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Secondhand corner

Buying hand - me-down books online is

catching on, says Arundhati Basu

T

his is exclusively  for die-hard book

lovers - people who rummage in tiny,

. backstreet bookstores and revel in the

smell of musty, yellow paperbacks. It's time to

start hunting for old books and rare tomes on

.the Internet that is now home to~ various book

. websites selling and buying used copies.

"It's a trend we noticed in Ohio, US, and,

London, while we were staying there. So we

wanted to experiment with it here, where dis-

posable incomes are on the rise, but books are

not getting any cheaper," says the Goa-based

Leonard J.Fernandes who kicked off the web-

site, www.dogearsetc.com. along with his wife

Queenie Rodrigues Fernandes in July this year.

Dog Ears Etc. isn't the only secondhand

Next

Indian bookshop in cyberspace. There's

also Second Hand Books India

www.secondhandbooksindia.com) and

Bookmandi  setting up shop online.  

 These we6sites bring together buyers

and sellers in cyberspace.

Of course there are plenty --;but costlier-

options in the form of the Canada-based

Abebooks (www.abebooks.com).the US-based

Alibris Books (www.alibris.com). UK-based

Barter Books (www.barterbooks.com) and Bid

for a Book (www.bid4abook.co.uk).

The Indian sites are still getting off the

ground but' they've had promising starts. While

Dog Ears Etc. within a month has 119

registered users, Second Hand Books that was