Hidden Gem

Dear Blog

Seeing as it is a new year, I thought I would share with you one of my greatest kept secrets of 2009: my secret garden of book stores, Value Village.

As a collector of books, there is no better used-book store (in my opinion) than this. Books range from $1.49-$3.99 with children's books only $0.99. On top of that, all books are buy four, get one free!

And they've got it all. Harlequin to mystery, fiction to war stories with turnover being high so there is always a new selection.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, 25 is my year of travel. That being said, I'm going on another beach vacation this spring break and that called for some good ol' fashioned chick lit for the plane and beach.

So on Tuesday I headed to the Value Village on Pembina and spent over an hour going through the shelves. They had SO many good books!

I quickly filled my arms with books that I wanted for my trip, but realized I had eight... so why not grab two more for free!

I'm glad I decided to give it another look because the two books I found were books that I had leant out and never got back (The Thornbirds and a Million Little Pieces). I was so excited to have them back again, and even more excited when I got to the till.

The cashier took one look at the 10 books in my arms and the seven people in line behind me and made the (much appreciated) decision to speed up the process by charging me the minimum for each book!!

I was so happy as I walked to my car, having paid under $15 for 10 books to add to my collection.

And this, dear blog, is the end of my tale of my secret-book-buying-weapon known as Value Village. But please use your new found power for good, not evil (aka buying all the good books before I get there).

Melanie