The last couple of years have seen my embrace the internet
as a means of sourcing my favourite music from overseas. As I’ve written previously, I hadn’t
intended to do so but have been forced to do so owning to shrinking catalogues
at traditional shops here and the reluctance of many local record
company arms to release the most challenging (aka that I’m most likely to
purchase) music.
In this time I’d occasionally bought a music related book,
usually the biography, autobiography or oral history of an act or scene, music
guide or music journalism anthology.
Once again, market conditions here have forced me to do so. Hardcover books in particular are almost
luxury items , a situation not helped by the Government’s insistence on
adding our 10% sales tax on them. This
has seen a number of established book chains and independent book stores
close. Others have stepped into the
beach by pioneering discounted book stores stocked basically by remainder stock imported
from overseas. Whilst this helped
accelerate the rate of increase in my collection, the biggest such business,
All Books 4 Less, went into receivership earlier this year. At that point, I thought it would be a while
before I would be adding substantially to my collection.
My collection has been building since around 1985 when I
purchased my first music related book - surprise! - Dave Marsh’s biography of Bruce
Springsteen, Born To Run. After that I
added books almost as an afterthought as I stumbled across book sales or second
hand book shops. Occasionally I added a
batch purchased at massive CD and Book clearance sales that used to occur at
the Melbourne Convention Centre 3 or 4 times a year. But the acceleration button was pushed when
All Books 4 Less started operation.
Initially, every book in the shop cost $5AUS although, as time
progressed, books were also priced in $5AUS lots up to $20AUS.
I am easily able to handle my collection especially as my home is designed in such a way that begs to be lined by bookcases. I had two massive book
shelves, each around 2 meters high built when I purchased my home. I also have two massive IKEA shelving units
(not their basic Billy product but a style that is no longer available) that
are also erected alongside a feature wall in the house. These latter units also holds my vinyl albums and my
cherished Akai stereo unit, and the books mesh well with them; my music hall of
fame, aka the second toilet, is conveniently around the corner.
Until the time All Books 4 Less came along, I hadn’t given
much thought as to the format of the books I was purchasing. The beauty of their pricing structure was
that they made no real distinction between paperbacks, softcovers or
hardcovers. As a result, I started to
get a bit picky and started concentrating almost exclusively on hardcover
editions. I still purchase softcovers
provided the binding is strong and there is little evidence that I’ll be able to
obtain a hardcover edition. (After all,
not all books are issued in hardcover.)
After All Books 4 Less went belly up, I started to search
the Internet and, by chance, discovered The Book Depository. This is a British site that offers books at
hugely discounted prices and does not charge postage. (I suspect the cost of
postage is built into their prices.) I
started using their service and found them to be reasonably efficient with
books usually arriving within 2 weeks. On
a couple of occasions, the items failed to arrive but I experienced little
difficulty in getting these replaced at no cost. But, by and large, they only seem to cover
recently released books leaving me with the problem of how to source books –
preferably in hardcover – that are today only in print in paperback form.
The Book Depository, assists in this dilemma by referring
customers to Abebooks for out of print items.
This is a second hand site into which booksellers from around the world
feed in their inventories and gives separate prices for the book and
postage. It is brilliant for obtaining
books from Australian bookstores, as many sellers waive postage charges within
the country. But for books from overseas,
especially the US, postage is the real killer effectively raising the price of
individual books to Australian retail levels and beyond.
Then a couple of months ago I stumbled across Better World
books which has become my bookseller of choice.
The premise of their operation is disarmingly simple; they take in books
by donation from anywhere including libraries thus preventing them from being
unnecessarily pulped. They place their
stock on their website at extremely reasonable prices and do not charge
postage. For every book purchased they
donate another to people needing books around the world and also plough their
profits into worthy causes. For an
additional minor surcharge, purchasers can also participate in their carbon
offset scheme for which I’m more than happy to assist.
I started by purchasing a couple of books including a
hardcover version of the Neil Young biography Shakey (price $16US) which I’ve never been able
to find here. After placing an order I
was given an estimate that they have some problems with deliveries to Australia
and are trying to find a faster way to send items than the current one to three
weeks. My first delivery arrived within
this estimate and I was thrilled to find the items in pretty good condition. Spines weren’t damaged and dust jackets were
in good nick. My copy of Shakey contains
stamps and markings that betrayed its public library origins; in this case it
was none other than the New York Public Library.
Thrilled with this, I then revisited their site and
discovered their bargain bin in which a number of identified sale items can be
purchased for a combined $35US. I
submitted my first order, and 36 hours later submitted another. Incredibly their systems are such that both
orders were combined into one, placed into a box along with those plastic air
filled buffering things, and sent to me, pantless and all. Each of these books was in brilliant
condition including a couple that would have been brand new. All it required was for me to remove their
barcode stickers as well as the Dewey stickers on the spines of those that came
from libraries.
As a consequence of my embrace of the internet, I am now
working towards the objective of ensuring that my original two custom made
bookshelves contain nothing but items in hardcover. At this point I’m about 85% of the way to
achieving this goal which has overtaken my music purchases to the extent that I
can barely remember when I bought my most recent CD. The overflow books have been consigned to the
unit containing the vinyl albums, as well as two smaller IKEA units. One in the vicinity of the toilet hall of
honour and the other is inside it.
Now all I have to do is start reading them.
No comments:
Post a Comment