I love books. Duh. I have an English degree.

I don’t really like to read books unless I can finish them in one day. So I don’t start unless I know I have enough time to completely devour it. Some big ones take me longer; it took me five days to get through the four Twilight books.

With great excitement, I have added these new volumes to my collection in the past few weeks.

Some were Christmas and birthday presents; one is for Brett. I recently discovered that numerous books from our childhood favorite author Gladys Malvern were republished in 2011 after being out of print for decades. My mom got several for my sister and me, and we’ll read them then exchange.

I’ve been keeping a book wish list for a while, so I decided to use some of my Christmas money to get some. (side note: I don’t buy books that are available at the library, that’s a waste) Two of these books were published within the last two months, so I purchased them new, my only option. I was able to find used copies online of the rest of them, using Amazon and half.com. Buying used, I was able to save at least $3 on each book.

Buying used is the “greener” option as well as the cheaper option. And I had a nice surprise when looking at the list of my used book sellers. All were Goodwill operations from various parts of the country. So I was being green, saving money and supporting a non-profit that supplies valuable job opportunities. Cool how that worked out.

Yes, we have a Half Price Books store, but I’ve found that’s only a good resource when I’m randomly browsing for a general topic. When I go to look for a specific book, they rarely have what I’m wanting. And browsing just doesn’t work with a two-year-old, anyway, so online was the way to go in this case.

Anyway, now I’ve got a lot on my reading list. Four down so far. Hannah loves the preschool devotions book. Can’t wait to tackle the rest. Maybe I should give myself a couple days to catch up on housekeeping, though.