My latest book haul

All for under $100 thanks to my favorite bookish website

If you are an avid reader, you are likely familiar with the problem of never having enough shelf space. Once you clear space, the books magically multiply and quickly fill that open space and spill into small stacks on your floor.

Today, I'm sharing with you my favorite bookish website that helps alleviate (and sometimes add to if I'm being honest 😂) this problem: PangoBooks. Have you heard of them?

They are an online marketplace where you can buy used books and sell your own. I started buying and selling books through them almost three years ago and love it. In those three years, I've purchased a whopping 132 books (I'd like to note that Dean often asks me to buy him books using my account, too!) and made almost $2,500 selling my own books.

They recently asked if they could give me $100 for a book haul. I, of course, said yes! I wholeheartedly love them and want to spread the love to my fellow book lovers. Keep scrolling for some of my tips I’ve learned over the years on getting the most out of PangoBooks and to see what I got in my book haul.

1. Sell some books to make room for the new ones. Book lover logic, right? I clean off my shelves every few months and add listings to my shop. It takes a few steps to get your storefront set up and your books out into the world for fellow book lovers to shop. You'll start to see your earnings (lovingly called PangoBucks) pile up, and you can either transfer them to your bank account or keep them to purchase more books. I like to keep some of my earnings in my account to put towards new books because you get 5% back when you use your PangoBucks on those books you've been eyeing.

2. Find exactly what you're looking for. If I'm on the hunt for a specific book I'll set up a saved search for it. I find this helpful if I'm looking for a coveted new release or a copy of a book I haven't been able to find at my local bookshops. I've currently got a search set up for Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino which has been hard to track down! But I know I'll get my hands on a copy soon thanks to this feature.

3. Save a few more bucks. Users of Poshmark will be familiar with this feature. If you add the book you are interested to your cart, sometimes the seller will send you a discount offer. This, to me, is a two-sided win. I usually add a book to my cart and wait a few days (less impulse purchasing!) and sometimes get the added benefit of a discount offer from a seller to save a few more dollars.

4. Shop "local". When we moved to Maine, I was surprised by how slow the mail can be (I was so spoiled from city living!). Because things take longer to arrive, I love filtering my search results by my state and states near me. Shopping the surrounding states means my books arrive quicker and they have to travel less distance, so fewer shipping emissions.

With my $100, I got this stack of 9 books! What a deal. The books are in near perfect condition and only cost a few dollars each. I got a mix of books I already read that I wanted to acquire finished copies of and books I’m eager to read.

I'm lucky to receive advanced copies of books from publishers. When I really love a book, I want to acquire a finished copy for my shelves. I have a shelf on PangoBooks where I keep track of what books those are so I can pick up a copy secondhand.

So, I treated myself to a few of those titles in this haul. These are all top-five, favorite, can't-stop-talking-about-them books from the last few years! The Wedding People by Alison Espach, The Husbands by Holly Gramazio, Search by Michelle Huneven, Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff.

I also added a few new titles to my shelves:

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma because I'm slowly adding short story collections to my shelves to help me achieve my goal of reading one collection a month.

The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff because it sounds like a completely delightful, sunny escape for these grey winter days.

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony because her 2024 novel, The Most, was one of my favorites and I'm keen to read more of her writing.

Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski because a few trusted readers sang this book's praises to me recently and I cannot resist a novel set in New England.

I’d love to know what you think! Do you use PangoBooks? Will you check it out? Or, if you have questions about buying or selling on the platform I’m happy to answer those!

Until next time,