Is Amazon encouraging the pilfering of public libraries? It would certainly appear that way.
When this writer received a copy of the book she ordered from the online store last week, she was mildly surprised to discover that it not only had stickers on the binding and cover demarking it as a “North Central Regional Library” book, but also a label glued onto the first page stating “Book club book: please return to service center.”
True, the book was purchased through an Amazon retail partner - Thrift Books – and cost only 0.99 cents, but still, sheesh, facilitating larceny from libraries, Amazon?
Or perhaps US libraries, demoralised and defeated as the unwashed masses turn to their TV’s, iPads and Kindles, have simply resorted to giving books away to booksellers that charge more for postage and packaging than the precious words on the page themselves.
Writing. It’s all becoming a bit cheap, isn’t it?
I'm a huge http://www.thriftbooks.com/ aficionado. Now, assuming you're in the US, they offer FREE shipping, so I'm not sure why you state that they charge more for postage and packaging than the book...
Perhaps you are shopping directly through Amazon.com? If that's the case, Amazon sets the shipping price (at $4), not the book seller. To compensate, I noticed that books (like the $5 book you posted about) get their price reduced to $0.99 so that the price you actually pay is still... $5
I don't know about North Central Regional Library, but I do know that Thrift Books partners with many libraries and nonprofits to sell their discarded books to free up money to buy new books - and in this economy, I imagine this is a great source of revenue!
Check out the King County Library webpage at http://www.kcls.org/foundation/aboutus.cfm
"Used Books for Sale from the KCLS Foundation
The KCLS Foundation sells used books on several web sites, and now you can check out a list of titles available through ThriftBooks. Visit www.thriftbooks.com/kclsf and enter the title, author, or subject and you will see available titles. Proceeds from the sale of used books help support the Foundation’s literacy and lifelong learning programs. "
This sounds more like philanthropy than larceny!