Today, you can do it yourself. Fire up your home computer or use the one at school or in your public library. Log onto one or another of about half a dozen Web sites that feature the books of thousands of individual dealers. Order directly from the dealer. The book you've been seeking for decades arrives in your mailbox in a week or two.
Most dealers list their books on more than one service, so there is some overlap.
That redundancy can be overcome by using a site that searches all the other sites for you in one step. The best one I know is BookFinder. You can find the same book cheaper by going to the dealer yourself on the Internet. Independent bookstores sustain local reading communities, maintain high standards of quality, and reflect the kind of personal touch that bureaucratized corporate megastores can't or won't show. We hope you'll take the time to support and patronize independent bookstores both online, and in your own community.