How to use this Page

We were happy to see BookFinder.com cited in a number of recent lists of useful resources for college students…

#3 among “25 Essential Web Resources for Researchers and Students” :

“If you are looking for any kind of book, whether it is rare or out-of-print, specific edition - You will find it at Bookfinder. Over 125 millions book titles to search, you can actually buy new and old-books from this site. They achieve by doing a search through every major catalog available online.”

#7 among the “Top 10 Back to School Tools for the Organized Student”:

“Feel like you got hit over the head with a baseball bat when you leave the campus bookstore? Find the best deals on textbooks at BookFinder.com.”

#8 among “12 Super Web Apps For College Student Success In 2008”:

“Bookfinder - Never look anywhere else to find a textbook that you need. This site searches the entire internet and shows you the best price for what you’re looking for.”

One of the “Ten Web Sites Guaranteed to Make Your School Semester Easier”:

“A trip to the campus bookstore can end up exceding the cost of a month’s rent, but searching countless bookselling Web sites is a tedious process. So before you cough up a few hundo and force yourself to eat a semester of Ramen so you can afford that spring-break trip, check out BookFinder.com. BookFinder searches more than 100,000 booksellers worldwide (including popular sites like Amazon, BookByte.com, and Half.com) for any book, whether it’s new, used, or out of print. And because BookFinder is simply an aggregator, you order directly from the retailer; there’s no markup for its services. We liked that your search results come up in two columns: Used and New.”

One of the “Five ways to tech-out your college lifestyle”:

“While the interface seems a little dated, BookFinder will save you tons of time and money. Simply type in a book you’re looking for and the site will find you the best price the internet has to offer. There’s no longer a need to search a ton of websites (or get ripped off by Norris) to get the most for your buck.”

Top writing tool among “The Most Helpful Web Tools for Students”:

“A one-stop ecommerce search engine that searches over 125 million books for sale — new, used, rare, out-of-print, and textbooks. Save your time and money by searching every major catalog online, find out which booksellers are offering the best prices and selection. When you find a book you like, you can buy it directly from the original seller; BookFinder never charges a markup. If you are one of those poor students who struggles for money, this site is for you. You can compare prices that are offered by different sellers and pick up the cheapest item.”

One of the resources cited in a “Back to School Productivity Roundup” :

BookFinder: Compare prices on 125 million new and used books

Last weekend, On the Media discussed e-books, and the future of publishing. Daniel J. Kramer's report on the Espresso Book Machine mentioned one of our classics:

"Now, instead of spending years tracking down Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, you just print it out, go home with a copy of it in your back pocket and finally read it."

At 1424 pages, I don't know that it would be all that easy to put this wonderful tome in your pocket! Fortunately Anatomy of Melancholy is still readily available through us, and it's actually on sale for the holiday.

I’d like to think of the four of us here at BookFinder.com as being fairly globally-minded; we all speak second (or in some cases, third) languages, and have all spent time living or working in other countries. This background helps motivate us to pay close attention to small details, to help ensure that the site isn’t too parochial.

It’s fun seeing bibliophiles overseas benefit from our work. Here are two recent blog posts from tech bloggers outside the US, comparing BookFinder.com to Amazon.com:

Writes Abdylas “Ades” Tynyshov, a Kyrgyz blogger now studying in Malaysia:

Bookfinder - find and compare prices: “The good thing about this site is that it works in US and internationally, for international users it detects your origin of country and can search for books that can be shipped to your country. Because most of the time Amazon won’t ship used books internationally.”

Writes Italian blogger Nicola Deiana:

Do You Want to Buy a Book? Bookfinder is here: “Put most simply- for any book found you can display one page with its features. One of positive aspect is that bookfinder works in US and internationally, so you can find books by search for your country. First impression: In my view, I have to say so far it’s an incredible alternative to Amazon. In terms of ease of use and functionality, bookfind is one of the best search for books that I’ve seen yet. If you ever need a places to hunt for ebook, Bookfind provides a large range of book in their archive.”

[Now Reading: Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan]

Scott McLemee and Peniel E. Joseph discuss Harold Cruse's Crisis of the Negro Intellectual in Inside Higher Education. Topics touched on: Marxism, pan-Africanism, Stokely Carmichael, Stanley Crouch, Lorraine Hansbury, "The Year of the Panther," cussedness, and middle-age success. Have we left out anything? [Link]

Joseph offers mixed criticism of Crisis, though he allows that

Cruse’ impact on Black Studies was enormous in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was intensely sought out as a university speaker, mentor, and sage by a generation of young militants trying to make their way through the complex and murky haze of the recent past. For Black Studies programs the weightiness, both literally and figuratively, of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual could be used to justify the substantive importance, even existence in some instance, of rich, vibrant, and complex black intellectual production and scholarly achievement. Indeed, the tome’s sheer heft, made it required reading for tens of thousands of students during this era who read it alongside of such classic texts as The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.

McLemee thinks we could use a bit more contentiousness à la Cruse these days:

Well, I’m reluctant to go along with any scenario in which Cruse is just an important but misguided ancestor. Maybe the historians have surpassed him, but the cultural critics haven’t, necessarily.I’m thinking of an academic conference on hip-hop a few years ago that was struck me as incredibly underwhelming at the level of analysis and argument. (It was the Authenticity Olympics, pretty much.) The qualities that make Crisis so readable after all this time — the critical edge, the skepticism, the sense of cultural history as something to fight about rather than just to celebrate – were not much in evidence. If Cruse had been there, he would’ve cleaned everybody’s clock.

The article sparked some debate over at the discussion board of the African American Literature Book Club. If you're up for a battle (of wits) you might get one there.

Scott McLemee and Peniel E. Joseph discuss Harold Cruse's Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (which was published forty years ago) in Inside Higher Education. Topics touched on: Marxism, pan-Africanism, Stokely Carmichael, Stanley Crouch, Lorraine Hansbury, "The Year of the Panther," cussedness, and middle-age success. Have we left out anything? [Link]

Joseph offers mixed criticism of Crisis, though he allows that

Cruse??? impact on Black Studies was enormous in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was intensely sought out as a university speaker, mentor, and sage by a generation of young militants trying to make their way through the complex and murky haze of the recent past. For Black Studies programs the weightiness, both literally and figuratively, of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual could be used to justify the substantive importance, even existence in some instance, of rich, vibrant, and complex black intellectual production and scholarly achievement. Indeed, the tome???s sheer heft, made it required reading for tens of thousands of students during this era who read it alongside of such classic texts as The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Franz Fanon???s The Wretched of the Earth.

McLemee thinks we could use a bit more contentiousness ?? la Cruse these days:

Well, I???m reluctant to go along with any scenario in which Cruse is just an important but misguided ancestor. Maybe the historians have surpassed him, but the cultural critics haven???t, necessarily.I???m thinking of an academic conference on hip-hop a few years ago that was struck me as incredibly underwhelming at the level of analysis and argument. (It was the Authenticity Olympics, pretty much.) The qualities that make Crisis so readable after all this time ??? the critical edge, the skepticism, the sense of cultural history as something to fight about rather than just to celebrate ??? were not much in evidence. If Cruse had been there, he would???ve cleaned everybody???s clock.

The article sparked some debate over at the discussion board of the African American Literature Book Club. If you're up for a battle (of wits) you might get one there.

BookFinder.com’s textbook search is in today’s New York Times:

“Bookfinder.com, an umbrella search site that sifts through the inventories of hundreds of thousands booksellers worldwide, started a simple, easy-to-use textbook search tool. The way it works: enter a title, I.S.B.N. or author’s name in Bookfinder’s textbooks search box to navigate a huge database of 125 million new and used books. You can compare prices, shipping costs and the availability of less expensive editions published overseas.

Consider, for example, a textbook required for an advanced Japanese course at my daughter’s college. A Bookfinder search last week for ‘Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese II’ turned up 24 new and used copies, at prices ranging from $20.94 at Amazon.com to $110.62 at Amazon.de. For each of the 24 copies, total price (including shipping) is listed on a single page, along with information about how soon the book will ship. Some sellers offer expedited delivery. Amazon, for instance, offers overnight delivery and discounts of up to 30 percent off on new copies of 200,000 textbooks.

‘Our goal is to give students all the options of buying any new or used edition, whether it’s published here or for an overseas market, and then let them decide which books are the best deals for them,’ said Anirvan Chatterjee, Bookfinder.com’s founder.”

BookFinder.com started life as a class project, and we’re still based just a block away from campus. We know the new semester is stressful, so we’ve been working overtime to increase speed and selection for the busy textbook season; let us know if you have any problems.

As promised, here's the link to the coverage of the relaunch of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page in The Guernsey Press. The article gives a good recap of the history of the book, and of how Edward Chaney came to have G.B. Edwards's Book published. Describing the author, Edward says, "He thought himself back in the past and in the present," which also sums up the mindset of the narrator of the novel, and indeed the two-stranded way in which he tells his story.

Maybe the best part of the piece, though, is the interview with Ray Dotrice, the 82-year-old Guern who's portrayed Ebenezer for the BBC and on stage. Dotrice (whom you might recognize from his appearances in such notable TV shows as The A-Team, Beauty and the Beast, and—my favorite—Shelly Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre) is the perfect mash-up of old-time LA character actor and Guernseyman, if you can imagine such a thing—Caw dammee, eh!

For those of you not in the UK, here's a link to this morning's BBC Radio 4 interview with Alistair Horne. The interviewer asked mainly about Horne's recent (mainly) "off the record" sit-down with President Bush.

What was the author of A Savage War of Peace most surprised by?

How “well he looked—he looked like he had come off a cruise in the Caribbean. He seemed to have none of the worries of statehood.”

How thoughtful Bush seems in general, and “how much he reads.”

The archived page is not up yet, but if you're reading this after July 16, this is where I think it will be.

For those of you not in the UK, here's a link to this morning's BBC Radio 4 interview with Alistair Horne. The interviewer asked mainly about Horne's recent (mainly) "off the record" sit-down with President Bush.

What was the author of A Savage War of Peace most surprised by?

How ???well he looked???he looked like he had come off a cruise in the Caribbean. He seemed to have none of the worries of statehood.???

How thoughtful Bush seems in general, and ???how much he reads.???

The archived page is not up yet, but if you're reading this after July 16, this is where I think it will be.

Seems to be a confluence of nerdiness today. Or, maybe it began last Sunday, when The New York Times declared Librarians to be cool (though we've been in on that secret for some time now; see link and link) Is the word Nerd currently undergoing reclamation by its previous victims in the way of another N word? Or has it already happened? Language Log, please explain!

So, I say, let's follow the trail of awkwardness and see where it leads us.

First: Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture (now in it's 10th year, and as cool as ever) is holding a roller-skating jam called "Nerds on Wheels" to raise some funds for themselves and the Independent Publishing Resource Center this Thursday (7.12.07) in Portland, OR.

Second: The Written Nerd provides a very nice write-up of Elaine Dundy's Dud Avocado. Meanwhile the new literature correspondent at About Last Night, the blogger known as CAAF, kicks off her first 5x5 list of recommended books with several of her favorites of the moment. #2 is The Dud Avocado.

Third:

Now here's the heavy irony. So I went back to New York to become a librarian. To actually seek out this thing I've been fleeing all my life. And (here it comes): a librarian is just not that easy to become. I'd taken my lamb by the hand to the slaughter and nobody even wanted it. Apparently there's a whole filing system and annotating system and stamping system and God knows what you have to learn before you qualify. So I finally found a little out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-track library
downtown and they let me put the books away.

So I felt I was accomplishing something.

—Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

I enjoy seeing people blog about how they use BookFinder.com. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been coming across some great feedback from folks who work in academic support roles:

Chris, Stony Brook University (New York)

“Bookfinder - Saved me probably hundreds of dollars during grad school. Yes, officially we tell you to buy your books at the campus bookstore. Unofficially, I’m telling you to buy them online. Bookfinder searches booksellers around the country to find books you need. Every semester, I’d go to the bookstore, write down the ISBN numbers of the books I needed, and look ‘em up. I’d much rather spend nine bucks to buy a book from an independent bookstore in Kansas than spend forty bucks at Barnes & Noble.” [via]

Roland (personal blog of a university admissions guy) (California)

“I was searching for a book that is out of print. Amazon found one (used) copy in the US at $162.65. I went to BookFinder.com and was directed to Amazon’s UK site, where I was directed to an independent bookseller with a new copy of the book for £5.95 plus £6.95 for shipping. That was nice.” [via]

Meg, University of Evansville Library (Indiana)

“Book Finder is a neat site/tool that allows you to compare prices on more than 125 million books for sale from 4,000 sellers. So there’s no need to go to Amazon, Half.com and all the other book sites when Book Finder can search them for you.” [via]

Keith, Texas Woman’s University (Texas)

“Since I work with faculty to develop online courses, I have a lot of favorite web tools. Here are some that I also think are helpful for students… http://www.bookfinder.com/ allows you to search multiple sites for textbooks and compare prices” [via]

The above images are from the Gilmore Girls episode "Gilmore Girls Gone Wild," which originally aired 4/13/2004.

As you can see, Rory hasn't actually gone wild on her spring break trip to Florida—she's reading Monsieur Proust, a memoir of the author written by his long-time housekeeper—this is the dramatic conflict of the episode. If memory serves right, Rory will later retire to her hotel room for a Power of Myth marathon.

There are two possible reasons for the selection of this prop: 1) The color scheme is so South Beach or 2) The writers intended an ironic comment on the superficiality of today's debauchery as compared with what the crowd at Madame Verdurin's salon got up to.

LitMinds is a social networking site that seeks to connect independent booksellers, writers, and readers through discussion boards and personal profile pages that list their owners' favorite books, books in their queue, and local bookstores. The co-founders, husband and wife Praveen Madeen and Christin Evans, have also stepped up and bought an independent bookstore, The Booksmith in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Through both ventures, they're doing their part to integrate technology and good old-fashioned hand-selling and word-of-mouth recommendations.

The LitMinds blog posts a long piece about the NYRB Classics series today. You might call it, "Everything you wanted to know about NYRB Classics, but never would have thought to ask."