booktastic

Yesterday I got an exciting piece of mail: the Edward R. Hamilton’s Bargain Books Catalog. This may not seem all that exciting to you. But I will have you know: this catalog was the highlight of my life as a teenager. 

Yes, I probably was a pretty boring teenager. But the Edward R. Hamilton Bargain Books catalog isn’t! Hundreds of remainder books, priced to sell (usually between $3.95 and $7.95 with some exceptions), with a flat shipping rate of $3.50!!

(I think it was $2.50 when I was a teenager, but $1.00 isn’t that much of a hike when you consider how much postage costs have gone up in the past fifteen years…)

I haven’t really looked through one of these catalogs in years; I was distracted with school, getting married, having a job, not having money, and all those other great “grown up” things. However, like I said, I got one in the mail yesterday and it was Friday night (woo!) so I thought, “What better way to spend a Friday night than to spend it slowly paging through a Bargain Books catalog with a pen in hand?”

Bargain Books has changed a bit since I was a teen. For one thing, it’s an actual catalog now and has a color cover: when I used to receive it, it was in thick, B&W newspaper format. And as I mentioned, the flat shipping rate has gone up slightly. Plus, now they apparently sell DVDs too.

However, it’s still a delightful cross-section of former-bestsellers, never-was-bestsellers, never-heard-of-its and what-the-hell-somebody-actually-published-this-type selections. And now it has DVDs.

I would say that, in general, the prices are a bit higher than when I used to spend my afternoon sheafing through this thing. I saw more books above the $7.95 mark than before - but, honestly, what isn’t more expensive than it was ten years ago? All and all, these are still bargains and if you actually take the time to look through this catalog, you’re going to find some things that you want. Check out their website and request a catalog (there are extra shipping costs when you buy online for some reason, so getting the catalog is worth it). It’s free and fun and you’ll be glad you did. – Mrs. Hall

P.S. I’ve decided I’m not going back to “The Jane Austen Book Club” - the book simply wasn’t pulling me in, and it was an effort to read it, so I’m just going to put it on Bookmooch. So much for that one! Right now I’m working on that Joseph Campbell book and “The Cereal Murders” by Diane Mott Davidson…

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