I upvoted somebody else's recommendation of NYRB, which has many excellent books. On the other hand, buying them new will get you twenty or twenty-five for $300

I upvoted somebody else's recommendation of NYRB, which has many excellent books. On the other hand, buying them new will get you twenty or twenty-five for $300. And as somebody else says, what do you consider the classics--Plato in Greek with a good critical apparatus, or SICP? Oxford University Press's World Classics paperback series has very many good books at prices comparable to NYRB's. One caution though: when much younger, I thought that I had accomplished something when I bought a book, and I wrote the date of purchase on the flyleaf. Eventually, I learned that the purchase, even if it took half or more of an hour's wage, was the least of the investment. That might argue for your stocking up more gradually.