Frozen Titan wrote: > Okay, I can't be the only one having this problem. I need to get ahold >of Athyra. I am stuck in the series and will not read them out of >release order. Heh heh. Does anyone know how I can get this book for a >decent price? I just want to read it, not be a collecter of rare books. >:) Assuming no one here offers to lend you a copy, here are some ideas: 1. There are a number of sites where you can leave a wantlist, e.g. I've used abebooks.com to obtain many out of print books. It sends you an e-mail when books matching your criteria are available. But for some books, you want to act as soon as you receive the e-mail. While searching for Pamela Dean's _The Hidden Land_ and _The Whim of the Dragon_, I had maybe 3 or 4 hits in as many months, and each time I e-mailed or called them up, I was told "Sorry, it's already been sold". I think I finally got a copy because one seller added, "but I expect to obtain more copies soon -- interested?". I haven't tried bookfinder.com in a while, but it's nice because it will do searches (but maybe not wantlists) at a whole bunch of sites, so that you don't have to go to them yourself. I stopped using it because it seemed like just about all the relevant hits were known by abebooks, which also has a wantlist. Actually, I haven't used abebooks recently, either (I've got about 90 books in my physical to-read pile, so that'll keep me busy for at least two years -- probably more since I'll buy other books, too, e.g. Steve's!), and I remember someone (a bookseller I think) complaining about ABE doing or planning to do something yucky. 2. Go to a used-book store and see if they'll do a search for you. I think some will ask for a small deposit, which you can then apply to the cost of the book if found, or can obtain entirely as a refund if you lose patience or find a better deal elsewhere. 3. Interlibrary loan is also something to consider. (But my experiences with it haven't been happy. A number of times, it came as microfiche --ok, I probably could have specified I wanted only dead-tree format-- and I didn't enjoy working the reader. Also, sometimes the loan period was rather short. Since I'm finicky about when I want to read a book, a short loan period + random arrival time = unhappy me.) 4. Wait a handful of years: Ace is slowly republishing the early books as omnibuses. Already out: The Book of Jhereg (Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla) and The Book of Taltos (Taltos, Phoenix). My guess is that Orca is, or will soon, go out of print, to set up for The Book of Athyra (Athyra, Orca). 5. I gather there are websites for booktrading, but I haven't used any, and currently doubt I will any time soon. If you want something to do in the meantime, you can try to spot more differences between the omnibuses and the original books. :) - tky