Monday, August 24, 2009

BBAW, and recent purchases

First, thank you to whoever nominated Reading the Past for Best History/Historical Fiction blog for Book Blogger Appreciation Week! It's an honor to be in such great company (I know many of my fellow HF bloggers were also nominated) and also really nice to see that our little corner of the blogosphere has an award to call our own.

I've made a couple semi-large purchases this week and thought I'd spread the word, especially since the sales won't last long. The first is that there's a really good deal on stackable folding bookshelves going on this week at Staples, the US-based office supply store. They're $29.99 apiece in stores, which means you can get a floor-to-ceiling pair of them for $60. I own a couple dozen of these shelves, and this is the cheapest I've ever seen them, so yesterday we went out and ordered four more with free delivery since our local store was out of stock. This means the mini-chateau of books next to my desk will soon be gone (to my cats' dismay).

This is what eight of them look like, stacked and placed side by side. And yes, there is another row of them around the corner to the left...

The second thing is that, for those of you who haven't heard, Book Depository's US site, http://www.bookdepository.com/, is now in business and has enormous discounts (up to 54% off) on some brand new titles and preorders, but you have to be fast and catch them before they disappear. Last week, I found Lindsey Davis's Rebels and Traitors, to be published in two weeks, on sale for $9ish plus free shipping. Of course I put it in my cart. That particular discount doesn't seem to be available any more, but there are others just as good on different books.

I purchased, erm, seven or eight other historical novels at similar prices and will have to wait a few weeks to a few months until some of them come in, but that's OK with me. Browse through their historical novel section and see what else you can find. Some books are as low as $5.24 US. How are they making money on this, especially with the free shipping? I've no idea. They're also selling Gregory's The White Queen for 1/2 off, should you be leaning in that direction. (My book is even on sale with a small discount, with free shipping worldwide. Normally, for some countries, airmail shipping would be more than the book itself costs.)

Anyway, I have no association with either company, but maybe some other book collector will find this info useful.

16 comments:

  1. I showed your picture to my husband saying "and you thought I had a lot of books." He said it looked like you had an impressive collection!

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  2. Finally, bookshelves to rival my own! And you stack your books in front of and on top of one another, as I do! Can I come to visit?

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  3. Thanks! The photo actually shows about 1/5 of the collection, maybe a little less...

    Stacking the books like that is the only way to maximize the available space. The shelves don't start out that way, but I keep buying more and run out of room. Visits from other HF people welcome!

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  4. Nice!! Very nice!

    And Congratulations on your nomination!!

    Lezlie

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  5. Ooh, will have to remember Staples next time I run out of shelf space!

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  6. Without a doubt, that is more HF than the local branch of my county library has - and I'm not even counting the shelves around the corner.

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  7. Congrats on your nomination!! I also got one for H.F. and so did Historical Tapestry. It's an honour to be in such good company.

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  8. Thanks! And I'm not surprised your blogs were nominated, Teddy! I'd be curious to see the other nominees if only to see what HF blogs I might be missing out on.

    My local public library doesn't have much HF either, but they're very small and have had ongoing financial problems. The university library where I work acquires a fair bit. It helps that I often make purchase suggestions...

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  9. Congratulations on your nomination!

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  10. Hold the door, I'm coming over!!!
    Did you read all of those books? OR are those hiding in a nasty TBR stack somewhere?
    Sadly, I've now accumulated more TBR then 'Have Read'. Can't keep up these days! But that's not such a bad thing to endure.

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  11. Marie, I think that is a common problem! Hmm, I've read maybe 1/3 of them on those shelves. My books aren't really in any order other than chronological (not by time period, but by order of arrival at my house). I tried to get more organized once, but it was too much work.

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  12. The new books you listed sound intriguing, and I was pleased to see not a single Tudor among them. I hope we're going to be getting a wider variety of historical fiction from publishers soon.

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  13. Congratulations on your nomination! Your bookshelves look absolutely divine! I'd love to look through them!

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  14. Anonymous3:29 PM

    WOW! Sorry I didn't look here last week. I would have loved a copy of Rebels & Traitors. It's still $25, which isn't too bad . . . esp. with free shipping.

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  15. I'm pretty sure I got the paperback edition of R&T, which is $18 rather than $25 (though you may prefer hardback). Book Depository's prices really do vary a lot. If catch books at least a month before publication, and preorder them, you'll find some really great deals.

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