It’s that time of the year again and whether you’re getting your booklist sorted for heading back to school or looking out for some awesome summer reading, before you head out to Whitcoull’s or Borders try searching GoodBooksNZ.co.nz. Good Books is an online bookshop run by the charity Oxfam, which works against poverty and inequality in communities in over 100 countries around the world.
I’ve been using Good Books to order some of the novels that I plan to use for my uni studies this year, and I’ve found that not only is their selection as good, sometimes better, than that of Borders and Whitcoull’s, but their prices are much cheaper. The site’s really easy to use, with just one field to use to search by title, ISBN or author, and I actually found their ‘Tips’ section handy when I got stuck once.
Every time anyone buys a book through the Good Books website, 100% of the retail profit from every sale goes to support communities in need through Oxfam projects.
I really like the feel of the site and having everything in NZ$ is really nice. Plus it’s nice knowing that you’re helping a good cause, by doing something you have to do anyway, and probably for a better price than you would’ve got it otherwise. Delivery is free and the only downside is that you’ll have to wait 7-14 working days for delivery (from either the UK, US or Germany), however this is pretty much the same as Whitcoull’s, which has a delivery time of 10-12 days.
No one at Good Books is paid and we have zero operating costs. All time, professional services and resources are donated.
So next time you need a novel, non-fiction book, audiobook, or even a music CD, check out GoodBooksNZ.co.nz first. And if you’re not in NZ, they deliver worldwide. So go for it!
I hear that Oxfam have actual stores in some countries – in fact in the UK Oxfam’s secondhand book stores are doing so well that according to The Guardian they’re now the largest retailer of secondhand books in the UK! Interestingly, in that some article in The Guardian the chairman of a booksellers association complained
Oxfam is a worthwhile cause but they are now acting more like a business than a charity and that is a concern.
While as a rival bookseller I can see why he’s worried, I can’t help thinking that in this commercial world we need more charities “acting more like a business”, since that’s how real, sustainable change will be achieved, and networks established that will go some way to reversing the inequality in our current economic system.
Rather than fight a system that privileges a few over many, we wanted to transform it from within to constructive effect. Now, each time you buy a book through us you challenge traditional barriers that prevent commercial involvement in reducing poverty.
[GoodBooks]
*All GoodBooks quotes were taken from their website.
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