Libraries and Book Expenses

I've discovered that my local library is crap. Sure, it's pretty. It's in a very nice building but I don't like libraries for their architecture, I like them for saving money on my main fix, books.

I rarely pay full price for books, my most recent book purchases have been the following:

• $53.51 for 12 books at BookCloseOuts in July
• $83.87 for 21 books at The Strand's Fulton Street annex on July 24th and $27.85 for 7 more at the same location on August 17th. It's a shame the store is closing, but at least I'm going to make the best of their clearance sales.
• $18.60 for two new hardcovers at Amazon
• 15.47 for three books from Half.com
• $6 for 5 books at the library book sale.

I'm also a huge fan of BookMooch, which enables me to share books with other readers at a cost of only shipping. My payment is in points, which enable me to Mooch books from others. Earlier this year I had worked out how much my books had cost and while I no longer have that at hand, it was somewhere between $2 and 3 per book, in line with my deals above with the exception of Amazon. If I shop new it's with a coupon and/or gift certificate (see Amazon) and or a book I need at a particular time for a given purpose. I'm an incurable bookworm, but still that's $205.30 that I could have spent elsewhere. 

While that's not a monthly expense, it's twice a year or at most three times, but it's still an area to cut back, which brings me to my original post. My branch is awful. AW-FUL. I went the other day and did better at the book sale than I did in the borrowing section. It's so small and such a limited collection in my favorite section. I need to check out the branches closer to work and hope for better news.