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Used Book Stores? Paperback Books?


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DH has always been a voracious reader and prefers the feel of a book vs e-readers. As e-readers become more and more prevalent books are going by the wayside (the trees appreciate e-readers) so it is harder to find book exchanges. We have been in many used bookstores across the US since we started fulltiming in 2001 and have seen the gamut.

 

At the beginning of the summer I purchased a supply of used books on Amazon that kept him busy for the summer. I was amazed I could buy a book from a seller in London, England for a penny and pay $3.99 for shipping. What a deal.....

 

We recently stayed near Boise, ID and found Bent Corners Used Books in Nampa, ID http://www.bentcornersbooks.com/ This is the cleanest and most organized book exchange I have had the opportunity to visit. They truly take pride in their product and establishment. Wish we had found them at the beginning of our stay instead of as we start to head south for the winter. Will definitely go back if we are ever in the area again.

 

Happy Reading and Safe Travels,

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We continue to find many book exchanges during our travels. If you're ever in Arizona, check out Bookman's. They have various locations and are huge clean stores, recycling books in excellent condition, magazines, CDs, puzzles, games and more. RV parks - especially the Escapee parks, have nice libraries for exchange.

Full-timed for 16 Years
Traveled 8 yr in a 2004 Newmar Dutch Star 40' Motorhome
and 8 yr in a 33' Travel Supreme 5th Wheel

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Depending on what you read the e-readers prices and selection are awesome. The Amazon Kindle has a lot of good books for a buck each and the selection changes often. They also have an unlimited reading offering that has a huge number of books in it. Add in the ability to borrow an e-book from a nearby library or a friend or even the Amazon lending library and you'll be up to your neck in books.

 

I love paper books I have a room lined with bookshelves in the house and I thought I'd never give them up. Giving up my original book selection was the biggest change I faced when going full time, I spent weeks sorting and resorting books into the space I had available. What finally hooked me on the e-readers is that I can get a Kindle e-book as soon as the title is released, no waiting a year or more for the paperback. Add to that a large screen tablet to read on and it was impossible to resist.

 

Used book stores can be pretty good for print books, a lot of them have a huge selection in their back room on top of what they have on their shelves and if you come in with a list are willing to work with you on digging out the back room stock. Amazon's used books are good too, I'd ship them to a friend or family for the most part, if parked for a while then getting them sent to you isn't a problem. I've found many of the Amazon sellers are good and ship in a day or two, usually USPS, but you will find some that are a bit slow to use while you are moving about.

 

What I'm doing now is finding the books I like on Amazon and then comparing the Kindle e-book to a printed copy. If the Kindle is a lot cheaper then I'll go with it. That way I still get some printed goodness but I save money and don't have to sit waiting for the paperback is released to read it. I do think about the future and I see us moving to a much smaller space in a couple years, that tempers my desire for print too, don't want to have to give up most of what I now have. That puts a lot of weight on buying the e-book version although the Kindle MatchBook program is tempting for some of my most loved books. It is only available for new books purchased from Amazon though.

 

MatchBook: https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/ep-landing-page

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

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I am at my RV weight capacity and the last thing I need to carry is more books. But we always stop at a great used book store in Jacksonville, FL, chamblinbookmine.com, BOTH ways, every year when we go south for the winter. It has fairly easy access from the InterState and we can park the RV at a nearby mall.

 

Rob

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When traveling in the summer I get books from my M-I-L when we stop by. She sells books on-line. Although I get them free most of the time. I don't worry about weight putting several boxes of books in the truck. My wife gets hers from the PHX library on-line to her Samsung.

Was out walking and came across http://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/ Haven't traded any books in any yet, but always an idea.

In the winter we are workamping at one place and I get books from the local library.

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Don't forget about the Thrift Stores for books, you can get a $30 hardback book for a dollar. I read it and return it to a different store or share with some of my more anchored friends.

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I bought most of my books from Salvation Army and Good Will stores.

After I got into E-readers (Kindle) I found that the local library in the town where we usually spent a couple of months in the spring and fall had an e book on line loan set up.

I used my sister in laws address to get a library card and then could borrow e bonks on line anywhere we were.

Clay(WA5NMR), Lee(Wife), Katie & Kelli (cats)
Full timed for eleven years in our 2004 Winnebago Sightseer 35N Workhorse chassis. Snowbirds for 1 year. Now settled down in western CO.
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It took a bit to convince me, but Pam has convinced me to try the Kindle reader on my smart phone. As usual, she was right that it works well and means that I have books with me all of the time, everywhere. And if you look, you will be amazed by the amount of quality reading that is available from Amazon for free!(my favorite price!) When weight and space are limited, it is difficult to beat the e-books. I just downloaded 10 new to me books on my phone to keep me reading for a very long airplane ride.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
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I love paper books I have a room lined with bookshelves in the house and I thought I'd never give them up. Giving up my original book selection was the biggest change I faced when going full time...

 

Stan, I thought I was the only one that ever went thru that agony. That was hard! I found out later that an MD from my old Hospital bought all the old paperback Science Fiction books that I had accumulated since the early 70's. Made me feel better! I ended up keeping many of the History ones... and have many of them with me in the MH.

Jim

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While I shop as as many used book stores as I find during my travels, I also use campground book exchanges, Amazon's $.01 + $3.99 shipping when looking for more books by new authors I discover I like, and even my local "new" book store. I just can't get into ebooks, although I know it is the direction things are going. Not a technophobe - I do daily blogs when traveling, a very active set of web pages, etc but there is something about paper I just can't leave.

 

When home, I donate the books after I read them to either individuals or to the students at the theatre department I retired from.

 

I now keep a database of the books I've read on my phone (1666 since 2005) that i go through when going through used bookshelves. I've found it necessary to prevent buying or trading a book I read a few years back. Of course at my age, I can reread a book a few years later and never realize I've already read it!

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I belonged to the Book of the Month club for 40 years. When we sold the house had over 500 hard backs. No body wanted them. Finally gave them to a small church that was just starting out. They were thrilled. I still love the feel of a book.

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If he wants to try out the Kindle selection from Amazon, you can download a kindle reader program for a PC. I borrow Kindle books through a library and Amazon Prime and don't even own a kindle.

The best PC reader for ALL e-book formats is http://calibre-ebook.com/

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I wasn't interested in e-books for years. Then as my eyes aged I needed a lot more light and even with reading glasses it became difficult to read some books.

Also after they went from petroleum inks to vegetable oil based ones the ink is not as dark.

With a Kindle Paper-white the print is back-lit and I can set the font size to something easy to read. It is now much more comfortable for me to use an E-reader.

I have been a voracious reader since I learned to read back in 1945 so this is a quite a change for me. I still like books - but we have to adapt as we get older.

Clay(WA5NMR), Lee(Wife), Katie & Kelli (cats)
Full timed for eleven years in our 2004 Winnebago Sightseer 35N Workhorse chassis. Snowbirds for 1 year. Now settled down in western CO.
Honda Accord toad.

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I'm reading on an Android tablet now, I'd jump on a Kindle reader if they just had a bigger screen as 6" just doesn't work for my eyes and a good part of what I read. If they came out with an updated version of the DX I'd be all over it. For now I'm window shopping for a light 9" or so square format tablet with a high resolution screen, lots of memory as well as a BIG SD memory card option.

 

On Calibre, last time I read up on it they didn't support the Digital Rights Management that a lot of publishers put on their books and won't open them. Has this changed?

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

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There are many things I thought I couldn't give up and one by one. . . I find an alternative to be satisfactory. Books are an example. Thought I coudn't give up holding a book. But I love my Kindle. I have over 200 books on it and I only have to carry the Kindle. After 10 years fulltiming, books are one thing I don't have to find space for. DH gave up his voracious reading habit after 3 heart attacks. Couldn't concentrate anymore. But after a new fangled ICD, he once again turned to books but was sure he didn't want a Kindle. So we were back to packin' books around. He finally decided to give it a try and I got him a Kindle Fire for Christmas one year. He loves it for all the same reasons already mentioned. Instant download of something he wants to read, many books in his library and the kids add to his Amazon account for birthdays and Christmas so he can buy books he wants. But we do download many of the free ones or the ones for $1 or $1.99.

 

Dale

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Just curious as we still get used books to read but why do folks download so many books onto their Kindle, etc.? Will you ever get around to reading them if you keep adding?

Full-timed for 16 Years
Traveled 8 yr in a 2004 Newmar Dutch Star 40' Motorhome
and 8 yr in a 33' Travel Supreme 5th Wheel

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Thanks,....to everybody for posting the location of decent used bookstores.

 

Benson, Arizona had a small decent used bookstore while we were there a couple of years ago.

 

Powell's Books in Portland is probably the end of the rainbow when it comes to used books. Their USED Astronomy section is about 30 feet by 8 feet!!! That is a lot of books. If you are into books at some point you should plan on spending a DAY and visiting the store. It is only several stories high and covers about a city block. One of the things I miss about working is the business trips to Portland, Oregon and Powell's books.

 

BTW if your selling out your book collection they are a great place. Go to their book purchase place that is in an industrial area of Portland. We sold a pickup load of books to them. All those books I thought would be valuable were not....but then those obscure astronomy, fishing, and hunting books were!! You can also find them on the web at: http://www.powells.com/.

 

I love reading books on my Nook and magazines on my IPAD. They are handy and keep track of where I left off in my reading. Also I can continue to download and read books from my local library when I travel. That is probably the best benefit. I really do enjoy reading while traveling.

 

But there is nothing like an "old" book for discovering the world in a new light.

 

With that, if you are from California or travel in the state download this book. Up and Down in California...1860-1864 by William H. Brewer. It is a great read on so many levels.

 

This is the link: https://archive.org/details/updowncalifornia01will

Vladimr Steblina

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I seem to keep up with most of what I download, says the guy with 259 unread books. Something I'm going to have to think about before the list gets to 365 and my logic starts to show some holes and tatters. :-)

 

Some of the non-fiction stuff I get cheap I buy in the hope I'll be inspired to read it one day. In non-fiction I've got the collected columns of William S. Lind as well as his book on 4th generation war, van Creveld's History of Strategy, a bunch of stuff from John C. Wright, some from Vox Day and a few more all waiting inspiration.

 

For the fiction stuff I find I read completed series as my first choice, anthologies second followed by stand-alone books. Incomplete series I will sometimes let sit until the whole set is available, like Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Anniversary Day series or until I've caught up with most of the other books waiting to be read. If I get a new release notice and a good price I will stop and read another book by that author or catch up in the series if I'm not sure how well I like their work.

 

I read a lot so it really makes sense to grab a free or $0.99 book on sale rather than wait until I want it and it is much more expensive.

 

Another thing I find myself doing is looking at prices and buying the inexpensive stuff while most anything over $4.00 goes to my wish list for consideration later. I have more on the wish list than I have waiting unread and aside from a very few authors or special books I resist the higher prices.

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

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Just curious as we still get used books to read but why do folks download so many books onto their Kindle, etc.? Will you ever get around to reading them if you keep adding?

I delete my books after I read them but i still have about 50 yet to read. Those of us who read a lot like to have them on hand for when we don't have a good signal to download new ones. Plus, I like to get the good ones as soon as they are recommended so I don't have to remember later what they were. Plus, some new ones are only free for a short time so I want to get them right away, too. Then, when I finish reading one, I have a selection of types from which to chose which I will read next.

 

Linda Sand

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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I delete stuff off my reader once I've read it but I leave it in my Amazon Cloud so I can re-download it again in a couple minutes.

 

 

I follow a few author's blogs and Amazon has made some big changes to the Kindle Unlimited program as far as how the authors get paid. For us as readers the changes are great as they were intended to punish the scammers putting up really short books or worse slush that nobody read past page 5. What that means for authors is more money to pay them for longer works versus the old system that paid the same for 15 pages as it did for 500. They also pay on pages read so the junk that gets opened and deleted doesn't bring the author much money while someone that is read to the end is rewarded. Bottom line for readers, less slush, less tiny books and more good longer fiction to read. The new system is just kicking off and the authors expect more tweaking but they are already offering more of their longer books on the Unlimited.

 

With these changes I'm seriously considering the Kindle unlimited option for casual reading, you don't own the book and it can disappear if removed from the program so I'd still buy individual copies of some stuff.

 

 

I don't follow a lot of e-readers but Amazon is offering authors a nice fat premium if they only offer their e-books in Kindle format for some period of time. Many of the author's I read take advantage of that since it pays more so I buy from Amazon or wait. I have a bunch of readers loaded on the tablet but the Kindle and Google ones are really the only ones I tend to use.

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

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Thank you Linda for the explanation. I didn't realize that books are only free for a certain time. One other question, do these readers keep track of what you might purchase so you don't re-purchase? Also, can you look at a full list to see what you've read?

 

We still get a warm fuzzy feeling of holding a book but perhaps someday.......

Full-timed for 16 Years
Traveled 8 yr in a 2004 Newmar Dutch Star 40' Motorhome
and 8 yr in a 33' Travel Supreme 5th Wheel

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