Where do you get your books ?
- DATo
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Where do you get your books ?
I get most of my books used from used book stores, book fairs or the library sale table. I will occasionally pay full price when I want to read a book badly enough and don't want to wait. The last time I did this was after a discussion on an internet board where the posters were raving about 'A Confederacy Of Dunces'. I had gotten to know the posters there quite well and trusted their judgement so I went right out to Boarders and bought it ... no regrets, it was worth every penny of the full price.
But this is how I mainly built what I consider a really great library : I am from St. Louis, and every April there is a HUGE book fair held at one of the shopping centers (The Greater St. Louis Book Fair - you can Google it). There are literally a couple of acres of books organized by topic. The books are collected through donations all year by the non-profit organization and the proceeds go to local charities. It lasts for only one weekend - Friday night through Sunday, and sometimes into Monday. The most expensive hard bounds top out at $5 and paperbacks are $1.50. As the fair continues the tables are restocked as the books are bought with more books so you never know when a prized title will appear so I go all three days. Also, as the fair goes on the prices are reduced to the point that hard bounds can go down to fifty cents and paperbacks to a dime. I have been known to spend a couple of hundred bucks and leave with three shopping carts full of books.
I also check out the sale table at the local libraries. For instance, yesterday, at the library, I bought a like-new hard bound copy of 5 John le Carr'e novels for a half a buck.
Just wondering if, as a rule, you buy books new, used, through the net, or just check out from a library and return ... also, how many people purchase online electronic medium (not in public domain but downloadable on a time-out basis for a price).
.
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- pa3de8
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Scott B.
- DATo
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― Steven Wright
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No problem. I never thought of it either until I stopped there one day and saw the whole back wall lined with them. I think it's .75 cents for soft covers and 1.50 for hard covers.DATo wrote:Thanks so much for the "Goodwill" suggestion pa3de8! We too have Goodwill stores in my community but I never considered looking for books there before. Great idea !!! Thanks again !!!
Scott B.
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Kindle books from Amazon
- Gannon
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Omg, those book fairs sound like heaven to me. I could spend a whole day there and I would need a couple of wheelbarrows for all the books I would buy. Great to see that the proceeds go to charities as well.
As for where I get my books, I get about 90% of my books off the internet. There are no really good book shops where I live.
- RuqeeD
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Oh I really wish we had something like that here! There's not really anything even closeDATo wrote:I am from St. Louis, and every April there is a HUGE book fair held at one of the shopping centers (The Greater St. Louis Book Fair - you can Google it). There are literally a couple of acres of books organized by topic. The books are collected through donations all year by the non-profit organization and the proceeds go to local charities. It lasts for only one weekend - Friday night through Sunday, and sometimes into Monday. The most expensive hard bounds top out at $5 and paperbacks are $1.50. As the fair continues the tables are restocked as the books are bought with more books so you never know when a prized title will appear so I go all three days. Also, as the fair goes on the prices are reduced to the point that hard bounds can go down to fifty cents and paperbacks to a dime. I have been known to spend a couple of hundred bucks and leave with three shopping carts full of books.
.
I normally buy my books from Amazon either through the main or through it's marketplace. There are really great prices on the Amazon Marketplace, books priced as little as 1p (and a reasonable £2.80 shipping delivery from all over the world). Sometimes if I can't wait for a book and its a new release I'll buy from the supermarket. For my classics, there are two really great bookshops here that have such a great range in different editions for absolutely brilliant prices, I have an ongoing love affair with those shops .
- Tralala
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Salvation Army's usually the best for books, selection and price.
Savers is okay, not great. And you've gotta deal with a lot of "oh, isn't this quaint!" people.
The book store attached to my local library is the BEST! I don't know if they don't know what they've got, or if they just don't care...I always leave with at least ten books, and never spend over ten dollars.
- DATo
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A little story about my last visit to the book fair mentioned in my OP:Gannon wrote:@Dato
Omg, those book fairs sound like heaven to me. I could spend a whole day there and I would need a couple of wheelbarrows for all the books I would buy.
I had attended the fair on each of the weekend days and I also went by after work on Monday (I get off at 3 PM) and was surprised to find the fair was still ongoing. There were only a few people there as this was a workday and the last day of the fair. I thought I would just linger around till the rush hour traffic died down a bit. They don't want to repack the books because of all the work involved and whatever is left over is, sadly, thrown into huge dumpsters rather than restocked.
After I had been there awhile someone came over the loudspeaker and said, "All hard bound editions are now reduced to one dollar and paperbacks to 25 cents." Well, I started stacking books which interested me - hard bound as well as paperback - into my shopping cart. After about another half hour went by someone came over the loudspeaker again and said, "All hard bound books now 25 cents and paperbacks a dime." So I started shoving even more books into my cart including a complete, and mint, 11 volume hard bound set of Will and Ariel Durant's 'Story Of Civilization'. When my cart was overflowing I took it up to the check out and started taking the books out. You give your books to one person who reads the price to another person who tabs the cost. The "tab" woman said to me with a mock scornful look on her face ... "DON'T TAKE THOSE BOOKS OUT !!!" ... I just sort of stood there with a confused look on my face and then she smiled and said .. "How about 5 dollars for the whole cart?" I don't think I ever got my wallet out so fast before in my life.
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That's what I'd call a bookgasm!!DATo wrote:A little story about my last visit to the book fair mentioned in my OP:Gannon wrote:@Dato
Omg, those book fairs sound like heaven to me. I could spend a whole day there and I would need a couple of wheelbarrows for all the books I would buy.
I had attended the fair on each of the weekend days and I also went by after work on Monday (I get off at 3 PM) and was surprised to find the fair was still ongoing. There were only a few people there as this was a workday and the last day of the fair. I thought I would just linger around till the rush hour traffic died down a bit. They don't want to repack the books because of all the work involved and whatever is left over is, sadly, thrown into huge dumpsters rather than restocked.
After I had been there awhile someone came over the loudspeaker and said, "All hard bound editions are now reduced to one dollar and paperbacks to 25 cents." Well, I started stacking books which interested me - hard bound as well as paperback - into my shopping cart. After about another half hour went by someone came over the loudspeaker again and said, "All hard bound books now 25 cents and paperbacks a dime." So I started shoving even more books into my cart including a complete, and mint, 11 volume hard bound set of Will and Ariel Durant's 'Story Of Civilization'. When my cart was overflowing I took it up to the check out and started taking the books out. You give your books to one person who reads the price to another person who tabs the cost. The "tab" woman said to me with a mock scornful look on her face ... "DON'T TAKE THOSE BOOKS OUT !!!" ... I just sort of stood there with a confused look on my face and then she smiled and said .. "How about 5 dollars for the whole cart?" I don't think I ever got my wallet out so fast before in my life.
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- RuqeeD
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Ok I'm moving. Where did you say this happens again?DATo wrote: A little story about my last visit to the book fair mentioned in my OP:
I had attended the fair on each of the weekend days and I also went by after work on Monday (I get off at 3 PM) and was surprised to find the fair was still ongoing. There were only a few people there as this was a workday and the last day of the fair. I thought I would just linger around till the rush hour traffic died down a bit. They don't want to repack the books because of all the work involved and whatever is left over is, sadly, thrown into huge dumpsters rather than restocked.
After I had been there awhile someone came over the loudspeaker and said, "All hard bound editions are now reduced to one dollar and paperbacks to 25 cents." Well, I started stacking books which interested me - hard bound as well as paperback - into my shopping cart. After about another half hour went by someone came over the loudspeaker again and said, "All hard bound books now 25 cents and paperbacks a dime." So I started shoving even more books into my cart including a complete, and mint, 11 volume hard bound set of Will and Ariel Durant's 'Story Of Civilization'. When my cart was overflowing I took it up to the check out and started taking the books out. You give your books to one person who reads the price to another person who tabs the cost. The "tab" woman said to me with a mock scornful look on her face ... "DON'T TAKE THOSE BOOKS OUT !!!" ... I just sort of stood there with a confused look on my face and then she smiled and said .. "How about 5 dollars for the whole cart?" I don't think I ever got my wallet out so fast before in my life.
- Gannon
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That sounds fantastic, the only part that is disappointing is that they dump what is not sold. I would love to fly over for the next fair but I don't think I could get all the books I purchased onto the plane back.DATo wrote:A little story about my last visit to the book fair mentioned in my OP:Gannon wrote:@Dato
Omg, those book fairs sound like heaven to me. I could spend a whole day there and I would need a couple of wheelbarrows for all the books I would buy.
I had attended the fair on each of the weekend days and I also went by after work on Monday (I get off at 3 PM) and was surprised to find the fair was still ongoing. There were only a few people there as this was a workday and the last day of the fair. I thought I would just linger around till the rush hour traffic died down a bit. They don't want to repack the books because of all the work involved and whatever is left over is, sadly, thrown into huge dumpsters rather than restocked.
After I had been there awhile someone came over the loudspeaker and said, "All hard bound editions are now reduced to one dollar and paperbacks to 25 cents." Well, I started stacking books which interested me - hard bound as well as paperback - into my shopping cart. After about another half hour went by someone came over the loudspeaker again and said, "All hard bound books now 25 cents and paperbacks a dime." So I started shoving even more books into my cart including a complete, and mint, 11 volume hard bound set of Will and Ariel Durant's 'Story Of Civilization'. When my cart was overflowing I took it up to the check out and started taking the books out. You give your books to one person who reads the price to another person who tabs the cost. The "tab" woman said to me with a mock scornful look on her face ... "DON'T TAKE THOSE BOOKS OUT !!!" ... I just sort of stood there with a confused look on my face and then she smiled and said .. "How about 5 dollars for the whole cart?" I don't think I ever got my wallet out so fast before in my life.
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