I know, I know, there is nothing better than walking in a shop, opening the new books, smelling them, chosing which one to take home... but for the less fortunete of us, there aren't many bookstores with English books in them.
I shall introduce you to the buying process from my point of view (and before anyone asks or makes a smart-ass remark - no, no one paid me to say anything about the bookstores I'm going to mention).
Long time ago I started reading books in English. That actually ment buying English-speaking authors in bookstore around the corner. But the more books I devoured the bigger hunger was gripping me. I even got over my fear of used books because that meant I could start buying more for less money.
So what do I do when I find about a book I'd like to read? There are four steps :-)
1) I first visit the Bargain Bin at www.awesomebooks.com, because an average used book costs around 4 Dollars. That's really awesome. Plus there are special offers (10% off, 4 for the price of 3 etc.) all the time so they are giving it to you almost for free ;-) I've bought a gazillion books in there and twice the package didn't arrive and once they sent me a different book. In all cases they were very helpful and gave me a refund in no time.
Shipping costs: 0 if I buy 2 or more books
Shipped: within a day
Arrives: usually within a frickin' week
Condition of the used books: always very good (yellow pages, a bent corner here and there, but I've never gotten any gross one)
2) If I do not find the book I want in the awesomebooks world, I go to www.worldofbooks.com. The average used book is around 3 Pounds. They always send the books separately so you pay the shipping price for each book. That sucks, I know. But, for example, this summer they were giving you a free tea sample so I got addicted to the mint one. And I'm not complaining :-)=
Shipping costs: 2 Pounds per book
Shipped: within 3 days
Arrives: after 2 weeks
Condition of the used books: always pretty
3) The third bookstore I visit, if I don't find my book in those above, is www.betterworldbooks.com. I remember discovering it, finding a rare book in there, ordering it and THEN reading all the reviews which weren't in the favor of the store. But after a dreadful month and a couple of days the package arrived and the books were the ones I orderd, their condition was ok... I guess I was lucky. AND I helped to raise literacy somewhere in Africa. Well, who wouldn't feel the warmth inside after this? So, every now and then I order something from them, always afraid it's never going to arrive or that if it arrives it's gonna be some really bad copy but so far I can't complain.
Shipping costs: nothing ;-)
Shipped: within 4 days
Arrives: after a month
Condition of the used books: nice :-) except they put some stickers on the spines for better indentification and sometimes it doesn't come off easily
4) I either wait and after some time I repeat the process of looking for it in the stores mentioned above or I buy a new copy. Depends on how much I want the book.
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