Laurie Powers started this one yesterday - What are your five favorite internet stores (other than Amazon)? Well, here they are, in no particular order:
GEMMWhen I'm hunting hard-to-find vinyl or CDs, such as "Be Sure You're Right/Old Betsy" by Jimmie Dodd or "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" by Steve Allen (yep, the old talk show guy), this is where I start. They claim to have listings of 30 million records and CDs from thousands of dealers around the world. I haven't counted them, but there are a lot.
LULU
All sorts of amazing publications find a home on Lulu. Of special interest to me: Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective collections by Robert Leslie Bellem - and reprints of the rare Lone Ranger pulp novels. It's also one source for the great Express Westerns anthology Where Legends Ride, and the upcoming A Fistful of Legends (available Jan. 31).
ADVENTURE HOUSEEvery so often I go on a pulp reprint bender, and there are two places I look. One of those is John Gunnison's Adventure House. In addition to carrying great stuff from other publishers, John has had his own line of reprints going for over ten years. My favorite of his publications is High Adventure. The latest issue (#109!) features H. Bedford-Jones.
THE VINTAGE LIBRARY
Vintage Library carries a lot of the same books as Adventure House, but also has a selection of pulp-related OTR and movies - plus a selection of rare books and stories available for download. Where else could you find The Race Williams novels of Carroll John Daly?
POWELL'S BOOKS
This may be cheating. I have ordered by mail from this site, but since I'm lucky enough to have the largest new & used bookstore in the country right here in Portland, I use the site mainly to check their stock, then visit the branch with the book I want or have it brought out from one of their warehouses. (The Strand in NYC claims to be the America's largest, but I checked it out last year. You could fit four Strands inside the main Powell's store.)
Meming on... I'd be interested in what my fellow Owlhoots Cap'n Bob Napier, Bill Crider and James Reasoner have to say on the subject.
I know how this is supposed to work, but I'm putting this here instead of over on my blog just because I'm lazy this morning.
ReplyDeleteI admit I shop Amazon more than all others combined. I use the 'net for things I can't find elsewhere or want delivered. This is a list that's always evolving as store close and I discover new ones.
1. Amazon (books, music)
2. Archiv Music (classical recordings) - almost all the classical music I buy comes from Archiv.
3. Land's End (clothing) - we like the quality and price.
4. AbeBooks (used books) - where I always start a serach for a used book.
5. Small Press sites [Night Shade Books, NESFA, Paizio, PYR, Red Deer Press, Subterranean Press, Small Beer Press, etc.] (books) - I don't shop any one of them that much, but as a group they are a significant cause of $ outflow.
bonus: eQuilter (my quilter wife buys most of her fabric here.
I use Abe too, but find Bookfinder easier to look at, and it seems to have a little more stuff. Probably should have been in my top five.
ReplyDeleteWell, now I have some ideas where else to go. Sadly, Amazon and AbeBooks is just about it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Evan, I watched The Great Train Chase over Thanksgiving weekend. I remembered it - as a kid - as really exciting, but was disappointed. This wasn't one I could successfully go back to. Fess Parker was good in it though.
ReplyDeleteOops, I mean Great Locomotive Chase.
ReplyDeleteThese are all great. I can't believe I forgot to put something like Adventure House or Vintage Libary on my list. I guess I should have made it 10 favorite places to shop.
ReplyDeleteGEMM is pretty cool--never seen it but I've got it bookmarked now. Anyplace you can get a 45rpm single of the Fabulous Poodles "Bionic+Man" must have just about everything!
ReplyDeleteOther than Amazon I don't shop online. Sorry to be a party pooper. Well, I do buy airline tix and make hotel reservations online, but that happens so rarely that it's not worth mentioning. I think I use Expedia.
ReplyDelete