Book shops - online or otherwise

[berty199]

Best places to buy WW1 books from?

Cheers!

Martin

[John_Hartley]

Modern or old?

New or second hand?

[centurion]

lt also depends on what aspect of WW1 you are interested in and how far you want to/can travel. I have a 2nd hand bookshop shop I use which is forty minutes drive from me. Very good on campaigns, memoires, biographies etc but pants when it comes to the technology of war No catalogue so I go over on a Sunday and take a look, sometimes I get very very lucky and sometimes its a dry hole.If you use Abe books (se top of this forum) online you'll probably find what you are looking for online - won't necessarily be the absolute best price but you won't get stung either.

[John_Hartley]

Abebooks is great for secondhand if you know the book you're after. As are the likes of Amazon for new (mainly). But, as centurion suggests, browsing for the right book on a subject can really only be done by visting a bookshop.

[Glengarry1950]

Hi Martin,

I was given a Kindlfire midsummer I have since read 8 books to date at a cost of less than £10 and they are all stored on the tablet good range of books on WW1 all through Amazon, I personally highly recommend this form reading books and access to a better range of books on one's preferred subject.

PS I have no personal in Amazon or Kindlfire.

Kind regards

Hiram

Edited 29 August , 2014 by Glengarry1950

[Ken S.]

Not Better World Books - unless you enjoy receiving former library books when they aren't described as such. I've ordered a fair bit from them over the years. I'm fully aware that they have devised a scheme where they basically get gooks for free from public and university/college libraries, but still I have gotten a number of very good condition books from them that were not ex-library. It seemed once that one could go by how the item was described - if it wasn't described as ex-library, then it wasn't. But more recently that hasn't been the case for me - after being burned several times, I decided never to deal with them. Then a month or so ago they had a book that I really wanted and the description did not indicate that it was ex-library. Sure enough it turned out to be an ex-library copy.

[seaJane]

If you want to buy new and not support the big river, Blackwell's are good: http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/welcome.jsp

[John Beech]

If your happy with reprints not originals, Naval & Military Press have a good range and mostly reasonably priced. Pen & Sword good for modern works and I agree Abe Books are a good source of second hand, original books or out of print.

[centurion]

Not Better World Books - unless you enjoy receiving former library books when they aren't described as such. I've ordered a fair bit from them over the years. I'm fully aware that they have devised a scheme where they basically get gooks for free from public and university/college libraries, but still I have gotten a number of very good condition books from them that were not ex-library. It seemed once that one could go by how the item was described - if it wasn't described as ex-library, then it wasn't. But more recently that hasn't been the case for me - after being burned several times, I decided never to deal with them. Then a month or so ago they had a book that I really wanted and the description did not indicate that it was ex-library. Sure enough it turned out to be an ex-library copy.

Had a book from them ex an American university library. According to the stamp sheet in the front it had been borrowed once in ten years! To be honest its the condition description I go by.

[keithmroberts]

Naval & Military have regular sales about three times a year with everything reduced by 20%. It's worth being on their mailing list. Having said which that is sometimes still dearer than ordering their title from Amazon, (using the link at the top of the screen to keep the GWF in funds). Oxfam have a website for used books - occasionally you strike lucky, and some UK second hand book dealers sell on UKBookworld. which has a smaller range than Amazon or ABE but can be worth a visit.

If you want a specific title it can also be worth checking eBay, and setting up a saved search.

mKeith

[centurion]

Oxfam have a website for used books - occasionally you strike lucky,

Met one of the guys who values their WW1 related books (amongst other subjects) a few weeks ago at a WW1 conference. He's sharp which is good for Oxfam but I suspect that the real bargains will be rarer in future.

[fellop]

I tend to support N&M a lot, I don't mind if the book is soft back or a reprint, for me it is the information I am after as a reference point. I don't have a Kindle machine as such but I do have a android tablet with the kindle app so I also have a store of 'Kindle' books, some free, via Amazon and I have on a few occasions used Abebooks, I got OH Medical Services from them via the US for a reasonable price including the P&P.

Regards

Peter

[robigunner88]

Foyles has a large collection of WW1 books online.

[centurion]

It might help if the OP had been a mite more specific in his question what does he mean by best place

greatest selection?

cheapest prices?

quickest delivery?

availability of rare works?

superior service?

and so on and so forth

[MartH]

There is no single best place to buy books from, you should use many different sources. The key thing is knowing whats out there, so bibliographies are a must.There are good online ones.

[centurion]

There is no single best place to buy books from, you should use many different sources. The key thing is knowing whats out there, so bibliographies are a must.There are good online ones.

Which are?

[MartH]

Which are?

Do you want the online ones or the published ones?

[centurion]

On line please

[MartH]

Turner Donovan's page is an excellent page to start http://www.turnerdonovan.com/militaryBibliographies.aspx?mv=3&sn=5&bc=&subSection=0 . Though they do not mention Higham's works.

Online the http://www.armymuseums.org.uk/ AMOT is excellent, but if all else fails you can search, but here is a starter:

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war-bibliography

http://www.gilliesarchives.org.uk/Qmbiblio1.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWbib.htm

http://www.firstworldwarstudies.org/?page_id=876

http://www.whtrn.ca/Data/Sites/1/media/greatwarbibliography_july01,2013.pdf

http://www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/pdf/biblio_guerre_rousso.pdf

http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/cns/Newfoundland%20Military%20History%20Bibliography.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/wwi/wwi.html

http://www.firstworldwarstudies.org/bibliography.php

The french one is interesting and the last one is growing

Enjoy, but don't blame me for spending money

[centurion]

Thanks some of these are useful but none are anywhere complete as a check shows many books on my shelves not included in even the most comprehensive of them. Now my collection is not that vast which suggests that there will be other authors and titles missing that I don't even know about. I fear that there is still no substitute for browsing either physically or online and specific recommendations from others.

[MartH]

The online ones are a start but not comprehensive, though AMOT is. I have over 17 printed bibliographies that cover the Great War and they are invaluable.

The best place to learn is to find a good military library, and good book dealer catalogues, which alas are few and far between.

[clive_hughes]

I tend to use http://www.bookfinder.com/ as a search method, since it incorporates AbeBooks, ALibris, Amazon & marketplace, and assorted other online sources worldwide and online bookshops in Hay and elsewhere. Won't do everything (eg, not Turner Donovan) but there's usually a division into new/used, and can be sorted by price including postage.

SeaJane, it does include Blackwells but for example they are still offering Peter Barton's Passchendaele new at just £30 inc. postage, when anyone else is knocking on £100 or way more. I did try ordering it from them but after weeks/months they had to admit they couldn't source it. They still haven't removed the online offer/price however. Another firm which shall be anonymous had an equally silly price so I ordered last December just for the fun of it, and they say they are still trying to source it...

[centurion]

One of the big problems is determining what a book is about. For example would you know that Ute Daniel's "The War from Within" was about working class German women in WW1 from the title? If you didn't already know could you tell from the title that "A Band of Brigands" was about tanks and their crews?. Sometimes even when the title appears clear it can mislead Wilson's Palestine 1917 is not so much a history of the campaign as personal experiences based on his diary. It doesn't help when bibliographies and/or catalogues list the work in a misleading category (for example one work on the Messines mines is under trench warfare which may be right in a sort of vague way but does mislead). One thing that really irks is when a publisher reprints a book and changes the title.

One reason why although less convenient than an on-line service a good 2nd hand bookshop where you can open the book and see what it's actually about is still for me often the best.

[keithmroberts]

I agree Robert, but good second hand bookshops are becoming rarities. For the reason that you mention most of my on-line purchases are made as a result of either footnotes in my current reading, or comments and reviews here, Sometimes I check for reviews on Amazon, but they have to be treated with great caution unless they come from a known person. I should also mention the reviews by David Filsell and others in the WFA publications, and the Facebook "Great War Book Reviews" page, both can be helpful.

Still no substitute for browsing though.

Keith

[MartH]

I tend to use http://www.bookfinder.com/ as a search method, since it incorporates AbeBooks, ALibris, Amazon & marketplace, and assorted other online sources worldwide and online bookshops in Hay and elsewhere. Won't do everything (eg, not Turner Donovan) but there's usually a division into new/used, and can be sorted by price including postage.

SeaJane, it does include Blackwells but for example they are still offering Peter Barton's Passchendaele new at just £30 inc. postage, when anyone else is knocking on £100 or way more. I did try ordering it from them but after weeks/months they had to admit they couldn't source it. They still haven't removed the online offer/price however. Another firm which shall be anonymous had an equally silly price so I ordered last December just for the fun of it, and they say they are still trying to source it...

Try the same search criteria on www.bookfinder.com and Abebooks and Alibris it can sometimes return different books, Just as searching amazon directly too some times gives other books. Got OH WW2 New Zealand Dental Services in dj saving hundreds of pounds that way last year on Amazon.