My father had a book shop so its no surprise that I’m an avid book reader and book collector. I love to choose appropriate books for family and friends – especially young children to start them off having a chance to love books as much as I do. Amazon must be on or near the top of the list for most book buyers whatever the genre they favour, and now will show the book’s price for e-book and hardback as well as paperback. As well as the competitive prices one excellent characteristic is the clever way the site notes your choices and all the time adds comments “people who bought (the book you are buying} also bought ….” This has led me trying a few new authors that I otherwise would not have thought of.

I collect older travel books and science fiction – often out of print, and the website ABE books is just amazing in the way it second guesses your half-remembered titles or part-authors and then lets you have alist of all the appropriate titles from its member bookshops. Once I wanted to track down a book I had as a child to buy for my little niece. I remembered the title and the fact that it was one of the “Little Golden Book” series. I got the book sent from a bookshop in Pennsylvania and it cost me around £5 for a really clean copy. Brilliant! I often go back to bookshops that are part of the ABE book networks to buy books as they so often give an excellent service, but I haven’t space to mention them all!

The third website worth a look is Oxfam’s book site – there are often a range of interesting books at realistic prices and you can feel very positive about supporting such a worthy charity. I have found this site good for travel books.