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[commandercranky]

Got any recommendations on good places to buy books online? I'm looking for good selection and easy shipping. And since I indulge the tenuous notion that buying from small-time capitalists is somehow preferable to buying from big-time capitalists, I'm looking for good alternatives to Amazon.

Comments

[mat_defiler]

i've had really good luck with powell's.

[red_mouth_ghost]

Generally what I do is find the book I want to get by browsing Amazon or Powells and then try to see if I can buy it from the publisher directly. More and more you can do this with the independant press. With the big houses, you might as well just give your money to powells. I'm usually more concerned with getting getting more of the money to the artist than anything else though.

[shinybolt]

Abebooks.com is a an independent online bookseller, I think.

Foodforthoughtbooks.com is a collectively run bookstore in Amherst, MA, that also has a huge online selection. I still buy books from them online even though I haven't lived there (or dated one of the collective members) in 6+ years.

Bluestockings.com, a bookstore in LES here in New York. Independent, political/radical, and owned by friends of mine.

Powells?

Hope that helps.

[planetdracula]

alibris.com connects you to a huge number of sellers - some larger, some smaller, but lots of them quite small and interesting.

[bing_crosby]

addall.com or alibris.com will give you price comparisons, so you can go to whatever site is cheapest. I tend to go with Amazon and use their used sellers-- some of these are small bookshops and some are textbook reselling warehouses. I choose the former if the price is decent because they tend to be more accurate descriptions of condition and I don't like reading other people's underlines. Powell's or the Strand (strandbooks.com) tend to be pretty comparable for new or used not too rare books.