Marymoose shops for books! (Where do you buy your books?)

Member Name: marymoose

Product:	Where do you buy your books?
Date:	13/05/09 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Books - I love them!

Disadvantages: Not enough space to keep all of them forever :o(

While waiting for dooyoo to add my latest product proposals and with a bit of time on my hands I thought I'd write a review in a category I came across whilst reading reviews the other week.

So, where do I buy my books? Well the first and most obvious answer is Amazon!


---Amazon---

I always have an Amazon Wishlist with somewhere in the region of 90-110 items on it at any one given time. This is made up of a mixture of books, DVDs, CDs and games. I LOVE Amazon, I can spend ages just browsing, and going through my recommendations and seeing what I might like to add to my wishlist.

The majority of books on my Amazon wishlist relate to either moose (my fun hobby) or self-harm (my charity work, and serious interest) - but not the two together (lol!). I currently have 10 self-harm books and 10 moose books on my Amazon wishlist. I have pretty much every other self-harm book which exists on my bookshelf, but this final few are all in the region of £20, so I can't afford them all at once, and by the time I have them all there will be more in existence! As for moose books, well there's an unlimited number of them really, I have about 60 so far.

There's several other books on my wishlist which I really want, such as Augusten Burrough's latest. But these days I tend not to buy many 'reading' books from Amazon (see further on in my review).

Today actually I went on Amazon to buy a birthday present for a friend who loves giraffes - I bought her "Giraffes Can't Dance" (having read a review on it the other week!) and an activity book to go with it - my friend is not a child, but she'll love them! Amazon is great for finding book presents for people - just type in some key words and you're bound to come up with something that will suit! Also has the advantage that you can get them sent straight to the recipient, although I'm not in this case as I want to wrap them myself (rather than paying for Amazon gift wrap) and put the card with them!

A lot of the books I buy are out of print, particularly where self-harm and moose are concerned. Therefore I buy a lot of my books from Amazon Marketplace.


---Amazon Marketplace---

Amazon Marketplace is great for buying obscure or out-of-print books. It's also fantastic for getting some amazing bargains - I recently bought a brand new moose book with over 700 pages for just £6.44 including postage - absolute bargain. The rrp for the book is £50!

Sometimes it isn't worth getting books on the Marketplace as postage does cost £2.75 for a book. But as I said, you might find some bargains. I'm not sure or not if you can use Amazon vouchers on Marketplace purchases - I've never tried. If anyone has a definitive answer then please let me know!


As I said I don't buy many 'reading books' from Amazon these days, there are two main reasons for this.


---The Charity Book List---

At work there is a charity booklist which circulates. It now has hundreds of books on it, and there is something for everyone.

Basically, you choose the books from the list that you want and they cost just 25p each. Then usually the next day the books turn up at work. I often get the list, and type the titles of interest to me into Amazon to get a brief idea about the book and whether it might be worth getting.

Many of the books are pretty much brand new, and there's often recent releases, and bestsellers. The lady who brings the list round (she isn't actually the lady who keeps all of the books) often gives us first dibs on new books which come in, and she gets an idea of what we like. This does mean though that I often end up buying books I don't really want (such as the trashy autobiographies which I often review) - but hey, it's only 25p!

Recent purchases of mine have been Richard Hammond's autobiography, Minette Walter's latest "The Chameleon's Shadow" and the book I'm currently reading is Tony Parson's "One for my baby". I currently have about 10 books waiting in my desk at work, including a Derren Brown book which looks interesting but not really one for just sitting down and reading!

Sometimes I keep the books when I've read them, if I particularly enjoyed them. But more often than not I give them back to the booklist and someone else can buy it.

So far they've made over £6000 for the local breast cancer unit! I think this is something that other people could probably set up, although they would need a big storage place for the books!


---Bookmooch---

I joined Bookmooch (www.bookmooch.com) back in January 2008. Basically it's a site where you give away books you don't want, get points, and with the points you mooch books which you really do want (I have a wishlist of books I want). I've given away 45 books (many to abroad as this gets you more points), and received 69. I am running low on points now, so must add some more to my inventory so people can mooch from me (need to go through the book shelves). Certain books are in high demand, such as autobiographies, but others people don't seem to want.

My biggest problem is the queue in the post office. Since it moved to WHSmith last year it's further away and just not so convenient. So it is a bit of a hassle sometimes posting out books. And of course postage can be expensive. However, when I consider the money I've saved from not buying books I otherwise would have bought from Amazon!

I have got some great books off BookMooch - having enjoyed a Nick Hornby book which I got from the charity list at work I then got all of his other books from BookMooch! I have often mooched books which have been on my recommendations list on Amazon. Even better still is that I've managed to get some really obscure moose related books which I never even knew existed.

Bookmooch is a fantastic site, and while I know it isn't for everyone (I think that readitswapit is more suited to some people) I love it.



---Other---

There are occasions I will buy books from elsewhere, for instance if I get given a book voucher or WHSmiths voucher. I generally find bookshops like Waterstones and even WHSmiths as being very expensive. However, often if going on holiday (not that this is something which happens often) I will treat myself to a book at the airport.

I'm afraid I don't make great use of the library - I did when I was unemployed, and I'm sure I will again when I have children. But for me at the moment it's easier just to buy a 25p book which I don't have to worry about taking back!

I have been known to read books online - classics such as 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', 'Frankenstein', and 'Animal Farm'. More recently I read the story which "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was loosely based upon - well worth a read (and I think better than the film!) - http://www.readbookonline.net/read/690/10628/


---Finally---

This review has ended up being both about where I buy books from, but where I get them from without paying. Hope you might have picked up some tips or something!


Happy Reading!

Summary: Marymoose buys some, but gets some for almost nothing!