Buying Books in the Brave New Digital World: The Good, the So So, and the Ugly

I have loved books ever since I was five or six years old.  When I was young I recall my mum periodically buying me non-fiction books which I would devour as soon as I could. Books, as a result, became a central part of my life and have remained so ever since. And I am glad they have.

Because of my lifelong love of books I have, over the course of my sixty year plus life, tended to follow the infamous counsel of Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes." One of the great joys of my life was, while in various states of poverty, wandering and wondering around used bookstores, of which there used to be many in brick and mortar form, whether in Bloomington, Indiana; South Bend, Indiana (the amazing Erasmus Books); Dallas, Texas; Austin, Texas; Provo, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; Calgary, Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta; Oxon or Cantab; and Moscow, Russia.

Book buying, of course, has changed dramatically since the 1990s thanks largely to the advent of the internet and the coming of the world wide web. While in some ways the web has made buying books easier, it has also, and unfortunately so, complicated buying used books in several ways. When one buys books online one can no longer see them, touch them, or page through them reading bits and pieces of the book as you go. As a result, buying books online has today become perhaps the ultimate example of the caveat emptor experience.

Since the 1990s I have frequently bought books online through ABE Books and Amazon Marketplace.  The former, by the way, is owned by Amazon as is Book Depository in England. My experiences buying books in cyberland have been contradictory. Given this I thought perhaps some of you other book buyers in cyberspace might like to know what I have found during my sojourn in cyber book buying land. 

In my experience those individuals or bookstores selling books online fall into three basic categories: the good, the so-so, and the ugly. I begin with the good:

The Good:
2Vbooks (provided no tracking information)

3rd Man Books
5B Celebrations

8 trax media
AardBooks
Abrilbooks
Ahab Books (provided no tracking information)

Alixione
Alplaus Books
Ann Arbor Books
Archerbks
ASquaredBookks
Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop
AZPlusBooks 

B4cause

Bellweather (once one of the ugly Bellweather has become since an excellent seller)
Berkeley Library Friends

Best and Fastest
Between the Covers Rare Books 

BFMCrystal
Blackwell's
Book Booth 

Book Depository

Book Outlet

Book_House On-line
BookOutlet 1
Bookbarn International, Bristol, England
Bookfeathers, LLC
Booklegger's Fine Books
Bookmarc's
Books from California (Simi Valley, Ca, USA) (provided no tracking information on one occassion)
Books_from_California

bookwitch
Books Do Furnish a Room
Books etc._

Books on the Square
booksXpress
Brandeis National Committee, Tucson
Brenner's Collectable Books
Brier Rose Books (provided no tracking information; this concern seems to be run by a grumpy old fart who appears to have the same messiah complex as Donald Drumpf. Beware of the prickly thorns herein)
Brotherton Books

BrownSugarBooks
Bucks County Bookshop
CalliopeBooks
Calumus
Cape Cod Booksellers
Carlson Turner Books
Cath' n Williams Books

Caveat Emptor
Chapter 1 Books
Chestnut Hill
Chicago Book Trader
Chuck Price's Books (provided no tracking information)
Circular Books
Comic World
Copper News Bookstore

cpbjustin
CrossRoads Supply
CS Booksellers

Decluttr

Demiurge

Dorley House Books
Driftless Books and Music 

East-West
Ecoslsnc
enough 8
Eric265
Fast and Friendly Shoppe

frecksfictionandmore

Frey Fine Books

Friends Library (Friends of the Pima County Library)
fumaxiu

Gary Menchen

Gian Luigi Fine Books
Gil's Book Loft
Goodwill, Charlotte
Grendel Books
H&G Antiquarian Books
H4o Books International
Hand Picked Books

Harry's Books
Hawking Books

hollandsbooks
Holly's Book Rack
hfofstuff
Ink Paper Glue 

Irolita Books

it3800
Jay W Nelson Bookseller
Jean Michel Books 

Jenson Books Inc.
jenzbookbiz
KathyandGeorge
Kennys Books
Kitsch.Maven
Labyrinth
Larklaugh Signature Books
Library House Internet Sales
Linbarb S
lilah2
Longhouse Publishers and Booksellers (provided no tracking information)

LS Anderson
Lucianas
LV_Store
Magical Mystery Shop
Maddenbooks
Mad Hatter Books (provided no tracking information)
MaidenBooks
Market Books
Market Square (provided no tracking information)
Matthew 952
Midtown Scholar (recently sent me an ex-lib not described as ex-lib; unforgiveable first strike)
mistymorninbooks
Monroe Street Books
Montana Book Company
Montclair Book Center (provided no tracking information)
Murray Media

My Book Heaven
Nerman's Books and Collectibles
New Creek Books

Northeast Mercantile

Olivarez Media Inc
Owl Pen Books (provided no tracking information)
Paperbackshop-US

Paws Not Claws
Piscataway and Potomic Group
PJ Grill Books
PineLike
Plumcircle Books
PorterHouse Booksellers

Powells Chicago

*P.S. Books*

psbooks
rare-games
Rare Reads (provided no tracking information)
RBRMedia
Recycle Bookstore
Red's Corner
Redux_Books (provided no tracking information)

retiredteacher2009AKtoWA
Riverton Fine Books (provided no tracking information)
Robotic GradStudent
SBCelebrations! 

Scratchy 01

schwabbk
SeldonBooks2
SecondStoryBooks
ShopBook 

smithbooks12
snowcrowley 2
stars_and_stripes
Steve Thorson, Bookseller
Steven Edwards (provided no tracking information)

Stock and Trade, LLC

Suburban
Tabletopart
Tacoma Book Center 

Tamarack Books

Tarzan
TBookss

tcplfriends

thelibrarystore

thenextpages
Vachon lsland Books 

Valley Books
Virtual Booklovers Books
Voyager Book Shop
Wayside Collector 

West Street Books

Willis Monie Books
Wood Thrush Books

Words-and-Wellness
Yellow Mum

Zebras
Ziesings (provided no tracking information)

zumbro

 

Conclusion: The best of the good, in my experience, tend to be brick and mortar bookstores like Midtown, Powell's Chicago, and Redux, to chose three examples. That said, there are some brick and mortar bookstores I like more than others. Powells Portland and Wonder Book seem to miss underliings way too often for my taste and don't always note that a book is "ex-lib". On the other hand, they generally correct such mistakes with refunds quickly and they offer great stuff at reasonable prices.

The So-So: 

E-Commerchent
 

GiddyWormBooks
 

Half Price Books (HPB Emerald, Ruby, Diamond)

Did not note that a book I ordered was ex-library. By the way, I used to shop regularly at Half Price's brick and mortar stores and never saw an ex-library book in the stores I visited.
 

JEM Media Books
 

Oriental Research Partners (provided no tracking information)
I moved Oriental Research Partners from the Good to the So-So category after purchasing a second book from the seller. The second book, it turns out, was sent to Washington state; I, however, live on the East Coast. Then the seller refunded me for the first book I bought from him and received. So instead of a $12.72 refund he refunded me $11.09. This experience, I guess one can say, was one that was both thread though with incompetence and slyness at the same time.

 

Powells Portland
Far too many misdescribed books, books described as underlining or highlighting free but aren't. Sell books to Powells Portland at your risk and for a fraction of what they are worth; Powells Portland pay you only in Paypal or Powells credit. Demoted from the good because of misdescribing books.
 

Ralph Brandeal

Three words: slow as molasses. I bought a book from Mr. Brandeal. When it wasn't fulfilled after several days I cancelled it. Despite the cancellation Brandeal sent the item anyway. He didn't, even after two requests, however, forward tracking information. Though sent from New Jersey to New York in early February the book still had not arrived by 12 February. 

Second Bind, Toronto

Second Bind is yet another one of these booksellers, probably run by those who grew up in the younger cohorts, who don't seem to understand how to accurately describe books. I bought one book from them one week which was described as "like new" and indeed it was "like new". A week later, I bought another "like new" book from them that was actually ex-library. Apparently Second Bind's book coders don't grasp the simple fact that, by definition, a "like new" book looks, save for a bit of wear, like it could have come off a shelf in a new bookstore. No one in their right mind would describe an ex-library book with its multiple stamps on the edges of the book and within the book itself, its category label on the spine of the book, and its pockets or check out/return label as "like new" since an ex-library book cannot, by definition, cannot be "like new" or "very good" because of all of those inserts, labels, and stamps. D'oh.

 

Sleepy Hollow Books

It took fifteen days for the book to travel from Vermont to eastern New York up the Hudson two and a half hours from the City. The seller provided no tracking information and even claimed that there was no tracking for media mail which is total rubbish.

 

ToyLandBay

 

Thrift Books 

In their various online iterations.

 

Wonder Book
On most occasions a very good bookseller who sells at reasonable prices. However, there can sometimes be a bit of inconsistency in their descriptions of the books they have for sale. Sometimes a book described as good is very good and sometimes it is good minus. On three occasions an ex-library book was not described as ex-lib.

 

World of Books

Another crap shoot of a bookseller. Sometimes you get a real bargain of a book the description of which is in the ballpark. Sometimes, however, you get an ex-library book not described as such.

 

Conclusion: The so-so, in my experience, tend to be inconsistent when it comes to accurately describing the condition of the books they have for sale. Sometimes they describe them accurately, sometimes they don't. Wow you can almost sing that to the tune of the famous Peter Paul Mounds and Almond Joy sometimes you feel like a nut sometimes you don't commercial ditty. Those at Thrift Books and World of Books, for instance, can and have, on occasion, accurately described the condition of a book. They also have, far too often, inaccurately described a book they have for sale as, for example, "like new" or "very good" when the book they are selling is an "ex-library" book, something they often don't tell the consumer (so much for rational market calculations). Ex-library books, of course, are at best, "good" (the pages and the sides of a library book are stamped with the name of the library and a classification code, book tape is put on paperbound books, a barcode is placed inside so the book can be checked out), and any good seller worth his or her salt should and would note they are "ex-library". So buyer beware of sellers like Thrift Books and World of Books. Their books are cheap but you buy at your own risk. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and get a book in good shape while at other times you lose the lottery and you get an ex-library book that wasn't described as a former library book or you get a book that is described as very good that has water damage, bumps, foxing, and creases. Personally, I don't buy from Thrift Books or World of Books (now WOB) any more because of their  inability to consistently  and accurately describe the books they have for sale. They, though they claim to love books, are actually the Donald Drumpf and Boris Johnson of the book world. They are, in sum, flim flam men.

 

Thriftbooks, I can report, has, if the descriptions on their webpages are a guide and most of them seem to be, descriptions that note whether a book is ex-library or not, have improved dramatically recently. Good on them. Better World Books, unfortunately, has not improved. While it notes that some items it sells are ex-library this caveat is not consistent across the board. I hence do not buy from Better World Books as I have no interest in playing used book roulette.

  

The Ugly: 

Amazon

What, some of you might be wondering, is Amazon doing in a blog that rates used book sellers? The reason is simple, Amazon, when packing books, treats them like bars of soap, so when they arrive they often look used with their bruises, their bumps, their bent or foxed pages.  There is no seller I am familiar with that is uglier, skankier, and slaggier than Skankazon.

BookmanOrange (yet another flim flam company that has description deficit disorder, a disorder which manifests itself as an inability to describe an "ex-lib" book as "ex-lib)  

Books 247  

BreakTimeBooks 

HiddenGemsBooks 

Julies-Bookshop-UK (described a book with bumping on the edges, a cover that looked like it had been used as a punching bag, and a title page with ink blacked out with black marker as "like new")  

Katie'sBooks (inaccurate description of book condition)  

Momox 

Nana Anna (did not note book ex-lib)

Newsboy 

Onc1958 

Southern Maryland (inaccurate description of condition of book) 

UHR Books (Did not put the fact that the book they sent me was ex-lib in the description of the book and provided no tracking information) 

Waterworks, NYC (described a book with significant underling as vg and made, of course, no mention of the underlining) 

Westcott and Company Books and Fine Prints (said book was clean; wasn't)

WorldofBooksUSA 

WordSmyth 2

Your Own Bookstore

Conclusion: The ugly tend to, in my experience, have several things in common. They sell cheap. They are the ones at the top of the Amazon list of used books for sale. They seem to be supremely challenged in what has apparently become a difficult art to master since the 1990s, the accurate description of a book. The ugly commonly describe a book they are selling with the verbs "may" or "can" as in this book "may" or "can" have underlining or highlights or this book "may" or "can" be ex-library. They tend to describe books as in better condition that they actually are in. In the rhetoric of the ugly, a good book becomes very good book and very good book becomes a like new book. Whenever a potential book buyer sees any of these clear markers I would recommend that the potential buyer immediately flee and look for an alternative seller who has a firmer grasp of what the book being sold looks like in reality. Whether these sellers are just incompetent, Machiavellian in their appetites for profit at all costs, or both remains an open question.

Not only are the ugly intellectually challenged when it comes to describing books, they also generally have awful "customer service". For example, I asked the con capitalist firm of WorldofBooksUSA (which now goes by the awful name of WOB) for a description of a book (The Movie Book of Film Noir) they had for sale. The company's customer service representative, a term I use very loosely, said they couldn't tell me anything about the condition of the book beyond what they posted. Let's hear if for corporate customer service whose motto seems to be you pays your money and you takes your chances. And the award for worst of the worst goes to WorldofBooksUSA. But hold on, When I asked Hippo Books the same question, I got the same response.

The Slaggy and Skanky
Better World Books

Better World Books is sadly characterised far too often by description deficit disorder, namely bynot telling a buyer that a book is an "ex-lib" and selling German language books as English language books. Despite being a challenged bookseller far too often, Better World can sometimes send you a book that is accurately described and is in vg shape. As with Half Price and Thrift Books buying books from Better World is rather like shooting craps or playing Russian roulette. 

 

Blindpig, Salt Lake City, Utah

I used to work at one of the best used bookstores I have ever had the pleasure of shopping in and working at, Walt West Books in Provo. Walt never bought used library books and if he had he would have surely have noted that they were ex-library if he had sold them online because he was an honest and reputable bookseller of long standing. Unfortunatly, the aptly named BlindPig books, blind in that they can't note something critical in their description of book, namely that it is an ex-library book, and  pigs because they apparently don't realise the obvious that it is mandatory that an ex-library book be described as ex-lib, aren't Walt West Books. Avoid like the plague.

 

Book Deals, New York

Ergodebooks, Texas 

GlassFrogBooks, California
These three booksellers, Book Deals, Ergodebooks, and GlassFrog Books, told me, in emails, that they sell mostly ex-library books. They don't generally tell you this in their descriptions of the books they sell, however. That these three booksellers don't provide customers with this important information tells you how slaggy and skanky they are. They are the book selling equivalent of snake oil capitialists. Caveat emptor.

 

Books Unplugged, New York
One thing to keep in mind about companies like Better World Books is that they also sell books under other names. One "company" they sell books under the name of is Books Unplugged. One real bookseller from Cleveland refers to this as book juggling. I ordered a book recently from Books Unplugged in New York and received the book I ordered from Better World Books of Mishawaka, Indiana. Books Unplugged, which advertises itself as an "independent bookstore" seems, in other words, to be a front for or is somehow related in some shape, way, or form, to Better World Books. Apparently one now has to explore the links between bookstores selling online in the same way one has to explore corporate interlinks. By the way, Books Unplugged, in patented Better World Books fashion, sent me a ex-library book that was not described as an ex-library book. And it had the gall to describe this book as "very good", something, given the markings in ex-lib books, it simply cannot be.

 

Bookstop1958

I recently contacted this "bookseller" about a book he/she/it described as "good". I asked the seller if he/she/it could tell me whether the book she listed was "ex-library", something I do increasingly given the description disorder that characterises many fly by night slacker skank booksellers today and how many times I have been burned. He/she/it could not, however, tell me whether the book was ex-lib or not. Apparently the seller doesn't even know his/her/its stock. As a consequence, I can only conclude, (a) that this bookseller doesn't give a shite about accurately describing what he/she/it has for sale; (b) is a lazy slacker; (c) is clueless about how books have historically been described; (d) is a front, like Books Unplugged above, for Better World Books or one of its ilk; or (e) is all of the above. I assume, by the way, that this tendency in the world of Amazon booksellers to create fronts--a long time corporate practise--is because of a bad reputation of these faux booksellers out their in OnlneLand.

Front Cover Books, Denver

Taking its name cue, one assumes, from the famous independent bookseller in Denver, Tattered Pages, Front Cover Books is a skanky scam artist that is far different from its namesake. Front Cover sent me a book, which they listed as very good, which, was described in the description insert in the book as actually having a crooked spin, worn corners, and worn page edges. This was an accurate description of a book that was not very good but, at best, good minus and more accurately acceptable, up to a point. In addition to the crooked spine, worn corners, and worn page edges (foxing) the book was soiled, had eight stickers stuck in numerous locales on its cover, and had various types and forms of other cover damage. The moral of this little tale: steer clear of flim flammers like Front Cover and its aider and abetter in skank and slag, ABE Books. Hmm, that last just keeps popping up in the ugly category doesn't it? I think it is time to skedaddle from ABE.

Julian's Books, New York City
This "bookseller supposedly sent me a book from NYC, I say supposedly because he did not put up tracking information so I could follow the books progress. It was supposed to travel two and one hours north by 28 April. It never arrived raising the question if it was ever actually sent. I sent the seller several emails because the seller was unresponsive to emails asking about tracking information and a refund. It simply doesn't take over a month for a book to travel two and a half hours north of NYC. I finally got a grumpy email from Julian's and eventually a refund  Avoid like the plague.

Monkey Books
Monkey is right. Another incompetent and lazy bookseller. Monkey Books classified a "good" book as "very good". It did not classify the book they sent as "ex-library", but it, of course, was. And that means, by definition, that the book is not "vg" given the stamps and other garbage on ex-lib books. Additionally, this braniac posted his 1961 edition of the book on the page of a later revised edition. Finally, the book of over 600 pages was poorly packaged and arrived severely damaged. Anyway, I am sick and tired of these incompetent flim flam snake oil "booksellers".

 

Murray Media of North Beach, Florida
I purchased A Hero of Our Times from this "bookseller", a term I use very advisedly, via ABE, which may be even skankier and slaggier than Amazon but then it is owned by Skankizon. The item as pictured and the ISBN as listed was for the OneWorld translation of Lermontov's classic. What did this skanky and slaggy bookseller send me? Well they did sent A Hero of Our Time but in the Dover edition. Apparently this "bookseller did not know the difference between the British publisher OneWorld and the US thrift book company Dover. What can you say about a bunch of skanks and slags who don't even know the books they are selling or who don't give a shite about them them other than that they must be capitalist flim flam men who worship the almighty dollar regardless of how they get it?  One thing I can say about Murray and ABE is avoid this scam artist and the service that aids and abets scammers like the plague.

Zeke's Books

Zeke sold me a book then cancelled it not because it was out of stock but because he apparently, or so he claimed (Casablanca moment number 3456765) made a mistake in pricing the item. Of course, we all know the real reason old Zeke cancelled the sale, he, of course, had second thoughts about how much he priced the book at and, with Amazon's help, he cancelled the sale so he could raise the price of the book over 100%. Who knew that Nova Scotia had skanks that would make even Texas blush. 

pulpsguy (the Bowman's)

Yet another in a long lineage of skankepreneurs who can't accurately describe the used books they sell online. Pulpie described a book I purchased from them as "Like New". When it arrived, however, it was clear it was an ex-lib book, the library pocket had been ripped out leaving the ususal detritus, it had scribbling in it, and it had glue and perhaps water damage. The book, in other words, was in no way "Like New". Avoid this flim flammer.

 

Zubal
I have ordered four times from Zubal in Cleveland and each successive time I ordered was worse than the previous time I ordered. On one occasion the seller did not note the underlining in a book described as vg. On the second occasion, an ex-library book was not described as ex-library, as it should have been by any good bookseller. Apparently the proprietor of Zubal is constitutionally unable to state the obvious, namely that a book he has for sale is a former library book or an ex library book. For these reasons I have moved Zubal from the good to the ugly category in this blog. I will not be purchasing from Zubal in the future. I advise you to avoid them as well.

After further analysis I have decided to move Zubal from the bad to the slaggy and skanky after they sent me this sophistic response. "Hardcover, minor sticker residue to front pastedown, hand stamps to page edges else text clean binding tight in a chipped and worn dust jacket". As I noted, firstly, as any good bookseller knows, ex library books must be, at least by an honest bookseller, described as "ex-library" or "ex-lib" or former library book. You did not note that critical fact. Second, when ex-lib is not noted, hand stamps can refer to personal hand stamps such as John Smith. Third, a John Smith can and sometimes does hand stamp on the edges of books. Fourth, pastedown can refer to book plates which are pasted in and then removed. To conclude, there was ambiguity in your description because you did not note what any good and competent bookseller would, namely that the item was a discarded Chicago Public Library book.

Finally, let me note that Biblio, the book selling service I used to buy this skanky book, aided and abetted Zubal in screwing this consumer and has apparently decided not to hold that flim flam "business" accountable for its fake and inadequate descriptions. I will no longer be using that service. It really says a lot when ABE books, which is owned by Amazon, has superior customer service to the "independent" Biblio.

Epilogue

I will, dear reader, periodically update my list as I learn about more booksellers online...I hope that any of you who have had good, so-so, and ugly experiences purchasing books online will add your experiences and thoughts in the comments boxes below...

The Books of My Life: Acting in the Cinema

In Acting in the Cinema (Berkley: University of California Press, 1988) and a follow up article entitled "Acting in the Cinema" (in Pam Cook (editor); The Cinema Book (London: BFI, 2007)) that brings the story into the 21st century, Indiana University film scholar James Naremore explores the history and practise of film acting. Naremore delineates the five types of acting that, he argues, influenced Hollywood film acting: the pantomime acting style that goes back some 2000 years, the expressionist acting style with roots in Weimar, the bio-mechanical acting style developed by Vsevolod Meyerhold in post-revolutionary Russia, the naturalistic acting of the late 19th and early 20th associated with Russian and Soviet theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky and which morphed into "the method" in mid-20th century America, the Weimar Brechtian tradition of acting which foregrounds the artificial and constructed nature of theatre and theatre acting, and the neo-pantomime acting style that dominates the contemporary Hollywood of science fiction, fantasy, and comic strip movies.

Naremore's book and article are, in my opinion, the best things I have read on film acting for one simple reason, Naremore really tries to get at the history and sociology of film acting in a systematic and analytical way. Naremore does an excellent job of tracing the history of acting from the theatre of ancient Greece, to the theatre of Shakespeare, to the various patomime acting manuals for theatre actors in the 18th through 21st centuries, to the rise of naturalistic and psychological realist forms of theatre acting of the late 19th and 20th centuries, and finally to 20th and 21st century Hollywood. Naremore, drawing on ethnographer and theorist Erving Goffman, does a nice job of exploring how acting, sociologically and ethnologically speaking, is a caricatured and stereotyped form of the role playing all of us perform in everyday life thanks to socialisation. All of us really are actors o the stage of the world. Naremore does an excellent job of exploring how technologies, such as microphones, editing, camera movements, and cgi, for instance, have impacted film acting over the years. Naremore presents several fascinating and incisive case studies of five Hollywood actors and acting in two Hollywood films. Finally, Naremore does an excellent job of making the exotic and often obscure language of contemporary film scholars understandable for the non-specialist reader.

What Naremore's book and article doesn't do, and which I would like to have seen more of, however, is an exploration of how pantomime and naturalistic forms of acting became dominant in Hollywood. I think a chapter on the Hollywood studio's acting schools would have helped immensely in linking earlier forms of theatre acting styles to Hollywood acting styles. Additionally, given that Naremore speculates about how audiences read Hollywood films and its actors, it would have been nice to see more quantitative and qualitative analysis of how real film audiences "read" Hollywood films and their actors. Without such studies speculation about how audiences "read" Hollywood films in the work of contemporary film scholars seems little more than a form or reader response. Finally, it would have been nice to see Naremore explore in greater detail just how generalisable the acting of the actors he studied and the acting in the films he explored, were and are. Naremore tends to focus his attention on actors and films that are well-known and well-regarded today.

Naremore's book and article are an excellent corrective of the many ahistorical historical and methodologically problematic approaches to film that seem to dominate film studies in the West these days. I wish more film scholars would follow Naremore's lead and ground their analysis in history and sociological studies of socialisation rather than in the ahistorical anti-ethnography of psychoanalysis. Reading Naremore's book, something I have intended to do for some time, reminded this sixty year old plus reader of how much I learned from Professor Naremore when I was a student in his undergraduate and graduate classes at Indiana University.