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General Blog

On The Joys of Buying Your Books Online

Now listen up and pay attention you folk!

There used to be a time when we bought our books from bricks-and-mortar, three-dimensional, found-in-every-high-street, and sometimes-in-a-side-street, book shops. Some were  (yes, even in those days) run by chains,   some independent, some staffed by knowledgable, eccentric or   possibly even cantankerous characters.- but for the most part with a selection of books that differed - at least to some extent - from shop to shop and from locality to locality. Then came the closure, one-by-one, of the independents, all too often squeezed out by high (street) rents, and sadly too, through a decline in custom, while the chains moved into an era of centralized buying, with the nation's tastes in reading being dictated - heaven forbid -   from an anonymous office in the likes of Swindon or Milton Keynes.

Then, about a decade ago, along came the three A's -   Amazon, Abebooks and Alibris - and those hard-to-find and out-of-print little gems appeared again, but this time in Cyberspace - thanks - initially in the case of Abebooks and Alibris, to individual booksellers (some of whom had been booted-out of their bricks-and-mortar stores, because they could no longer afford the rent - a few of whom have even - praise be - clung on to their dearly beloved stores as well) being allowed to sell their wares through these sites - a move that Amazon soon cottoned-on to, when it too allowed third-party sellers access to its site. This mean't, after all ,that it could vastly expand the range of titles on offer without actually having to stock them. Smart move that : Hmm so Amazon deserve a promotion. And by golly they're going to get it! Right down at the bottom of this page, along with Abebooks and Alibris!

Note: If you disagree with the any of above and wish to run the risk of a court-martial, or if you have any sensible and constructive comments to make, please feel free to send one of these new-fangled Email thingamees to General_Blog@BookBlog.org.uk