Internet: Windows shopping
Authors: J Aronson
Journal: BMJ (1999)

The book market in Britain is worth over £3bn, so it is not surprising that outlets have now invaded the web—a sort of internet book agreement, you might say. It started, I suppose, when second hand book dealers began putting their catalogues on the web, since when I have been tracking down items that I had been desultorily seeking for years. Particularly fruitful is the union catalogue run by Bibliofind (www.bibliofind.com).

So why not new books too? Of all transactions currently carried out via the internet, about 23% are book purchases. The outlets include well known booksellers such as Dillons (www.dillons.co.uk), Waterstones (www.waterstones.co.uk), and Barnes and Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com). Some are just famous for being on the internet, such as Amazon (US and UK versions; www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk) and IBS (the Internet Bookshop; www.bookshop.co.uk), now known as WHSmith Online. Others specialise in medical books—MedScape (www.medbookstore.com) and, of course, the BMJ Bookshop (www.bmjbookshop.com). For a detailed review of these websites, see the longer version of this article on the BMJ’s website. 

Some of the websites are catalogues only. Others are magazines too, with information about current books and news items (such as winners of recent literary competitions). The Waterstones website gives the best entertainment (if that’s what you’re looking for); for example, it includes extensive reviews of recent books and has the courage to publish adverse reviews of books that it sells. Barnes and Noble offers links to journals such as the New York Review of Books. IBS, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble invite readers to submit their own reviews, which are as variable in quality as you would expect.

IBS and Amazon have enormous catalogues (about 1.5 million books each), and Barnes and Noble boasts 5 million. These all give good discounts, often enough to offset the delivery charges, especially if you order more than one book, and they usually deliver within a few days. For medical books the BMJ is impressive, but offers discounts only to members of the BMA. The Amazon (US) catalogue includes a large number of books that are out of print and offers a free searching service. However, for second hand books try Bibliofind or Barnes and Noble first—you may find the book you want immediately. And shop around—different editions of the same book may be available at widely different prices. You can order books by telephone or fax; use email only if you are prepared to trust the security offered by public key encryption.

The internet offers a great way to shop for new and second hand books. Of course, I still like to browse around the bookshops, handle the volumes, and discover books that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise. And nothing replaces the thrill in a second hand bookshop of finding a clean edition of an unexpected treasure. But I sometimes begrudge time spent browsing that could have been spent reading, so when I want a particular book I order it, usually from IBS or Amazon (whichever offers the better overall price), and expect to receive it within a day or two.

In 1903 George Bernard Shaw published a piece in The Author, the organ of the Society of Authors, calling for more bookshops, complaining that after 20 years as an author he had never once seen any of his books in a shop window. Well, the bookshops on the web would give him no cause for complaint—everything they stock is in the window (or rather the Windows).