Scroll down for the best guide to textbooks, new books, used and antiquarian books. Updated 9/15/03

TEXTBOOKS You can use textbookhound.com  or allbookstores.com or fetchbook.info or bookfinder4u.com (this on is new to this list, and I really like it - made by Feng Zhu) indexes to find the best price. Here is another one bestwebbuys.com and froogle.google.com and www.mysimon.com and pricescan.com.  Texbook wholesaling/retailing can be a little different than most new/used book sales. books-a-million.com has very good prices, ESPECIALLY if you get the membership card. This may sound crazy, but wal-mart.com may be your very best price. You can try amazon, etc. but these types of stores almost never offer a good price (usually no discount at all) on textbooks. You can also try half or amazon for a used one. If you are shopping for USED textbooks at places like half.com or amazon.com, be VERY VERY [very] CAREFUL. The generic listing may be for the edition you want, but the individual used items may not be the same thing (they may be an older edition, etc.). A good source for used textbooks might be places that specialize in used textbooks, like barnes and noble's texbook section, or efollett.com. You usually want textbooks asap: If they say ships in 24, it probably (often) is true, anything else maybe/maybe not (e.g., if it says 7-8 days or 1 to 2 weeks, that might mean never. Even 2-3 days may mean WEEKS.). When you absolutely NEED the book, I like places I can call and ask if they “really” have it, or ones whose online inventory system can be trusted to tell you if it is really in stock.

NEW BOOKS (normal books, as opposed to text books), CD's, videos, software,:  amazon, barnes & noble, buy, 1bookstreet. You can also use the indexes listed in the above section to compare prices. Buy does not have as massive an inventory as others but they have great prices.1bookstreet does not charge U.S. shipping (this can make it the very best price). You can try searching the Dealtime database or bookpricer.com, but you usually won't find a better book prices than at one of the previous stores (you may for CDs & videos). For software, you can find the best prices using cnet (click on their prices link at the top of their site). For books, Cds, videos, and more, you can use these comparison sites: mysimon.com and pricegrabber.com.

REMAINDER, LEFTOVER, DISCOUNTED, USED (recent) BOOKS: allbooks4less (new), bookcloseouts (new), half (used books, CDs, movies). You can find some bargains at valuebin.com. 

ANTIQUARIAN & USED BOOKS: abe, powells, biblio, alibris, barnes & noble out of print search, BAMM  Start with abe and biblio--they are not so much a store as they are databases that let you search listings and send orders to member stores. They are the greatest thing since the invention of the printing press. Then try powells. Alibris has many items that you will not find listed elsewhere but, for those that are listed elsewhere, do not order them from alibris (they mark them up quite a bit). The same is true about bn and amazon; they have some unique books, but have a high markup. Let me state that another way just to be clear: the majority of the books [the exact items] that you can find using alibris, bn, and amazon's used book services can be found without the 30% markup that these places just pocket by using abe or biblio.  alibris, bn, or amazon for used books as a last resort. bn and amazon are great for new books and some of the other products they sell.

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WHY SHOP HERE? BECAUSE! BOOKS, MUSIC,  DVD & VIDEO, TOYS & GAMES, ELECRONICS & SOFTWARE, HOME IMPROVEMENT

If you want to know why the address for this website ends in 451...

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.