In my travels around the universe of blogs, there is one thing that is on all our minds, the economy.For writers and readers, the big question is buying books. All the authors I know are ferocious readers and many of my none writing friends are big readers too. With gas pushing in the direction of $5.00 a gallon, with no sign of slowing down, those of us who love to buy new books have been left with the question, “What is going to be sacrificed to fulfill our addiction?”The price of books will be going up. It is in the cards. Gas goes up and anything moved by a truck will go up with it. We’re already seeing it the price of groceries. It’s a matter of time before it hits the local book stores, if it hasn’t already.I’m retired, with a comfortable income. Still, it is all I will get for the rest of my life, until I sell a book. So I have to think about what I don’t need in order to fulfill my addiction for books.I’ve taken a good look at what I spend money on, and how I spend it. I’m not really an emotional buyer. I usually think carefully before I make a purchase. Do I need it or not? That’s the standard question, most of the time.Unfortunately, when it comes to books, I’m a straight-up, no-doubt-about-it emotional buyer. I’ll buy another book, even if the stack of books at my bedside is causing my small end table to lean precariously to the side, threatening to collapse under the weight of my TBR pile. The problem with the pile, it will take years for me to get through it at the rate I keep adding to it. Soon, I’ll have to make a path just to get to my bedside, and/or into my office. My husband has proclaimed that if there was ever a fire in our home, my office and our bedroom would go up like kindling.We’ll I’ve found a solution, used bookstores. I love them. I bring a punch of books I have managed to read, turn them in for credit, and get a punch more. These books are a bit used, with bent spines, but hey, my pile hasn’t been reduced a bit, much to hubby’s great disappointment.  Going to a used bookstore is fun. I find all my favorite authors, not always their latest releases, but often ones I haven’t read, or hope aren’t buried under the TBR pile. I find it doesnt’ take long and the new releases show up in the form of used. Because the books are used, I let go of them much more easily. No emotional attachment in form of a piece of my income, that amounts to a ¼ of a tank of gas, or lease. So they go back to ye ole used bookstore, for more used books.Question of the Day: What are you doing to keep up the book addiction in these times of economic stress?