Wednesday, 2 July 2008

Good books

If you're like me in always wanting the best deals, every time you want a book you spend hours online, comparing Fishpond and Whitcoulls and The Nile and every other online bookstore to get the lowest price.

Then today, I found Good books, a website that sells both books and music. When I search for a book, it automatically lists the search results in terms of price; there are no delivery costs worldwide; and the books are very reasonably priced. In fact, I just searched for a book by a relatively unknown author; and not only is the exact book there, but it's $7 cheaper than any other price I've been able to find.

But the best part is that it's run by Oxfam, and that's why it's so cheap. All the resources (delivery, web-hosting etc) are donated; all the time and work is done by volunteers. And all of the profit goes towards Oxfam's works here and around the world. The only potential downside is delivery times: 7-14 working days.

But overall, with such good pricing and such an excellent cause, I actually feel a little guilty I haven't been shopping there already — I certainly will be from now on.

On a slightly relevant note, I've decided to start trying to listen to more NZ music and reading more NZ books. For some reason I've always been slightly contemptuous of both; but that's unpatriotic and unsupportive of local artists. And there are some really good NZ authors and bands around. I spent a happy half-hour in the NZ fiction section of Whitcoulls today, waiting for a friend, and now want at least four NZ-authored books for when I have money again.

Ahhh, I love that dream. "When I have money...."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post.

I wasn't aware of the Good Books store, but I will use it for future purchases. Contributing to a good cause is worth doing, and Good Books has an interesting business model.