Tips and experiences ordering recommended books

Bobo08 said:
I have the book Cosmic Winter scanned out in a pdf file. Given that it is so difficult and costly to get it, and the book really needs to reach a wider audience, I would be willing to send it privately to members of this forum who need it. Please send me a private message if you want a copy.

Hi Bobo08,

I think it is not the way how to deal with it! Because of the copyright notification at the very beginning of every book, also including "the cosmic winter"!
Have a look in this thread, as already noted: Good Website for Free Books

There are other legal ways to read the book, take for example a library or a library network (as I mentioned earlier in this thread), which costs nothing or only a fee. Yes, it costs some efforts to get to the -original- book, but it's possible.
 
abcdefghiJoerg said:
Hi Bobo08,

I think it is not the way how to deal with it! Because of the copyright notification at the very beginning of every book, also including "the cosmic winter"!
Have a look in this thread, as already noted: Good Website for Free Books

There are other legal ways to read the book, take for example a library or a library network (as I mentioned earlier in this thread), which costs nothing or only a fee. Yes, it costs some efforts to get to the -original- book, but it's possible.

Hi Joerg,

I have read the discussion about copyright. But note that I'm sharing it privately among the forum members. As such, it is not different from lending a physical book among friends, OSIT.

There may be concerns about the author not getting any reimbursement in this. In this case, the book is out of print and any copy you may get is second hand. So the author is not getting anything anyway. There are other ways we can give back, for example, promoting the book and its author, writing reviews.

Hope that addresses your concerns.
 
Bobo08 said:
Hi Joerg,

I have read the discussion about copyright. But note that I'm sharing it privately among the forum members. As such, it is not different from lending a physical book among friends, OSIT.

Actually, that doesn't quite fly, because this is a public forum.

bobo said:
There may be concerns about the author not getting any reimbursement in this. In this case, the book is out of print and any copy you may get is second hand. So the author is not getting anything anyway. There are other ways we can give back, for example, promoting the book and its author, writing reviews.

Hope that addresses your concerns.

No, the concern as far as the forum is concerned is copyright infringement and involving the forum in such. So, it would be greatly appreciated if you would not suggest such activity in the future on the public forum. As the target of several major attacks, one a very costly legal one, the forum always errs on the side of strict legality. Hope that clarifies.
 
Sorry for the OT but i think this fits into the previous discussion.

I was reading the discussion here carefully, because I am one of these guys who looking for free books, simply because I do not have the money to buy them. So, if I get enough money, I certainly buy the books in paper form. To read them on a screen is not very comfortable and I cant give appropriate exchange to the writer. This really concerns me, but this is not the issue I pushed the thread up again, that was only the trigger who forced me to think about this stuff an then an aspect appears from whom I can't get a clear idea.

The whole idea of energy exchange (as I understand it) is that the creator has to put some amount of energy into his work and then he gives it away to someone else who wants to have it. The buyer take this piece of work an give back energy in some sort (mostly money) as a reward and so the balance is established again.

But now, there are two different kinds of exchange. The first thing is, as an example, an artist who creating art in a solid way, maybe a statue made of stone. This piece of work needs a long time before its ready to sell. Let us say 3 months from the concept to the real statue. Once he had finished it he only can sell it exactly one time, then he has to made a new one. Or to say it in the 'energy way', for one amount of energy he gets one back and then he has to start again no matter how many people are going to see his work.

The second thing is stuff like music, films or books. The creator has to put energy into his work in the same way like the stone artist did, but then he can sell the work as often as someone comes and buy it just because he can copy it as often as he like. Specially in films and music the energy backflow is enormous, multiple times the amount of energy which the creator had put into it (I think, because I don't know how to measure it).

Ok, with books things are a little bit different just because people don't read much and so the backflow is much smaller but it is still possible to create a constant payback out of a single piece of work and that's the point. Its like a energy multiplier.

In the first case, there is always balance if the creator had sell the work. But where is the balance in the second case? Maybe I have to think backwards because the stone artist is pleasing many people with his work and not only the one who has paid for it.

So what's the matter about this? What determinates the balance of energy exchange?
 
...another bookstore:

I am always looking around for a German edition of the recommended books.

I am from Austria and I found and ordered some of the books on this nice website: _www.booklooker.de
(There is also a great offer of English editions)

You can choose between new and used books (the used one's to an often very good price!).
Some of the bookseller are trader, the rest are private salesman.
 
ines said:
...another bookstore:

I am always looking around for a German edition of the recommended books.

I am from Austria and I found and ordered some of the books on this nice website: _www.booklooker.de
(There is also a great offer of English editions)

You can choose between new and used books (the used one's to an often very good price!).
Some of the bookseller are trader, the rest are private salesman.

Imo that's a good advice using booklooker. Unfortunately the German translations of some books are really pricey, especially the psychology books.

Did you check this site too?:

http://www.buchhandlung777.at/

this shop carries also Lauras books and German translations of the "Welle" for example.

Here are some other shops:

_http://www.justbooks.de/ (German)
_http://www.eurobuch.com/ (English and German)
_http://www.choosebooks.com/index.do (English and German)
_http://www.antbo.de/ (German and English)

These sites are mainly dealing with used books and is maybe worth checking and comparing them, when in need of a book.
 
Here are some other shops:

_http://www.justbooks.de/ (German)
_http://www.eurobuch.com/ (English and German)
_http://www.choosebooks.com/index.do (English and German)
_http://www.antbo.de/ (German and English)


Hello Legolas,
thank you for the book-search engine tips.

I took a quick look at them. Added them to my "compare-list".

Did you check this site too?:
http://www.buchhandlung777.at/

Yes, thanks, this shop is already well known.
 
Just a thought, for those of us that are looking for books compared to those that may have been lucky enough to obtain a book, could we possibly setup a book exchange or our own "library" somehow? For example, I may have a book that someone is looking for and I've completed it and yet it sits on a shelf collecting dust, while another is desperately trying to find a copy. It seems worthwhile for me to pass that along to the person that needs it. Granted, I know a lot of us will re-read a tome or reference it later so this may be out of the question for some items, however; in those times a simple question on here should fill the gaps for reference items as needed for those in posession of the book at the time.

The logistics of doing something like this could be a bit troublesome though.
 
A note for people looking to order Gnosis directly from Praxis Research Institute. (the italicized part further below is the meat of the matter)

I ordered Gnosis (through praxisresearch.org - the same site as is praxisinstitute.net) using PayPal - and after five weeks sent an email (to the address provided through PayPal) asking what was up - and after two weeks, added to and forwarded the email to the address provided on their site.

And then the answer (my emphasis below) came the same day:

email said:
I apologize for the delay in the processing in your book order. It has come through the bookstore from our old website, which was supposed to be decommissioned but is somehow still accessible in some ways. Our new website is www.praxisresearch.net

Please send me your shipping address and I'll get the order out this week.

I'm sorry again for the breakdown.

So I sent the address (copied from the PayPal receipt), and the shipping took place the next day - and the books arrived today a few days later. So it did work out well in the end.

But note that even though the old Praxis site - whether accessed through praxisresearch.org or praxisinstitute.net - is still the one you'll be likely to find on Google, etc., apparently they no longer use its system - so if you think of ordering from Praxis, do it through praxisresearch.net, which could (I haven't tried/confirmed it myself) work as expected, that is, better than the experiences described in this thread.

In short, I think Praxis is in need of a good geek - they seem to be honest and well-intentioned, but a bit confused with regard to the technical matters; given a decent techie, setting up the now-obsolete sites to redirect to the new should be fairly trivial.
 
I ordered most of the books from:

http://www.bookdepository.com/High-Strangeness-Laura-Knight-Jadczyk/9781897244340

At some very reasonable prices and new.

I ordered High Strangeness, but beware some of the books are not the latest editions. I also got some of the Wave series.

They send out their books for free to a hundred countries or more.

http://www.bookdepository.com/help/topic/HelpId/3/Which-countries-do-you-deliver-to#helpContent

You do have to be patient, as it takes a while for the books to arrive.
 
Mariama said:
I ordered most of the books from:

http://www.bookdepository.com/High-Strangeness-Laura-Knight-Jadczyk/9781897244340

At some very reasonable prices and new.

I ordered High Strangeness, but beware some of the books are not the latest editions. I also got some of the Wave series.

They send out their books for free to a hundred countries or more.

http://www.bookdepository.com/help/topic/HelpId/3/Which-countries-do-you-deliver-to#helpContent

You do have to be patient, as it takes a while for the books to arrive.

I agree, it's a great website. I ordered ''Primal Body Primal Mind'' from there. The book was cheaper than here (the Netherlands). I received it in 11 days, so the waiting time wasn't so bad.
 
I have been an online bookseller full-time since 2000.

Here are a couple of points about ordering used books online:

The largest used bookselling site, with over 13,000 dealers, is www.abebooks.com.
The Abebooks sites for particular countries, e.g. www.abebooks.co.uk, www.abebooks.de, all list the same books from the same dealers, but with prices shown in the local currency, i.e. it doesn't make much difference which abebooks "portal" you go through.

While for the general public Amazon is probably a more well known site than Abebooks, the range is actually larger on Abebooks. This had led to one anomaly that it is worth being aware of. There are a few large sellers on Amazon who do not actually have a physical copy of the book, but are using software to copy titles that are available on other sites such as Abebooks. For example, a book may be listed at a fairly high price such as US$300 by a seller on Amazon. When they receive an order for that book, they then go to Abebooks where a copy of the book may be much cheaper, say $100, and buy that cheaper copy to fulfil your order. (The Amazon seller may have the book sent to them to send to the customer, or they may have the Abebooks dealer send the book directly to the customer). So, if you find a used book that seems to be only available at a very high price on Amazon, it is worth at least checking on Abebooks first for a cheaper copy.

There are a few other meta-sites that search all the other bookselling sites, which can sometimes let you find a book that is not on Amazon or Abebooks.

These sites include:

www.vialibri.net
used.addall.com
www.bookfinder.com

These sites will amalgamate results found from the main used bookselling sites, such as:

www.abebooks.com
www.alibris.com
www.biblio.com
+ several other sites.

www.bookfinder.com is now owned by Abebooks, but runs independently without any behind-the-scenes manipulation to drive people to Abebooks.

In much the same way, Abebooks is also now owned by Amazon, but is managed independently in much the same way as it had been running before Amazon bought it.

Abebooks is a particularly good site for its "Wants" service. If you sign up as a customer, you are able to leave a want for a book that you can't currently find, or that you can't currently find at a reasonable price, and you will be emailed automatically when a seller lists a copy of that book.

One downside of Abebooks in recent years is the proliferation of "PODs" or print-on-demand reprints of out-of-copyright books. These are generally not so nice to own as the original hardback editions. Sometimes the illustrations are not reproduced as clearly. Or they just not as a nice in terms of "nostalgia" values, or their value as a "collectable", as earlier printings. It can take some time to become familiar with what is a recent POD reprint of an older book, particularly when sometimes the bookseller will use the original date of the book, rather than the date it was or will be printed, in their description (which is against the site's policies, but does happen sometimes).

The basic principal that determines prices books are listed at and will sell for is supply vs. demand. This is why a cheaply made paperback that did not cost much when new can sometimes ending up costing $50 or $100 or more, while a book that was originally published as a lavish expensive hardcover may end up never selling for more than its original cost, if the number of copies available is more than the number of people looking for it.

The listing sites also show some strange, excessively high prices however. This sometimes does not represent what a book is actually worth or likely to sell for, but is instead a product or artifact of the listing software used by some sellers. Some sellers price each book one by one, with a human working out a price. Some other sellers however use pricing software that follows algorhthyms, which sometimes produce absurd results. For example, if there are only 2 copies of 1 book from two different sellers, and they are both using pricing software that sets their price to be $0.50 higher than the other copy, then the prices of the two books will both start climbing skyward. They may start off at $3.00 and $3.50, and end up at $900 and $900.50. This does not reflect the real value of the book, since if a third seller comes along and lists a copy for $25, the pricing software used by the other two sellers will then pick up that new price in its next trawl and return the prices of the expensive books to $25.50.

Another site sometimes of interest is www.isbndb.com. This free site lets you enter the ISBN of a particular books, and then you can look at the price history over time on different sites, including abebooks, alibris, amazon and other sites. It is worth remembering though that the prices shown though are the asking prices, and not necessarily prices that copies actually sold at.
 
Found the Gnosis book by Boris Mouravieff online for free
_http://www.holybooks.com/gnosis-i-iii-by-boris-mouravieff/
 
I've noticed some fluctuation of prices on amazon.com compared to amazon.co.uk,
now I'm wondering does the same apply to shipping prices? I'm from Europe so would shipping
from co.uk be cheaper?
 
Theoretically, for new books, this site should be able to show the book price and shipping price from the different Amazon sites, and show which is cheapest:

_www.addall.com
 
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