See if your local library occasionally runs a booksale. I get most of my books that way. Their prices are competitive with thrift stores, usually about $1 paperback and $2 hardcover. But because it's run by friends of the library, tends to be higher quality and better organized. At those prices, I can afford to be disappointed, and sometimes get pleasantly surprised.

"Dying cost nothing and could be done at home. Otherwise old man [I forget this character's name] might have lived forever."

From The Rosewood Casket by Sharon McCrumb.