Bargain bins

[conradd]

The Books a Million thread made me wonder how many of the rest of you spend time perusing the bargain tables at your favorite bookseller in hopes of finding something wonderful.

I stopped in at Borders a while back, ostensibly for a Starbucks Frappaccino, but I was irresistably drawn to the stacks of remaindered books. I picked up a primer on philosophy ($3.99)- just right to introduce some of the great thinkers in a class I begin teaching in October. Last week at Powell's Books, I found a copy of Reading Between the Numbers ($6.98) which will be very helpful to my non-linear thinkers who struggle with statistical concepts. And, yesterday I scored big at Barnes & Nobles when I found an entire wall of books and CDs that were marked down to $1 each. True, some of them left me wondering what the publisher was thinking. But, I picked up a gorgeous book on an obscure modern artist (never heard of him and even now I can't remember what his name was) for my brother the art teacher. Among the other, more whimsical titles, I found an anthology of Jorge Luis Borges short stories and poems, and this was pay dirt for me. The CDs were interesting. I'd never heard of the artists but came away with a handful of titles - Chantilly Rememberance (songs inspired by the Civil War), Stairway to Heaven by the Trinity College Choir, and A Tribute to the Comedian Harmonists by the Kings Singers. I'd never have paid full price for the CD, but $1 is certainly worth a bit of risk.

Anyone else?

Deb

[magenta321]

Doh, what's with all the threads mentioning the Kings Singers? Are you guys are conspiring to get me to spend money?

I will have to check if my local store has it for a dollar. Somehow I doubt it.

(I must be conspiring against myself, now that I think of it, because I belive I brought up the Kings Singers afterall...)

[hadassahchana[$]]

I am just terrible! If a book is on a sale table, in my warped world view, that can mean only one thing: it must want to come and live at my house!

For example, I have been forcibly stopped from buying a guide to Windows 95 (My computer has windows ME).

Howevert, sometimes being a packrat has an up side, too. Recently, I have become interested in the writings of Howard Gardener ( the 'different intelligences' prof). I wanted to read the book called 'The Disciplined Mind', but our library didn't have it. Nor did the university library have it. However, I was sorting through a stack of books in my bedroom, and guess what I found, complete with a $3.99 sticker on the cover?? I don't even remember buying it , which is the best part. Sort of like finding a present, only it's not my birthday!

:

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, sale tables at bookstores are the best things in the world. Now if they'd only remainder bookshelves!

Cindy

[Grouch]

Originally posted by conradd
The Books a Million thread made me wonder how many of the rest of you spend time perusing the bargain tables at your favorite bookseller in hopes of finding something wonderful.

Always.
Always, always, always.

I've found some good treasures here...as well as some bestsellers I originally adopted a "wait and see" attitude with.

Recent picks that have warmed the cockles of my heart:

MILTON IN AMERICA by Peter Ackroyd
NIGHT TRAIN by Martin Amis
VOYAGE OF THE NARWHAL by Andrea Barrett
MUSIC FOR TORCHING by A.M. Homes
A CONSPIRACY OF PAPER by David Liss
SABBATH'S THEATER by Philip Roth
BLINDNESS by Jose Saramango
QUITE A YEAR FOR PLUMS by Bailey White

[hadassahchana[$]]

VOYAGE OF THE NARWHAL by Andrea Barrett

I just saw this the other day on a sale table. Unfortunately, I had no money with me. Is it worth a trip back to look for it?

Cindy

[Grouch]

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it looks like a fascinating book. It got tons of good reviews when it was released. That, and the fact that Andrea Barrett won the National Book Award for her short story collection Ship Fever all adds up to a must-read for me.

[quasar]

My friend Marci and I have a rule: visit New England Mobile Book Fair no more than once every two years. This means we have been twice. Both times I walked out with ~$200 of remainders, having put back a whole bunch of stuff I wanted. NEMBF has six or seven large rooms filled with remainders, in case you were wondering.

I do find some bargain books at regular bookstores, but not too many. Waldenbooks has actually been my main source recently. I've picked up a few physics books for 5-8 each, and some excellent cheap audio books.

I've gotten much better about buying books. Really I have (honest!).

Janice

[tipu]

Originally posted by hadassahchana
I just saw this the other day on a sale table. Unfortunately, I had no money with me. Is it worth a trip back to look for it?

Weeellll... if you like your fictional retellings wishy washy, perhaps...

I thought the story(ies) had promise, but it all gets bogged down in a genteel writing style that perhaps was suitable for describing the characters left behind, but since the main thrust of the book's supposed to be a voyage to the Arctic, it doesn't work... of course, those're my thoughts only...

... the book can be divided into about four major sections, and I liked one of them, which had nothing to do with the Arctic trip...

... check out Miles Harvey for a similarly structured book, down to the topical etchings before each chapter...

[pageclot[$]]

There are tons of bargain bins in our local bookstores these days, because....

some time ago, a few investors tried to emulate the success of the bookstore superstores in the U.S.. Chapters and Indigo were the major players. Both were financially troubled, trying to expand their store base while their existing stores weren't all doing well. Indigo bought out Chapters recently, and discovered (they say) that the financial picture was even bleaker than they thought.

Both companies have been stretching payments to their suppliers (the publishers) because of cash flow problems. Now, faced with tons of excess stock in stores they want to close, they can either return it to the publishers (essentially killing them) or they can put it on the floor at 75% off. So a lot of good stuff hits the floor at 75% off.

This has even affected the small local booksellers, who have to have remainder tables to compete. This is where I was yesterday, and I picked up:

- A biography of T.E. Lawrence ("The Uncrowned King of Arabia"),
- E.M. Forster's A Room With a View
- Martin Amis' Einstein's Monsters
- Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange

as well as several Winnie the Pooh board books, normally $6, for $.99 each!

Quite a haul.

I loooove bargain bins. Unfortunately checking them out frequently leaves me with a bunch of hardcover books that, while they look nice, are kinda a pain in the butt to pack around. Also there is the fact that bargain hardcovers aren't usually too much less than paperbacks (although I have picked up a few of them...) I just picked up half a dozen books from a local bookstore for a quarter a piece though (yeah, used books) and got a couple that were pretty good

Ander