Bookish Things are all the Rage

Bookish things are cool. Not just books, which are cool too, but things that are like books but not. For instance I'm really into outofprintclothing.com. You've probably seen their shirts around. They take classic covers, like this awesome iconic Catcher in the Rye image  and put them on super comfy shirts and the occasional hoodie.

Sadly, I only have this shirt, but I've been dying to get the Pride & Prejudice hoodie and the stylish but girly Great Gatsby top. While their clothes are fantastic, and alert you to fellow bookish folk like Threadless unites college students my favorite thing about Out of Print is that for every shirt they sell they donate a book to a community in need. 

If you don't want to cover your body with books how about your walls? Spineless Classics could be for you. High quality posters, framed or unframed with the entire text of a book in a cool design. 

While I love the designs on most of their posters, my favorite is the single sheet version of War and Peace. In case you're wondering, to hang that beauty in your house you'll need around 15 feet of free wall space to hang that in your house. Admittedly I haven't gotten anything from Spineless Classics yet, but I already know what my first home-warming present will be to myself the next time I move.  

Lastly there is the lovely Etsy. Of course I don't have enough time (or money, or space in my house) to try all the shops dedicated to all things bookish, but I can attest to the awesomeness of Brookish - A Jane Austen inspired shop. I'm a huge fan of her mugs. 

I have two, actually. Aside from the adorable mugs she has fantastic shirts and decorative items. 

So those are some of my favorite places to browse through bookish things. What about you? Do you like to flaunt your love for books on your sleeve or with things other than beautiful bookshelves? What are some of your favorite sties/stores to browse through? 

PS: I'm working on another Behind Every Girl is an Amazing Nail Polish post and would love to know which characters you'd like to see featured!

Where Do Books Come From?

Okay, I 'm not going to launch into some existential rant about the inside an writers mind or some long winded description of the printing process. My title's kind of deceptive like that. What it should say is Where do YOUR books come from?

I was at the library recently after moving back to Michigan. I was short on cash and wanted some books. It's not that I'm not a fan of libraries, just that my local one seems to specialize in romance novels and books for the under twelves and neither is really my cup of tea. Needless to say my trip was kind of disappointing. I couldn't find any of the books I was looking for and this got me thinking: where else do I usually get books? I know, I wasn't exactly musing about the meaning of life, but still.

The Library: When I lived in Chicago I was always at the library. CPL was good to me, and always had an abundance of books. It was the first time I actively used the a library as a means of getting books. As I mentioned above I am not a fan of my hometown library. Also when I was younger I loved to dog-ear pages. The librarians frowned on this.

Garage Sales/Rummage Sales/Thrift Stores: I've always found sales like this to be a fantastic place to find cheap books. You can't really count on there being any specific titles, or that there won't be coffee stains over the one book you're interesting in but for 50 cents it's worth it.

Bookstores - Indie, Used, Chain - Varying prices, varying stocks and varying conditions but you'll always be around bookish people, which is a plus in my book. Since high school  I've always thought of Barnes & Noble as one of my favorite hang outs. I'm also a huge fan of walking through bookshelves and browsing. I've found some of my favorite books that way.

The Internet - While I'm an impulsive buying at bookstores and cheap sales I am very focused with my online shopping. I'm personally a big fan of half.com (part of ebay) for the dirt cheap books. I actually order books online rarely. I'm into browsing amazon for possible good books, though, and then promptly heading over to goodreads to get legit reviews. Oh, and I guess ARC's count as internet books, too, don't they?

That's my list! What about you? Where do you get most of your books from?