Finding These Books
Many of the books on the list are currentlyin print, or were popular enough that you should be able to track themdown in a used-bookstore or at the library. I've noted some of those thatwill be particularly difficult to find. Like most things American, thislist believes the United States is the center of the universe - those ofyou in Canada, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere may need to put forth quitea bit more effort. To aid in that effort, following is a list of PlacesTo Find Books.
I should note that I do not have any sort of "associate" relationshipwith any of the sellers listed. The idea of getting kickbacks because I'm recommending a particular store makes me uncomfortable and besides, I'm too lazy to go to the trouble of setting up and maintaining those sort of links.
LINKS
NewBooks
Amazon.uk (U.K.)
Amazon.de (Germany)
Book Giant (U.K.)
Alphabetstreet.com (U.K.)
Fantasy Centre(U.K.)
Chapters/Indigo (Canada)
Bakka Phoenix Bookstore (Canada)
Science Fiction-Bokhadeln (Sweden)
RemainderedBooks
UsedBooks
The easiest place to start looking if you can't tear yourself from yourcomputer and go to your local bookstore is Amazon.com.They have a huge selection, are easy to use, and offer discount prices along withreasonable shipping rates. And, yes, they do ship everywhere in the world.They now have both British and Germanbranches. Although Amazon offers an out-of-print book service, it can be less expensive to use the services listed that dealspecifically in used books. It is a good idea to compare prices with
One large and well-regarded on-line bookstores in the U.S. is Powells. Powells is a huge independentbookstore, and they have used books as well as new available. Jim Macdonald and Debra Doylemaintain a great list of on-line bookstores that carry sf, fantasy, and horror.
Alexander reports that a good source of British books is Alphabetstreet.com. Fantasy Centre specializes in hard-to-find sf and fantasy titles, both new and used.If anyone else is willing to recommend some European and/or Asian bookstoreswith a web presence, I'll be happy to list them.
Remaindered Books
"Remainders" are overstocked books sold at a steep discountby the publisher. They are new books (although sometimes they will be markedin some way to show that they've been remaindered), and you can get somepretty incredible deals. The problem is that the selection is limited andconstantly changing.
The first place you should check is BasementFull of Books, where you can buy direct from your favorite authors.Not only are the dollars you spend going straight to the authors you love,you'll also be able to get your books autographed.
The BookCloseouts usually has several hundred sf and fantasy titles. Hamilton Books is big fun to browse; you'll find their fantasy titles by clicking on the 'fiction' listing, then the 'fantasy fiction' subheader. Daedalus Books has had very few sf books the few times I've checked,but they're fun to visit for discounts on all the other titles they carry.BookCloseouts is Canadian, but they are quite happy to deal in US dollars; the others are all US-based.
Used Books
One of the nicest services I've seen in a long time is the BookFinder.It searches several large used book databases very quickly and presentsyou with a list of results. And it also has British, French, and German versions. Try it first.
For those really hard to find books, several of the used book databasesallow you to set up a want list. I've used the service at the AdvancedBook Engine, and many of the books that I thought I'd never find haveturned up over the last nine months. Another service to try is Alibris.
For those of you in Britain, Dave recommends Fantastic Literature.They only deal in mail order, and have a large selection of out-of-printsf, fantasy and horror. Contact them at:
Fantastic Literature, 33 The Ramparts, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 8NJ