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Help! Where can order INEXPENSIVE books? Desperate!
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bbhem5




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:25 am
My kids are big readers all the time. Now that school is closed they need more books- and the libraries are closed! I'm not complaining about the closures, I just need to get them reading material, for their and for my sanity!

We usually buy a few Jewish books (ones that will likely get reread multiple times) a year but I can't afford to buy 10 per week- per kid!

I let them read carefully screened secular books too.

I have from young elementary to older teens.

Any ideas? PLEASE!
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amother
Gold


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:27 am
Try all the children's classics on Gutenberg.org for now.
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:29 am
Book Depository has free international shipping, and often has some pretty steep sales, even on new and popular titles. The site is HUGE, so you'll never run out of things to look for. I'm not sure, but I think they offer more titles than Amazon.

I know my ex buys seforim from them all the time, so they will have Jewish titles available, too.
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Knowledgeable




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:31 am
Maybe ur library has an app where u can download books.
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:31 am
If your kids have Kindle, you can also look for all the books that are online for free. Amazon has some free titles, too. Just google "free e-books" or "free pdf books".
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bbhem5




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:41 am
Thanks so much, everyone.
My kids don't have computers or kindle so I'm looking for real paper-and-ink books.
They don't need to be new, just cheap! I may order a few from Book Depository but I really need cheaper because I need to order in bulk!

Any more ideas?
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turca




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:43 am
bbhem5 wrote:
Thanks so much, everyone.
My kids don't have computers or kindle so I'm looking for real paper-and-ink books.
They don't need to be new, just cheap! I may order a few from Book Depository but I really need cheaper because I need to order in bulk!

Any more ideas?

eBay???
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amother
Gold


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:43 am
Consider ordering some used Kindles off of eBay. You can get the oldest models (the ones that have buttons and not touch screens) for really cheap sometimes.
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amother
Ivory


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:46 am
Thriftbooks.com has had a number of Jewish books last time I checked, for pretty cheap.
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amother
Gold


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:47 am
Here are some listings for the out of date but still usable Kindle Touch, which does (as the name implies) have a touch screen:
https://ebay.to/2U30JUy
https://ebay.to/33tD3vk
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amother
Amber


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:48 am
I use thrift books. don't know how they are with kids books tho. often get books for $3-$4, but can take up to 10days. ususallyis faster, but don't know how affected by all that's going on now
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lfab




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 11:50 am
I've ordered used books from betterworldbooks.com for my kids several times and been happy. It's secular books though, so not going to help if you want jewish books. Most used books are around $4 I believe. Shipping is not the fastest si might take a while to get them.
You can also try to swap books with friends and neighbors so you all have new reading material and noone has to spend any money.
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bbhem5




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 12:26 pm
Thank you,everyone, so much!

I'm ignorant about technology. My kids have no internet access and I'd like to keep it that way! How does kindle work? If I download chosen books for them could they have access to anything else? I have strong filters on my computer and no I-phone. What do I need to be aware of or concerned about with a Kndle?
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Elfrida




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 12:51 pm
Kindles have a basic internet browser, but it is very hard to actually do anything with it. If you don't have wireless internet, there will be no network for it to connect to. If you do, put a password on it and don't let the children have the password.

You can download books to your computer, and then connect the kindle to your computer with a USB cable (this should come with the kindle) and transfer the books to it. You do this the same way as you would transfer any file to a disk on key or other external storage.

Books available for free download are normally available in multiple formats. For kindle you want to download mobi format. It doesn't matter that your computer can't read it. You can still transfer it to the kindle without a problem.

Project gutenberg has been mentioned as one good site.
Faded pages is one of my favourites, and has lots of children's books.
They both make available books that are now out of copyright. The advantage of these is that they are fairly old books, and tend to be a lot cleaner than modern literature. Of course, you can look through them first to make sure they meet your standards.

The biggest flaw of kindles, is that you can't use them on Shabbos. Make sure to have some paper books as well, especially with Yom Tov coming up.
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Elfrida




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 12:54 pm
Adding to my previous post, that newer kindles have parental control options, and may allow for disabling the browser. I've never tried, because it is so limited anyway.
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tigerwife




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 12:55 pm
amother [ Ivory ] wrote:
Thriftbooks.com has had a number of Jewish books last time I checked, for pretty cheap.


This. Free shipping over $10 and most books are $3.99 or less.
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questioner




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 12:59 pm
betterworldbooks - if you buy a bunch of books you can usually get for $3 each or less. Look at the bargain books section.
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amother
Floralwhite


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 1:04 pm
You can look for used classroom library sets on ebay and get a big box of books for, like, $50. A lot of retired teachers will do this.
But, to be honest, I dont know if a lot of the usual secondhand stores or people selling from home will still be doing this if they are quarantined or under lockdown.
Truthfully Amazon or Barnes and Noble is your best bet, but not so cheap.
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amother
Gold


 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 1:08 pm
You can just not have a wifi password saved on your Kindle, and then it won't be able to connect. Just connect once to register and don't save the password.
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Raisin




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 18 2020, 1:34 pm
Just know there are kindle fires, which is basically a tablet, and kindle reading only devices. You probably want the second. But unless you get a few, only one kid can read at a time.
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