There’s no greater pleasure in life than sitting on the beach diving into a new book. There’s just something so relaxing about being able to put all of your worries aside and for just a couple of hours being able to pretend you’re part of another world. While we love going to bookstores to browse the latest selection, our busy lifestyle doesn’t always give us the luxury of having the time to shop for books in store. Visiting bookstores to buy books isn’t the only way to get your hands on reading material, online book stores have become a popular alternative and customers are loving the convenience of them.
When you buy books online it’s super user-friendly, everything is ordered into categories based on genre, which makes finding what you’re looking for easy. The sheer amount of books you can choose from online, can’t be beaten because they aren’t limited by space—there’s an infinite amount of books. Retailers also offer discounts and deals making shopping online much more enticing. Plus, when you buy books online, you’ll get to see reviews and feedback from previous customers that can guide you on what books to select. Whether you’re looking to read books online or hard copies these are the best places to buy books online.
Powell’s Books
Powell’s, a beloved Portland shop, has an online store that gives the same feel as a neighborhood bookstore. There’s a great selection of new and used books and the blog has staff picks and the music that the authors listen to when they’re writing. There’s even free shipping on all orders of $25 or more and there’s currently a spring sale where you can select from over 30 books and when you buy two you get one free!
Books A Million
BAM! offers discounts on new and bestselling books, as well as pre-orders. If you’re looking for books for your Kindle they offer amazing prices on e-books that you can pre-order so they’ll be available on your device as soon as they come out! All orders ship within 24-hours and there are always coupon codes that can lead to more savings like select picks from the experts, historical books, manga, and Birds of Prey graphic novels are now buy two get one free. If you’re a club member, you get free shipping.
Barnes & Noble
One of the largest book retailers with over six hundred store locations, Barnes & Noble sells all types of books. The company makes the NOOK, an e-book reading device similar to the Kindle, and the ebook store has over three million paid titles and one million free ebooks. In addition to books, Barnes & Noble has CDs, DVDs, games, toys, electronics, etc. It’s a great place to buy gifts for friends and family. They even have a section on their website for coupons and deals that offers percentages off certain books, buy one get one half off certain genres, and clearance books starting at $3.
Better World Books
This online bookseller is literally trying to make the world better through books—for every book sold, they donate a book to someone in need. They also work with libraries and colleges to collect used books to donate to literacy nonprofits around the world. The books are used and new, with huge discounts on them and they are one of the only discount sites that offers ebooks. Did we mention that there’s free shipping worldwide!
Thrift Books
Washington-based Thrift Books helps the environment by partnering with libraries and vendors to make sure used books get a new life, instead of ending up in the trash. There are over 13 million titles to choose from and the prices are really low, plus they offer three-book deals so you can get even more saving on books from bestselling authors. For every book that you buy from the same seller, you get another 50 cents off and there’s free shipping on any order in the United States.
Amazon
If you’re looking for ebooks, Amazon has the largest store on the internet and there’s even a Kindle Unlimted subscription service that allows you to download as many books from the collection of more than 1 million titles for only $9.99 per month. Prime members can access Prime Reading, which is a constantly changing library with over 1,000 books, magazines, and comics that you can rent for free.
Amazon is also a great place to buy kids’ books online, they offer an Amazon Prime Book Box—a kid’s book delivery subscription service that sends books every one, two, or three months, with saving up to 40% the retail price. There are four age groups to choose from including ages baby-two, three to five, six to eight, and nine to twelve. The first box is $16.99 and after that, it costs $19.99 and it includes two hardcover or four board books.
BookMooch
Who doesn’t love free books? When you sign up for BookMooch, you put a list of books you’d like to give away and you make a wish list of books you’d like to get. When someone requests one of your books, you ship it to them, earning you one point, which you use to request books from other people. The community is international, so if you’re looking for Non-English books this is a great place to find them. The only cost on the website is from shipping your books and you can donate your points to charities that give back to libraries, literacy around the world, or kids in hospitals.
