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What is the most cost effective way to purchase specific, non-rare public domain English books online in the US? Question
Over the years I've done a lot of my reading through libraries, borrowed books and chance finds at garage sales and the like. Now I want to start working on my reading list, so I will be purchasing quite a few specific books that I've noted for some reason or another. I want to own the books permanently, so libraries won't do. I would also like to order online, to ensure I can easily find each book I want.
To make things simpler, I'm restricting this question to only those books which are in the public domain. I know many are available for free from places like Project Gutenberg, but I want the physical dead tree book, not an ebook.
I don't care about quality or condition at all, so long as the book is readable and doesn't literally fall apart.
I've noticed that even used paperbacks on Amazon are often 10 + 5 USD shipping now, which seems a steep price for a book advertised as in "fair" condition.
1 answer
I used to use AbeBooks, which I understand to be owned by Amazon. My experience has been good. Most of the books I've purchased appear to be purged from various libraries (for shelf space?) in pretty good condition.
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