Swapping Books

With my new e-reader on it's way my books have suddenly come to resemble my CD's collection in that category of things that technology has made obsolete. I know that many book lovers will scoff at that, but let's be honest, I can fit 1000 books in my pocket, your 1000 books take up a whole wall. With that in mind I took them down to Buy the Book, a used English book store that also offers trades. While my 10 books got me a mere 30000 won many of them were in poor condition and quite old. I traded them, and 10000 won for two lonely planet guides to the Philippines and India. Not that I plan to visit India anytime soon, but it is high on my "to do" list despite the fact that I know very little about it.

Guide books are also about the only books that I plan to keep hard copies of, despite the fact that internet research is more up to date and often free. Guide books usually offer maps, practical info and the information is, in most cases, not TOO out of date. I used my 2004 Hong Kong guide book in 2009 and all the info was still good except for some of the prices. Also, in some places I have been electricity is sketchy and having a hard copy of all of your info seems a good idea to me.

Buy the Book was also a cool little place. A bit too, shall I say "groovy" at times, with a vegetarian kitchen and reggae music playing the whole time, but a great place for getting English language books at reasonable prices and if you were so inclined to be a vegetarian probably a good option for you (actually the food looked really good).

On a final note, my Indian guide book had previously been owned by a girl who didn't feel the need to take all of her info out before selling it. I had credit card purchase numbers, her email and confirmation numbers on paper she had printed out for her Indian trip. A less honest person could have really taken advantage of that. Let that be a lesson..... on.... selling your old guide books.