:: TurboBookSnob.com ::

Book Resources

Finding Books

Over the years, the TurboBookSnob has found many ways to find high-quality new books to read (as her overloaded bookshelves will attest).

If you are serious about collecting Man Booker Prize winning and shortlisted books, you will find that many of the earlier titles are quite difficult to find. Some of the winners and finalists from the 1970s only had print runs of a couple thousand books. The TurboBookSnob has managed to find a good many books for her Booker collection, but is still searching earnestly for The Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor.

Here are some resources to help you in your quest for remarkable literature.

	Powells has an enormous selection of books. Their store occupies an entire city block in Portland, Oregon. They have a number of bricks-and-mortar stores in Portland, as well as several warehouses that service www.powells.com. If you register with Powells, you can take advantage of their reminder service. If the book you want is not available, you can create an alert for it. When Powells gets the book in, they will send you an e-mail message.
	Bookcloseouts.com sells closeout books, or remainders. These are books that are considered to be excess inventory by bricks-and-mortar bookstores. Bookcloseouts.com purchases these books, and then sells them on their web site at 50-90% off the cover price. These books will usually have a black marker line on the outside of the pages, or on the back cover across the bar code. Otherwise, the books are in perfect condition. If you are willing to accept this flaw, you can find some amazing deals. In TurboBookSnob's experience, Bookcloseouts.com has a reasonable selection of Booker Prize-shortlisted authors from the 1980s and 1990s. If you aren't trying to collect first editions, this can be a good resource. If you see a book you want on Bookcloseouts.com, be sure to snap it up. This site has a vast following, and books go quickly!
	If you are looking for a British modern first edition, and aren't willing to wait until the book is published outside of Britain, you should check out the online store of Nicholas & Helen Burrows.
	eBay is a great resource for locating Booker Prize novels. The TurboBookSnob has found that eBay is the best place to look for hard-to-find titles.
	alibris has a large selection of used, new, and out-of-print books.