For the past year my wanderings on the web have mostly been spent on Amazon, BarnesandNoble, My library’s site, and Paperbackswap.

Paperbackswap is great.  I just received to books in the mail from them last week.  (Its a site where you swap books.  For every book you send of to a member (who requests the book) you earn a point.  One book=One point.  So then you can spend your point to get a book from another member.

I am currently using their recommendations feature and I love it!  Every time I log in, theres a scroller that briefly runs through the books available in genres that I have marked as favorites.  This feature is how I found the two books I received last week.

The one con: The Out-Of-Print Curse.  When I finally find a book that sounds AMAZING, they don’t have a copy available.  Okay, then.  Next step: Check my library.  Sadly, they clean their shelves of books that haven’t been checked out in months, the book isn’t there.  I’ll finally look it up on BarnesandNoble to consider buying it and… ITS OUT-OF-PRINT!!!

How frustrating!  All I want to do is read this amazing book from this great author, but I can’t even get a copy!

My last hope is Amazon to buy a used copy.  But I am just so darn picky that I’m scared to get a used book (on paperbackswap you can fill out a sheet with your preferences to book condition, so the sender has to have the book in near perfect condition before sending).

I noticed many places on the web and my library don’t hold on to their out-of-print copies.  Everyone is jumping for the books that come out the next month, but very few are looking for books that happen to be published in the early ’90s.  I have to admit that I love it when publishers reprint older editions with new covers (the ’80s didn’t do so well on book covers) and modernize them a bit.  They are currently doing this to the Sweet Valley High Series and Hardy Boys Series.  Why can’t they do that to all books and not just bestselling series?

The answer to this unfortunate curse: None so far besides the searching at garage sales, flea markets, other libraries in the same state, and the occasional buy off Amazon or Paperbackswap. 

Doesn’t it make sense to have a company, kind of like Barnes and Noble, that would just sell out-of-print books?