Depends On What You Are Looking For
Jul 08 '00
I have been read to since an infant, and stumbled over my first own story books from about age 4, (yes, those Little Golden Books). I can still remember how absolutely thrilled and proud I was the year I was awarded my first library card...and the pouting and foot stomping tantrums I threw, when forced to limit the amount of books I could check-out at any one time!
So in honor of the Stockton Public Library, my second home-away-from-home, (after my doting grandparents), my first favorite place to buy books is a little strip mall storefront in North Stockton aptly named Friends Of The Library. The books here are gently used, and the prices are at least half off.
What's most important, is the underlying cause: Friends is run by volunteers, and all profits are plowed back into the local libraries. In times of knee jerk budgets and pork barrel economy, our local libraries were, at one point, cut down to an 8 hour schedule, just three days a week! I hate to think of all the hundreds of little kcfoxys out there, not able to experience the Pagemaster-like magic of the Public Library, the literacy programs and beloved reading hours!
Every few months they run a Booklover's Sale, the equivalent to many shopping center sidewalk sales, with card tables stacked with plenty of paperbacks, and a table or two of hardbound volumes. I'm not big on bodice rippers, (though a sucker for any with Indian themes), but I do look for science fiction, fantasies and mystery titles to round out my ABC, Cat and various British penned cozies.
My favorite bookseller for used and sometimes hard to find volumes, would have to be Barnes & Noble. Since I tend to collect everything by favorite authors, B&N has the inside edge, with the pulse of many national big and small local book dealers offering a wide range of volumes, in terms of edition, paperback or hardbound, signed editions (yes!), and little circulated esoterica. Leather bound octavos, sometimes very limited in release, can be had...for a price.
I've been collecting signed and limited, usually first, edition volumes by authors I enjoy such as Crumley, Burke, Ellison, Bradbury, Asimov, Kellerman, Vinge, Lansdale, Zelazny and more. I have only had one problem: a James Lee Burke novel, with an obviously faked signature. The only exceptions I take with B&N are these:
the edition you chose will not come with any identifying information on the invoice/receipt. Whether it's signed or not is never mentioned at this crucial end stage, though my success rate has been a respectable 95%, (1 fake out of 20 purchased).
The other exception is the search engine itself. Recently looking for a quick recipe cookbook by French chef, Jacques Pepin, there were a few titles available by Pepin, but disconcertingly, others by authors not even remotely similar in name, and with a smattering of erotica included.
While this may be a computer glitch, it may also be the gratuitous e-book
equivalent of the impulse buy grab-bin by supermarket check-out stands!
My third resource, is the very user friendly West Coast website, Amazon.com. Maybe it's my old hippie roots, but I went through growing pains with Amazon, and happen to enjoy their style. Not to mention the wonderful writing contests, (I won one! $100 I spent promptly on books!), and great variety. I am more liable to use their general search engine, than the expanded search mode. Why?
I get better results, and less oddball flotsam than putting in an author's name, or even a book title. If they offered exact title instead of exact start of title, I would be less inundated with a plethora of similar but not same titles or authors. I found a wonky link, when researching my recent read on The Golden Key. From the title's web page, one of the authors, (I recollect it was Elliot), had the misfortune to be linked to several totally unrelated authors.
Did I report it? No, but I know I should have, so I can't fairly comment on how quickly the company would rectify this mistake. Usually, though, I am taken swiftly to whatever is linked. What else don't I like here? Well honestly I haven't caught the E-Bay bug yet, so the various auctions leave me cold. Also, their used book search tends to be way pricey: I paid $45. (I know, I know!) for a copy of Roselea Murphy's classic Santa Fe cookbook, In The Pink and later found about 5 copies of it at B&N for less than $25.
I'm unsure how the degree of diversity will affect Amazon.com; the jury is still out. If I am searching for a new volume, regardless of edition, I am prone to web surfing between my two on-line favorites and will take the 30% off book over the 20% off book, every time. Plus haunting local flea markets, garage sales and the ever noble, Friends of The Library.
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Member: Casey Stewart
Location: West Coast Of Mars
Reviews written: 935
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About Me:
Save the Earth...it's the only planet with Chocolate!
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