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I wrote a column a couple of days ago about Digital Subscriptions to Magazines, and how that made it so easy to read US Magazines no matter where in the world you are physically located. But, I know that a number of people like reading books better than reading magazines. So, let’s have a look at the best ways of getting books for your reading pleasure.
First, of course, you can buy books locally. There are a few bookstores here in the Philippines. Of course, the granddaddy of bookstores in the Philippines is National Bookstore. National Bookstore has locations, usually in malls, in most major Philippine Cities. If you are living in a smaller town, though, you might have to travel to a bigger place to visit a branch of National Bookstore. Unfortunately, in my experience, National Bookstore has only a very limited selection of books to choose from.
Next option – order books online and have them shipped to the Philippines. Due to the fact that books can be quite heavy, shipping can make your books expensive. But, if you are willing to pay this shipping cost, my recommendation is to Order Books from Amazon. Amazon has nearly any book that you might ever want to buy, and their prices are good too. In addition, Amazon will ship to the Philippines. If you are a little more frugal, there is another way that you can do this too. Order the book, and have it shipped to a relative or a friend in the States. Let the book orders stack up a bit, then have your friend ship it to you in a Balikbayan Box. A large box of books can be shipped from the USA to the Philippines for less than $100, and that is going to be a LOT of books. I would imagine that one box per year, full of books would be enough to keep you in reading material for a year.
Another option that is new, which you may want to look at is Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device. In our discussion in the comments on a recent column, it was said that the Kindle cannot be used if you are not in the USA, but I have done some research and found that this is not exactly correct. You see, the Kindle is an e-Book reader. With the Kindle, you can download books and read them right on this little device, which is about the size of a paper-back book! And, there are already over 90,000 books available for the Kindle. Nearly every book on the New York Times Best Seller List can be downloaded for reading on the Kindle, and most such best sellers are priced at $9.99.
Now, how can the Kindle be used in the Philippines? Let me say first that the wireless service for downloading books and such is ONLY available in the USA, and not even available in a couple of States there. But, there is still a way to make it work! The Kindle has a USB connection and can be connected directly to your computer. You can go online at Amazon and purchase Kindle books. You can then download the Kindle books to your computer, and transfer them over USB onto your Kindle device! The kindle can also be used for reading online content like blogs and such, but if you are outside the USA, this would not be possible since the proprietary wireless service is only available in the USA. But, you can indeed use the Kindle strictly for reading books, even in the Philippines. One more word of caution – in order to purchase the Kindle books, you will need a US Credit Card and a US Address, or your orders will not be accepted. This is because of contractual agreements with overseas publishers. However, you can download the Kindle books no matter where in the world you are, provided you have a US Credit Card and Address.
Another option is that there are Other e-book readers on the market as well! One of the more popular units is the Sony PRS-500. In addition to the books for Kindle, there is another popular format called Mobipocket. There are a huge number of titles available for e-book readers of the Mobipocket format as well.
So, as you can see, there are indeed some options for book readers who want to keep up with the latest books, no matter where they live!
Hi Bob-Good stuff here. I have played around with the Sony reader at Border's book store here, I like it. The way it feels the ease of use is intuitive and you can change the script size to fit your eyes. I read a review about the Kindle and the Sony readers. The overall anaysis was that the wire less feature on the Kindle is what set the two apart. The other aspect to consider is that the Sony is a getting its books from I don't know where. The Kindle is an Amazon product so it will be supported… Read more »
Hi Ron – I am glad you found the column useful today. After the article I wrote about magazine subscriptions, I was certain that this one would be right up your alley too! I wrote both pieces at the same time, just posted them on different days. 😆 You're right on finding enough books for the Sony. They do have about 10,000 titles, but that's only a drop in the bucket compared to the Kindle. NFL and College football games are indeed shown on TV here. However, not too many. Maybe one or two college games and one or two… Read more »
Hi Bob — I haven't been to these bookstores but I hear good stuff about them. –Powerbooks & Fully Booked. quality stuff it seems from reviews and their websites. Powerbooks has 11 branches nationwide (from website) and the locations are in some very nice places (Alabang, Glorietta, Shangri-la Plaza) which is a good sign. No Davao branch, but there is one in Cebu. website: http://www.powerbooks.com.ph Fully Booked has 3 branches. One is located in the Rockwell mall, an upscale mall in Manila. I read that it closes late at night. http://www.fullybookedonline.com Both websites seems to support an online bookstore. That's… Read more »
Hi Macky – Thanks for sharing that. I hope that a good bookstore decides to locate in Davao soon! In my case, I rarely go to Manila or Cebu. It's been almost 4 years since I left Mindanao at all. 😆
Good to hear from you! It's been a while!
It will be interesting to see how many people are willing to pay the $400 for a Kindle and then $10 for a book on top of that. My take is that Amazon is using the wrong business model. They should make the Kindle much, much cheaper. Make the money on the books and not on the machine. Ask Lexmark, HP, Brother, and other computer printer makers how well this works. Printers are now cheap because they make their money on the ink cartridges.
Hi Tom – For that matter… look at Gillette! It's the old razor/razor blades model. I really agree with you too on this. I think that in a few years (or less) we'll see this come to be too.
Hi Bob, Being Canadian here in Austria I too have to search for English books, and you are right, Amazon is good. Another option is Audio books from Amazon as well as others. Books on CDs which you listen to instead of reading. Also, if you are interested in classics, out of print, or older books, there are many sites online where you can obtain a copy such as Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ and even Google is now putting many older books online to read. Most of these you must read on the computer screen, but Project Gutenberg lets you download… Read more »
Bob As an avid book reader myself i must put a word in for the second hand book stalls which appear in all the malls. To be honest there is a mixed bag there and the literature content is so varied, you have to trawl through BUT i have picked up some gems and whereas there is a lot of "romantic fiction", which is not my cup of tea, there are hidden away some classics which can be picked up very cheaply. Not everyones idea of fun, but while my wife shops for fashion, i have spent many a happy… Read more »
Hi Bob- Like Rick B I'm also an avid reader and again like Rick I also enjoy looking through the second hand book store and occassionally I can also find something interesting. The sad thing is as one who reads all the time I'm pretty much up to date on the authors I like and I find it difficult to find books I enjoy as the ones to be found in these stores are on the whole quite old. I like your idea about sending a box as lots of my friends would be pleased to pass on there books… Read more »
Hi rick b – Yes, there are the used book dealers that pop in and out of the malls. Mostly selling old books, lots of romance novels, as you say. Nothing wrong with the low tech methods of finding things!
Hi Jim – There are not too many libraries here, and they are not too well stocked with books, either, from what I can tell.