Meet Your Neighbour: Read It Again New & Used Books

Read It Again New & Used Books in Collingwood Downtown is a treasure trove of literature to discover offering every possible genre of book available.   The books have all been hand selected based on popularity, are neatly catalogued by genre and then alphabetized by author, with 75% being gently used, 25% brand new and thousands of titles to choose from.

Owner, Shirley Marsden opened her first location for Read It Again in 1989 in a retail shop located on Second Street.  The space she had leased originally had 5 rooms, one she used for her Barber Shop, another for her Taxi Stand and that left 3 empty rooms to fill with something.  She had many people ask to sub-lease the remaining rooms for various small businesses but she didn’t want to get into the business of being a landlord or sharing the space.  “The light bulb went off in my head about how to use the space when I was cutting a gentleman’s hair and he saw a book I had purchased at a garage sale for twenty-five cents sitting on a shelf,” recalls Shirley.  “He said ‘Oh my goodness, do you know how long I’ve been looking for that book? I’ll give you twenty dollars for it’ and that’s when the vision for a used book store started to crystallize in my mind.  I knew what I was going to do with those three rooms and that’s really how I got into the business of books.”

Fun fact:  When Shirley actually does have time to read which isn’t very often, her favourite books are autobiographies, true crime and non fiction novels.

Buying a used book from Read It Again comes with a pretty nifty incentive.  If you buy a used general fiction or murder mystery book at full price, read it and bring it back, you’ll receive a credit of 50% towards your next purchase.  Therefore if you paid $10 for the used book, when you return it in good condition, you’ll receive a $5 credit.

Maybe you’re moving, maybe you’re purging. So what do you do if you have some used books that you’d like to re-home and donate?  First of all you, need to know that they don’t accept magazines, encyclopedias, Reader’s Digest, medical or cookbooks (unless the cookbooks are very recent). “Just bring in your used books anytime, and we’d be happy to take a look at them.  If they’re very recent, you may receive an in-store credit, but that will be discussed when you bring them in for us to have a look at,” offers Shirley.

Listen up parents of high school children!  If your teens are in need of volunteer hours, you should give Shirley a call.

The next time you’re looking for a new book, or hunting for a novel from your favourite author or gift shopping, remember that the value of a book is not lost because it’s already been read by someone else.  You’ll still get the same enjoyment from it.  Read It Again Books can also special order in books and it usually takes about a week.

Find Read It Again New & Used Books at 33 Hurontario Street in Collingwood Downtown, they’re open from Monday to Saturday from 10AM-5:30PM and on Sundays from 11AM to 4PM. You can also find them on the web at readitagain.ca/. Follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ReadItAgainNewAndUsedBooks/