Go Indiebound.org: support your local bookstore!
Long time, no post! I’ll spare everyone the mundane details of my four-month hiatus, and hopefully this post will give way to more regular posts henceforth.
Anywho, as you might gather from the title, I wanted to share a little bit about an online book purchasing service I like to use. It’s called IndieBound, and is like Amazon.com, except they only trade in books. The way IndieBound works is, you find a book on the site, select a local bookstore in your area, and order online. As soon as the book arrives, which is normally only a few days after you place the order, you can pick it up at your bookstore.
Of course, like Amazon IndieBound offers a couple of useful features, allowing you to connect with other fellow readers, as well maintaining a wishlist of must-have books. I keep a running list of books that I would like to own, both for my own records, but also to share with family and friends as gift ideas. So, give it a try, and support your local bookstore!
A couple of tips if you decide to join the IndieBound community. The search feature is clunky, and feature-poor. What I normally do is, use a service like Worldcat, LibraryThing (more on this wonderful, social book collecting site at a later date), or (blech!) Amazon to find a book, then copy the ISBN into the IndieBound search box. This method never fails, and I’ve managed to find every book I’ve searched for.
For rare books, check out Abebooks.com. Just like IndieBound, you can keep a wishlist of wanted books. The difference here is that your wishlist is more like a ongoing search query. So, say you want a rare book by a 20th-century Venezuelan author. You enter the name of the author into your wishlist, and whenever a book of theirs becomes available, Abebooks sends you an email to that effect. That said, I have little trouble finding copies of rare Venezuelan books on their site, and new (though often used) copies often pop up.
Tags: bookstores books local business amazon.com indiebound.org worldcat.org librarything.com buying search isbn