Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ With that steady attrition of brick and mortar chain bookstores and the mass extinction of independent bookstores selling at list price, on line bargain book sellers have moved way in front. In small towns and cities, where the few remaining independents hang on by a tenuous thread, you can hear their wheezing death rattle. The fact is the overwhelming majority of book buyers are wisely making their money saving book purchases on line from Amazon.com, Books-a-Million, or Barns & Noble or they really save money at cut rate resellers like Half.com books or Alibris. Further a large number of readers are saving money reading books on e-readers, tablets, iPads, and other internet enabled devices. Many libraries, like the Rowan Public Library, are loaning downloadable books to library patrons enabled e-reading devices.
Since the advent of internet retail I never fork over list price for anything. For me book buying means the best deals possible on the world-wide web or infrequently in chain retail venues having sales and half-price remainder book tables.
The book selling world has turned upside down and inside out over the last 5 years.. One of the foremost book retailers, Borders, closed its doors several years ago. Mega-giant book retailers Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million are on somewhat shaky ground, with Books-a-Million visiting bankruptcy court in 2011. Amazon.com, the world’s largest book retailer of any kind, be it paperback, hardcover, or e-book, is successfully selling cut rate and shipping cheap, fast, and free if you buy several books at once. Their warehouses are popping up all over and next day delivery is becoming a reality in many areas.
However, you can purchase new books and older ones even cheaper than the outstanding deals on line at Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Barns & Noble.
The Digital Book Age and the E-book
The digital age is here and now. E-books are steadily growing in sales because their prices are generally half that of paperback and hardbacks. What folks are discovering is that e-books can be read on extremely convenient and lightweight e-book readers from Nook, Kindle, Sony and a host of others. E-books can also read them on iPads, android tablets, PCs, laptops, Macs, and even iPods and android phones.
E-books are downloaded in a minute or less depending on the speed of your internet connection. Fonts are changeable in size and shape, making them more appropriate for the more visually impaired among us. Folks once dead set against e-books because they preferred the habit and feel of a book in their hands, are changing their minds and habituating themselves to e-book readers and tablets. They create new reading habits after several reading sessions with these new lightweight devices. Some folks, after going over to the digital reader age, now say that hardbacks and large trade paperbacks feel clunky and pages are difficult to turn. Limited current research points out that e-readers and tablets are less straining on our eyes due to their high-resolution screens, lighting arrangements, and the ability to customize fonts. E-reading is gradually advancing toward the top of the heap. In 2012, Amazon.com announced it was selling more e-books than paper or hardbacks. The trend continues. At the present moment the top retailers of e-books are Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Google Books, and Books-a-Million.
Looking for New Books and Other Media at Rock Bottom Prices?
At this moment the leader in great deals on books, DVDs, videos, and CDs is an eBay company called Half.com. Simply put in your book’s title or author into the half.com search and see what shows up. Even if the book has only been on the market for a week or so, you have an excellent chance of finding it listed at an extremely low price on Half.com. I’ve gotten as much as 70% off, or more, on recent releases and best sellers. Unlike its mothership eBay, there is no bidding at Half.com. Visit half.com here:
If you are looking for books in outstanding condition you might also check out the prices at Alibris and other resellers who deal with books in excellent shape. Other resellers can be found at eBay and listed on Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million.
Bargain Basement Deals on Publisher’s Overstocks
Many great recent books can be found at online overstock booksellers. Perhaps these books were under-publicized, poorly marketed, or the publisher printed too many. Their loss is your treasure. These are the same kind of books you see available on bargain book tables at Barnes & Noble or a Books-a-Million. Some great finds are on those tables especially if you like coffee table history books and art collections replete with pictures. A number of outstanding bargain books can be found at publisher’s overstock sellers like bargainbookship.com or bookcloseouts.com .
Never Pay a Blessed Cent for Any Classic Book! Mark Twain and Charles Dickens do not need your money.
Every great classic, whether it’s by Mark Twain, Charles, Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, or the like can be read free as e-books from Nook, Kindle, Kobo or Google Books. Visit the major booksellers such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble and search for “free e-books”. Many classic PDFs can be downloaded free and legally (They’re in the public domain). You can also access classics and scholarly books from University Book Collections such as Project Gutenburg or Archive.org. Google Books provides quantities of tomes as free e-books. The University of Pennsylvania’s Online Book Page features over one million e-book links.
You Can Discover If You Truly Want to Own A Book by Visiting Online Bookstores, Libraries or Streaming Book Repositories
Amazon, Google Books, and Barnes & Noble show excellent book samples and table of contents available for online browsing. It’s like visiting a large bookstore without the coffee and conversation. Libraries are outstanding ways to check out books to see if you want to purchase them. Used book stores too. Docin.com will allow you to browse through entire books as PDFs. You can only get to Docin.com through Yahoo and Google search.
Many audio books are available at cut rate prices from Amazon and Half.com. Classic audio books can be found on YouTube, where you can listen to them in their entirety. Visit YouTube, and search for audio books. Put in Charles Dickens, Mark Twain etc. Your computer can read you tosleep this very evening
Excellent E-Books and Audio Books at the NC Digital Library
An outstanding way to access e-books and audio books is through the North Carolina Digital Library. You can get your
access code via the Rowan Public Library.
http://www.rowancountync.gov/GOVERNMENT/Departments/PublicLibrary/tabid/145/Default.aspx
