Hello. I am just wondering if there is anybody here who is into books but wants to minimize his/her expenditure. I used to go to either Amazon or Chapters/Indigo online however recently I have been wondering if there are other, better sites out there. I googled it and found thrift books, I like that their used books are 75% cheaper then the brand-new books on Amazon. However, I am not sure about the quality of these used books. Can anybody vouch for their condition? Is it very good, or so-so or something else? Basically, I don't have really high standards. As long as the book is not falling apart or missing pages, relatively clean, and most importantly, it has blank spaces on each page for me to put notes in, that's all I care. Your thoughts?
Why don't you have an e-reader? I couldn't live without mine. As to the cost of e-books - I compare prices with my 2 main suppliers, Kobo and Play Books and select the cheaper. And there are always plenty of freebies. But when it comes down to my fave authors I don't even take the price into consideration.
Are you able to make little notes in your Kobo? I need to be able to write down definitions and explanations in Chinese. Also is it also cheap to buy books for your Kobo? This one book I really like, on Amazon it is selling for about 21 dollars and on Thriftbooks the used version is selling for like 4 dollars. If e-books are just as cheap then I will definitely consider them.
I only use my device to store and read books, and never have any reason to make notes with it, so I'm afraid you'll have to do some research on that. Also, some books are cheap and some aren't.
I use a kobo for all fiction, you can bookmark in your Kobo but I find I am not able to memorise ebooks as well as physical books. So for non-fiction I always buy the actual book, also because I almost never read non fiction from first chapter to last, I page through and scan all images/tables/graphs, then go back and read chapters of interest first and mentally compile the information in a structure that suits me... not necessarily the way it was written. I would imagine you may have a similar issue... as you mentioned you make notes/definitions/explanations in Chinese. Kobo ebooks are cheap but unfortunately don't know of cheap physical bookseller other than Booktopia which is an Australian online seller, shipping will likely cost you a fortune.
I've had pretty good luck with them from Amazon. I haven't had any books in bad condition from different vendors on Amazon.
Yeah I have bought several used books as in several dozen off Amazon through affiliates. It can be a little annoying if you place an order for ten books and they come in ten different shipments and since I am not a prime member I usually have to pay something for shipping and handling, but the books have all been good quality books, pages yellowed on some but that is par for the course with books published over a decade ago. Their sellers do not want bad reviews because Amazon will ax them.
Prime membership is worth the price. I have saved on shipping charges enough to pay for prime. Not everythingis covered by prime but even with that drawback it is still a good thing to invest in.
People used to tell me that about Sam's Club, but it is largely a waste of money too. Prime strikes me as only a good deal if you buy a ton online. I do not. It is not my preferred way to shop. I would have to place like 20 orders a year from Amazon to justify the price. Instead the number is closer to 3-5 orders per year. I used to buy a lot more from Amazon when they were THE online shopping site, but now I can find better deals on other sites often. For instance my AC filters run $60 locally, and $50 ish is the best price I can find on Amazon, but I can order them direct from the manufacturer and get 3 for $80 including delivery. They last 6 months so I don't need to order them that often. Walmart also often has free shipping on the orders I place and the orders tend to come faster than Amazon standard shipping orders. I think about my last 5 online purchases were from them and the shipping didn't cost me anything with the items coming in 2-5 days from the time I clicked. I have learned not to rely too heavily on Google's shopping tab to truly deliver the best priced goods. It takes a little more leg work, but with patience I can usually find better deals. For instance, I don't buy much music/movies any more, but I used to be able to shop around and find CD's/DVD's shipped from Europe cheaper than I could find them in the US. It is just a matter of finding vendors that aren't huge traffic/huge volume sellers who register on Google searches (i.e. who don't pay google for priority placement)
Depends on what you like to read. If you have a smartphone you can download the Kindle app for free. It has a bunch of features that I don't use but apparently it does allow bookmarks and notes. It also has organizing features and search functions. For content I use BookBub that works through my Amazon account. Some of the books are free and there are often specials for well known authors. Most of the books are in the $2 to $3 range.
why buy books when they are available for FREE? here is a great example from Library of Congress: http://www.read.gov/books/pageturner/2002juv85163/#page/2/mode/2up more: http://www.read.gov/books/ https://www.gutenberg.org/ http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
I get a lot of free books on my kindle. I use my kindle just for entertainment reading and paper page books for research.
The problem is that most used book sellers on Amazon don't offer Prime delivery. That said, Prime is well worth it for the combination of free shipping on many items, as well as Prime video and Prime Kindle lending.
I can save my yearly fee at Sam's by buying my family's allergy medicine once. Can get 400 generic Zyrtec tablets for about $20 there. $20 gets a 90 count package of the same drug anywhere else. Amazon Prime is worth it for streaming video alone (is cheaper than Netflix, and almost as good), and has free shipping, and free Kindle ebooks as well.
I mostly just do on demand. I can get pretty much what I want on Xfinity or at least am fine with what I get already.
