Green Metropolis

Further to yesterday's 'not buying it' blog, I have to say that one commodity I have continued to buy throughout my period of cutting back is books. Judith Levine managed to limit herself to libraries, but I have simply found ways of buying them cheaper.

And by the way, the irony of writers not buying books when they depend on book sales for a living is not lost on me. Perhaps when I am a published author I shall behave differently, but for now I'm sticking to secondhand. As well as saving money, it means more efficient use of resources, and I'm becoming increasingly conscious that this is something we've all got to face.

For ages I have been selling paperbacks to the stall in the Guildhall market in Bath, where I used to live. Check out my website http://www.city-of-bath-england.com/ for more information. And recently a classmate introduced me to http://www.greenmetropolis.co.uk/ where you can buy books for £3.75 and sell them (if anyone's interested) for £3. Not only that, the business makes a donation to the Woodland Trust for every transaction.

Oxfam bookshops are good too, although the chances of finding a particular title may be slim unless it's a recent bestseller. I think prices may vary according to location - in St Austell lots of books are priced under £2 and occasionally I find a good one.