Books you want!

[[deleted user]]

Ok, so I wanted to know if there are any of you, like me, who adore buying books, but sometimes the books that you want are sooo expensive! So I thought, maybe you know of some places where we could get them cheaper? I love to collect books, especially series… for example the Harry Potter series (Which I have all in great condition first editions thank you very much hehe) but maybe you like to collect to, and we all know sometimes series come in more than 2 books, but buying series can become an expensive little hobby…. So maybe we could help each other out???

[Lauren]

Hey Niecole, don't know if you saw my note to you in one of my posts on the 'Looking for a book' thread, but one cheaper way to get books is through BookMooch. You don't pay for books per se, you earn points by posting books to other people and then spend the points on books you want. I find that even with paying the postage to send books overseas it works out much cheaper than buying new books.

As I mentioned on the other thread, there are tons of James Patterson books available, so you could probably get most of those. Not sure what other series you want, but you can make a wishlist, and check it regularly to see what's available. I've gotten almost 120 books through BookMooch and I've sent around 80, so it's definitely a good option.

I've also heard that bookdepository.com is a great place to get cheaper books, but haven't used it yet myself.

[[deleted user]]

Oh cool Lauren, I totally have forgotten about that you know...
I was just so angry this weekend, was walking around in Cape Town, and I couldnt find a good bookstore, (which is weird, as I thought there would be a million second hand stores) and I went into Exclusive books to look around and I wanted to buy The Host, but when I looked at the price of it, I nearly fainted, how does society expect us to read more when books are so expensive...

[Lauren]

I totally agree with you Niecole. The price of a new book is so high it almost makes reading some kind of elitist hobby, when everyone should have easy access to books. The government needs to invest more in things like libraries or subsidising books.

For good second hand bookstores in Cape Town, check out Tommy's and Clarks in Long Street (Clarks has a small second-hand section upstairs). There's another store on Long, closer to Kloof Street.

There should also be one or two on the main road in Obs, and there's a really nice charity bookshop on Rondebosch main road, across the road from the Shoprite (or Checkers?) if I remember correctly. I often came out with a pile of books from that place.

There's a second-hand bookshop that I use in Pretoria where they'll look out for specific books if you give them a list, and then they'll call you if they get a copy. You should ask other second-hand shops if they will do the same.

[[deleted user]]

Ah thanks Lauren...
See that what I mean. Sometimes I just cant find any good second hand stores.

I live in Paarl, and work in Stellenbosch. There are two rather nice second hand bookstores in Paarl, on in Main Road accross the Library, and one also in Main Road accross the Mr Price... (for anyone in that area). There's a great bookstore in Stellenbosch, Protea Bookstore, selling academic books mostly but loads of others, and second hands as well. Its in Andringa street... then there's a bookstore in Die Boord, near the Spar, and they also look out for books on your request, and the people working there are so friendly!!!

I love going to the library, but I hate the time frame of having the books for only two weeks.

I'll go check out the two bookstore's you recommended when I go to Cape Town again...

[Denell]

There is also Readers Warehouse in Tokai. They have new books priced between R40 - R60. Popular books are normally more expensive but still cheaper than exclusive.

[[deleted user]]

Ah Thanks Denell! I'll surely go check it out...

Lauren, I also joined BookMooch! Loving it

[Lauren]

Cool! [Does a little searching:] Ah, found you :) You're lucky, you can mooch almost anything on your wishlist, as soon as you get some points, almost everything is available!

Let me know if you need any help with anything :) Bookmooch is awesome, it's the best feeling to give your books to people who want them, and to get all those new books in the post.

[[deleted user]]

Yeah!!!
I'm still figuring out how it works...
I'm not the most technical person, and to be honest, new websites scare me haha...
How do I get points then?

[[deleted user]]

I'll be putting on books I can swap this weekend

[Lauren]

Don't worry, it's pretty easy to use, and eventually you'll get used to the etiquette of the site. Most people are friendly and helpful to newbies.

You get points when you accept someone's request to send them a book. Your profile is set to 'ask first' which means that people will first have to send a request asking if it's ok for you to send the book overseas, and then send another request for the mooch itself. The mooch request will have the user's address and the mooch will appear on your pending page.

You will get 1 point if you send a book to someone in South Africa, and 3 points if you send a book overseas. Mooching a book from South Africa will cost you 1 point, a book from overseas will cost 2 points. Sending a small paperback overseas will cost about R32 for airmail. You can also use surface mail, which takes about 6-8 weeks, but is a lot cheaper. Most users won't mind the wait. Because you're set to ask first, you can just say no if a book is too big and expensive to send overseas.

When you load books to give away, make sure you use the ISBN number - don't just type in the title and pick from the list that comes up. Many users want to be sure that the edition that shows in your inventory is the one they're going to get, and might give you bad feedback if you send them a different edition.

It's very useful to add condition notes when you load a book. Because the site is about giving away second-hand books, it helps to know more or less what the book looks like. If there's writing on the pages, creases or tears in the cover, stains, a smell (smoke, mildew), if the cover differs from the one in the picture etc. you should let people know about it.

Once you have some points, you can start mooching! As I said, almost every book on your wishlist is available. There are also LOADS of copies of Memoirs of a Geisha, although you have a strange edition on your wishlist that doesn't show anything available. Obviously it's cheaper to get books from South Africa, so look out for those if you can.

[[deleted user]]

Hey thanks for the advice Lauren!
Sorry the first time I didnt accept your friend request, but now I did, I had a blonde moment haha.

I'll go check it out some more, and play around when loading books on to.
Do people ever ask for Afrikaans books?

[Lauren]

I've never loaded an Afrikaans book, but I think I've seen a few in South African inventories. Chances are South Africans are the only ones who will mooch them, and there aren't that many SA users, but load them anyway - one day someone might take it. A lot of the time you have a book that no one requests for ages, and you think no one will ever want it, but then it gets mooched anyway :)

[[deleted user]]

Yay! Sounds like fun

How many books have you had mooched?

[Lauren]

I've mooched 118, and I'm waiting on another 9 at the moment. I've given away 81 books. My shelves filled up pretty fast after I joined.

One thing that helps you accumulate points, is to get small cheap books whenever you can, and then give them away on Bookmooch. That way you can send them overseas cheaply, but still gets loads of points :D

Edit: If you go to my profile you can check out my mooching history, wishlist, etc.

[[deleted user]]

Great! Sounds amazing!
I want to check out the books you have to give away :)

[Lauren]

Hmm, my inventory is very small at the moment... When I worked at EB we used to get free books from publishers and I'd give those away so I had loads, but now there's not much.

I'm hoping to get some cheap second-hand books at the end of the month to add to BM though.

[[deleted user]]

I'll go look...

We've got a great store in Paarl, were you can swap books for others, so sometimes I'll have more than one of the same (get them from family) and I'll go swap them