Bookfinding Hints
Whether you just want to find your favorite Pinkwater book that you enjoyed once as a teen, or you are looking to expand your collection, the web is an excellent place to purchase books whether in or out of print. I have been a collector of Pinkwater for the last few years and have more than quadrupled my collection since I began buying books online. Many people write to Daniel Pinkwater asking where copies of a certain book of his can be obtained. The world wide web is a big place, and you need to know where to look. In the following section I will give some of my best bookfinding hints and provide links to the best resources I have found. Good luck and happy hunting!
Books in Print
About one quarter of Pinkwater's books are currently in print. These, and the books that recently have gone out of print and are still in stock are available over any major interenet bookseller and many smaller ones. Sites such as Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders Books and Music keep many Pinkwater books in stock. They are often sold at a discount. For books that have been out of print a little bit longer, you may be able to find them at smaller bookstores that don't sell out their inventory as quickly. One site I have recently ordered from, 1Bookstreet.com had a few of Pinkwater's books on audio edition for sale. Pinkwater's audio books are much more likely to be found on a smaller bookstore site than used. For those interested in obtaining his NPR pieces on tape, you can look for an audio version of Chicago Days / Hoboken Nights which is his second collection of NPR essays. The most important thing I have learned as an avid collector though, is that Pinkwater's books go out of print quickly and without warning. Do not hesitate to buy a book-in-print when it is available, or the next time you check, it may be gone. Of course, Pinkwater still publishes several new books a year, and they can usually be pre-ordered months ahead of time with the big companies, to insure that you get your copy when it comes out.
Books out of Print
Now for the books that are no longer available at the bookstore, but do not need to be any more difficult to obtain than the books that are still in print, the key is to look for a used copy. Luckily this is not as hard as it sounds. (A couple places worth checking frequently,Book Closeouts and Book Express, sell remainder books that have recently gone out of print at very low prices.) A large number of Pinkwater books can be found with some amount of regularity at a huge range of prices. Some books that turn up often used, and at very reasonable prices are, Chicago Days / Hoboken Nights, Fish Whistle, The Afterlife Diet, Jolly Roger: A Dog of Hoboken, The Wuggie Norple Story, Wingman, Fat Men from Space, Guys from Space, and I Was a Second Grade Werewolf. The all-time best resource for locating used books for sale that I have found is Bibliofind.com. In fact, I rarely make my purchases through anyone else. A site that is endorsed by Pinkwater himself as having a large selection at prices close to retail is Cattermole Children's Books. Other possibilities are the used book locators at Amazon.com. To do this you simply click on any out of print title for the form that you send back to them, and if they can find your book they will respond within three months. The prices can be a little bit steeper this route and you may have to wait longer, but it is sometimes worth it for a very hard to find book, and it is more likely to be in very good condition. With Bibliofind, although each independant bookseller gives a description of the condition of the book for sale, you kind of take your chances. One of the sellers in particular, who probably has the most listings is Book Rescue. I have ordered successfully from them many times. They have the biggest stock, the best selection, and they guarantee orders to the continental U.S. The most important thing to remember in doing author searches is that many of Pinkwater's earlier books were published under Manus or D. Manus Pinkwater. If you only search under Daniel Pinkwater, you may never find them. Hopefully this page has given you the information you need, but if you have additional questions, or if you know of other tips that I can publish here, feel free to contact me with them.
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