Do you prefer to buy used books online or at a store?
We have some good used bookstores in Chattanooga, and I took all of the children to the large one nearest to us, which was still a good drive away. (I don’t know why my favorite used bookstore isn’t on that list, but we didn’t go to it because it was much farther away and may have been closed.)
I wanted to trade a DVD and some books and perhaps find an etymological dictionary (see Mr. Smith’s post linked earlier this week). I walked away with the QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins for $4. There were a couple other books which looked good, but I didn’t now how much I would get in trade and the girls wanted to take books too. I got about $15 in trade and walked out with almost $6 left over.
Even though browsing the book-lined aisles can be fun, I usually don’t like it. I can’t remember what I wanted to look for, or worse I can’t find it. Last night, I tried to hunt down something by Frederick Buechner. Where should I look for his non-fiction, memoir-like stuff? I didn’t see a memoir section. Maybe non-fiction essays? Will I find something by that other guy I’ve tried to find before, what was his name–Joseph Epstein?
I’m usually disappointed at this place because I can’t find what I want and after a while everything looks cheap. What about you?
Amazon Marketplace is teh awesome.
What I like about used bookstores is the serendipity aspect: finding a book that I didn’t know was out there, or that I had forgotten about. I like the grandmother’s attic aspect of a used bookstore, never knowing what one will find. The same goes for thrift stores and yard sales. But if I know what I am looking for-zoom- it is to Amazon. I have some friends who swear by addall.com, which searches the major used book sites on line.
I’m unfamiliar with addall.com. Thanks. I usually use alibris.com and abebooks.com.
There is nothing like browsing through a good used bookstore. If actually handling the books is not a sweet pleasure to you, well, I don’t think you’re the kind of person I want to know. And, as Phil S. said, the possibility of finding treasures you weren’t looking for, or perhaps didn’t know existed, makes it an adventure unparalleled online.
Unfortunately, I no longer live anywhere near a used bookstore, so I mostly use Amazon and abebooks.com. The advantage in that, of course, is that I’m basically the globe, so I almost always find what I’m looking for, usually without much trouble.
I’m a fairly regular customer of Half Price Books in Crystal, MN. I like the serendipity, and not having to wait or pay for postage.
Many of my used books came from library book sales, either books withdrawn from circulation or donated books they are selling to raise money to buy new books.
When I was in seminary, one of the professors had a knack for acquiring the libraries of deceased or retired pastors. He would set up a book table outside the lunchroom two or three times a year. The good books and commentary sets were always prepriced while the bulk of the miscellany started the week at a buck or two and dropped a bit every day till what was left on Friday went for a quarter a book.
I also have friends on the lookout for me. A university research station near my house was remodeling last year when they discovered a 1909 Encyclopedia Britannica set in a bookcase that had been turned against the wall some years back. A friend who worked there knew I would like it and rescued it from the dumpster for me. It was a big find, 32 volumes of Quarto that takes up 8 feet of shelf space.
In my seminary days, I frequented ABC Books in Springfield, MO. There were several other used book stores in the city, but that was my favorite. Only other one I can remember by name was CPO. If we were in Springfield, I could take you to some others.
Now in small town Iowa, we don’t have a used book store close by. However, my wife did discover paperbackswap.com. We’re moving more books out than what we are getting in right now, but that’s fine.
Mine used to be Baker’s used book store in Grand Rapids (MI). But, I haven’t been there in a few years.
I LOVE being surprised by what I find in thrift stores. My favorite things to find? Black leather prayer books, hymn books, and small Bibles.
But, when I NEED a certain used book without even giving it a thought, I go to Amazon.
It struck me as ironic, after we moved to North Dakota: here we are in a place with months of good reading weather (stay inside, curl up etc.) and there seem to be few used book stores; while I grew up (1970s) in southern Oregon, with a Mediterranean climate, where you rarely need to wear anything heavier than a sweater and a windbreaker and snow is unusual — and there were used book stores all over the place.
Much of my book accumulation came from estate sales. Back when I was into reading classics, almost every sale included a box of their kid’s college texts. Usually there was only one book that interested me, but I’d end up with the whole box for a buck. Since I never exercised any selectivity by purging the fluff from such purchases I call the array of some 5000 tomes lining the walls of my home a book accumulation rather than a collection.
I have often thought about going to estate sales, but I never have. I love the library sales though. The last time I went to our closest branch, which is a great facility, I picked up three old hardbacks of William Faulkner. I have yet to read The Sound and The Fury, but now I have it on my shelf. I may need to find or buy some Cliff Notes to get through it. I understand it’s pretty difficult.
Amazon first, then alibris.com if I strike out.
I just watched 84 Charing Cross Road with great enjoyment. It made me want to go to estate sales — only it would have to be in England, and 50 years ago. Today all you see at estate sales is Maeve Binchy.
And I don’t think you’ll find “The Sound and the Fury” all that difficult. It’s like a big chocolate cake. I haven’t read it in years, but I have a copy sitting right here waiting to be gotten to, because I so enjoyed re-reading “Absalom, Absalom” lately, and I couldn’t find my old copy of this companion work. Irritable college students have put forth the myth that these books are too hard to read.
That’s encourage, Texan99, and it isn’t as large a novel I anticipated. I was expected something like East of Eden, which is big.