Resources for Book Junkies

Someone (Geeta and Chary) mentioning Persephone Books in another thread made me realise we don't really have a centralised thread about book resources.  What are your favourite sites, services, stores, publishers, forums dealing with reading?

We've had things like Book Crossing and Book Mooch talked about in other threads.  What's your favourite book resource or newest finds?

Here's my contribution:
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

This is a fantastic idea for a thread! 

My mother has been a member of the Folio Society for years, and she buys me a book every year.  It's not cheap, but the quality is very high, and if you're looking for a nice edition of a favourite, it's excellent.  (Plus sometimes they come out with the craziest special editions.  My mom spent $900 on a copy of The Canterbury Tales eight-ish years ago, and DH --who is also a member-- just got an offer for a perfect replica of Henry VIII's prayerbook for £1000!  If you're a stinking rich bibliophile, you could really go mad with FS)

I really like Bas Bleu.  They lean a lot towards female writers (like Persephone) and I've found a lot of interesting books in their catalog that I would never have heard of otherwise.  They have fun non-book merchandise as well. 

And I read the New York Times book reviews. 

Great thread! 

My mother has been a member of the Folio Society for years, and she buys me a book every year. 

My mother used to be a member too! I have quite a lot of her old Folios, plus I pick up one for myself every now and then from Amazon Marketplace. The second-hand prices aren't too bad.

I really like Bas Bleu.  They lean a lot towards female writers (like Persephone) and I've found a lot of interesting books in their catalog that I would never have heard of otherwise.  They have fun non-book merchandise as well. 

I like Bas Bleu too - and belong to a Bas Bleu community on a forum I'll get to in a minute. Unfortunately, they don't ship outside the US and Canada. 

My favourite resource is LibraryThing. It's not a resource for selling books as such, but I get loads of ideas for things to read from its forums. I have all my books catalogued there and belong to communities dedicated to specific interests: Bas Bleu, British writers, humour, Persephone Books (I started that community!), Virago Modern Classics, etc. I've made some good friends over there and actually know two in real life. On LibraryThing, you can also rate your books, write reviews, get suggestions of similar books to read, etc. It's probably my favourite website in the world!

Speaking of Virago, VMC is another fantastic publishing house. Some of their titles I find a bit too obscure and hard-going, but if you like women authors it's a great resource.

I also belong to Book Group Online, another forum for book-y people. I'm not as active there as I am on LibraryThing, but it's a good site nonetheless.

As for online resources for buying second-hand books, I use Amazon Marketplace and occasionally eBay but more often these days, Abe Books.

Wow, chary, you are my new hero!

Cool, more stuff.

Most people probably know about Digested Read, but I lived here quite a few months without running into it.  It can be quite funny.

I found Book Army a few weeks ago and haven't had the chance to look it over too much.  It looks like a pretty nifty sight, though.

Now I am going to list a couple "if you're ever in or near" book stores.  The first real bookstore I ever visited was Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT.  I haven't been there in years, but I used to love sitting in their little nooks and reading.  They knew long before modern chain bookstores that people like to be able to read something a bit before buying.  Not exactly a pilgrimage location, but, definitely a great little shop if you're in Southern VT, Western MA, or NE NY.

On the direct opposite end of the spectrum is Strand Books.  Another place I haven't been to in a while, and a bit overwhelming, but definitely worth the visit if you're anywhere near New York.  On our last visit to NYC, we didn't stop in, and I can say that it's really the thing I wish we had done.

For those of you looking for green credentials, consider Green Metropolis.  All books are sold at £3.75 (includes shipping) and for the sellers, you'll make at least £3.00 from every sale.  Part of their profits go towards planting trees with the Woodland Trust.

They have quite a good range & I've used them several times for both buying & selling.

For those of you looking for green credentials, consider Green Metropolis. 

I've used them a bit in the past, but they never seem to have what I'm looking for. 

DailyLit.  I have these delivered to my Blackberry (Viigo).  I always forget about them and get swamped, but others might find be able to keep up.

List of free online books.  Most are probably known to people, but some are a bit more obscure.  The whole blog is pretty interesting.

Nice one guys. Lets sticky it.

I hate to say it, but I have really good luck with charity shops, and thrift stores in the states. There's at least one charity shop near us that almost always has really old books. I love antique books! I found one hardback book of sheet music, perhaps that wouldn't count as a book for some, but being a musician, it does to me......it's called what the children sing, and I can't find a date inside, but there's a handwritten inscription inside, to a child from an aunt, and it's dated christmas 1919. I paid three pounds for it. It's got all the nursery rhymes, some I've not heard before, and I thought it was a real find! There's another charity shop near us that often has brand-new, by that I mean just out, hard backs by some of my fave authors.

I was a bit surprised at the number of low cost or free events Penguin has scheduled.  I figured I'd let people here know about it.  Many are in or near London, but there are some elsewhere in the UK:

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/penguin_events/index.html

I think I am going to try to make one of the Toby Litt ones and at least one or two other ones.

I'm a bit hesitant to let people in on this little secret, but I'm in a generous mood. Vintage Books (an imprint that's part of Random House) does regular book giveaways. If you 'Friend' or 'Like' them (or whatever) on Facebook, you'll be the first to hear about their contests. Basically, they'll give a copy of one of the books to first 20 or 25 people to email them. I've already won copies of Cutting for Stone and The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint.

Faber and Simon and Schuster do the giveaways as well. As does bookgeeks (bookgeeks.co.uk). Free books!


I feel I should also mention that, somewhere near the Shambles in York, is a used bookstore that has an entire room full of Folio books at reasonable prices.  Shhhh. Don't tell to many people!

I will add on here with my two cents about bookgeeks.  I was looking through the links on this thread and found that bookgeeks is looking for volunteer book reviewers--which means, free books!  I sent in a couple of book reviews I'd written in college and got the go-head to pick a couple of books from their list (or any new ones out there in the world), and the books were sent to my house from the publisher, brand new and ready to be read and reviewed!  So, thank you guys for posting all these links on here!