Like a lot of people, there are plenty of things about the Internet, and modern technology in general, that drive me nuts. But there's plenty of good too. For me, one of the best things about the Internet is the ability to get expensive books for cheap.
As part of my goal to read a biography on every US President, I'd decided to read Thomas Jefferson & The New Nation by Merrill D. Peterson. Unfortunately the book costs $50 to buy new. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. We're not talking some fancy, gold leafed volume with glossy, color pictures. It's a standard trade-paperback book with only a handful of black and white pictures. Yes it's long, but so are a lot of books I read that cost $10.
When something like this happens, my favorite site to go to is fetchbook.info. This site goes out and searches several used book sites (Half, Abebooks, Ebay) and comes back with the lowest prices. Using this, I was able to get my Jefferson biography, virtually new, for a fifth of the cost.
All 1,000+ pages of historical joy were waiting for me when I got home tonight. So now I'm happy, the used online bookseller is happy, and my wallet is happy. About the only person who's not happy is Merrill D Peterson who's not getting any additional royalty money because of how outrageously expensive his book is. I highly recommend fetchbook.info both for cases like this and for out of print books.
2 comments:
I think it's safe to say I never expected one of my children to have a goal of reading a biography for each U.S. president! Nor was this something I prayed for : - )
But your other statement says it all when you talk about "pure, historical joy". That tells me you are pursuing interests and loves that God has placed upon your heart and for that, I'm thankful. Love you,
Mom
Ben, thanks for mentioning fetchbook- happy to see you like it and use it.
Aviv from fetchbook.
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