However, Graeme Pitman has raked books in this way and they haven’t just been measly paperbacks. $2 a book sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
   

3. Check www.half.com and www.abebooks.com. Sometimes, on a good day, you can find exactly what you’re looking for incredibly cheap. Shipping is fairly expensive though and doesn’t make some books worth it.

   
   
4. Find your local used bookstores and all used bookstores within a hundred miles. Now, there are a few kinds of these. The ideal is a bookstore that doesn’t believe the books they have are pure gold. I hate these kind. I mean, these books are USED not brand new. That means: avoid a bookstore that has the word “rare” in it’s description of itself. Also, look in the major metropolis near you. Inevitably, someone has a used bookstore and usually, especially in the downtown areas, they are very good.

   
   
5. Find the book sales in your area (or really anywhere in the continental states) and figure out how you can get to them. Colleges are pure gold if you can figure out when they have their sales. Garage sales are sometimes pretty good too. Check your classifieds to see if any sales specifically mention books and go there.

   
   
6. Go to Goodwill or any other local donation facility. I know, you think, “Wait, those dumps have books?” Yes. They often have very, very good books for the cost of a gum ball. I have been astounded at what people virtually throw away at these places. Recently I pulled Josephus’, “Jewish War,” and Roland Bainton’s “Here I Stand: Martin Luther,” for a quarter and a dollar respectively in excellent condition. There is gold in those places and that’s no joke. Sure, you have to touch each and every book in that mess title for title but it’s worth it in the end since you pay $15 for a load of books that would have cost $200 brand new.

   
   
7. Have fun and don’t get snobby. Josephus’ “Jewish War” may not be in rare hardcover form with no markings in it but it’s still Josephus’ “Jewish War.”


Have fun searching and if you have any advice for me, please give it. I’m always looking for cheap books!

R. D. Thompson