Here in suburban Atlanta, B&N is all but useless. Most of the titles date from the last decade, and the newer items are usually either Lincoln biographies (from the “bumper crop” of the 2009 bicentennial) or general histories, neither of which particularly interest me. They don’t seem to interest the general public either, as I tend to see the same items sitting there month after month.

Borders is generally better; this past week I found copies of Gallaghers’ essay collections for Spotsylvania and the 1862 Valley Campaign, along with a reprint of Wert’s “Winchester to Cedar Creek”, neither of which I’ve ever seen available before. Still, the trend is towards more colonial history (the American Revolution section is easily twice as large as it was even a few months before) and more modern history, and I expect that will continue.

Thankfully, I’m about to start as a seasonal ranger at Chickamauga-Chattanooga, which has quite a nice book store : )

I gave up on Borders, B&N, and all other stores. I buy all of my books from Amazon. They are always 20-30% cheaper (even with Borders coupons), and the shipping is free on $25.00 or more orders, which is a plus because I can convince the Mrs to let me buy two instead of one book. :)

By the way, I was in B&N again today (the boy wanted the new Dan Gutman book, “Roberto and Me”) and sat through the Nook sales pitch. Seems like a viable device for reading public domain pdfs from places like Google books. And novels, of course. But I’m having trouble seeing myself buying copyrighted CW books in e-format. Though I gotta tell you, it has some cool features.

I live in the DC metro area–Northern Virginia to be exact. As you might imagine, the big chains here carry a lot of Civil War books, even a retailer like Books-A-Million has some good titles. I assume this has a lot to due with the fact that this region’s history is so wrapped up in the war. (There are also a ton of political science titles, as may be expected!) We also have access to unique books at the area’s sites, such as Fort Ward, which sells titles on the defenses of Washington and Alexandria during the war.

That being said, I prefer to check out titles at the store (for the same reason that Harry does), and then purchase new or used (like new) titles from Amazon, Ebay, or other sellers. I also use Ebay to acquire first edition Civil War books. It may be a little risky, but I’ve bought near fine copies of Grant’s Memoirs and a few other memoirs from the late 19th and early 20th centurty on there.

And if you ever make it to McLean, check out Old Book Company of McLean, the used book store that has quite a few Civil War titles, many in excellent condition.

Of course the fact that little fighting of consequence happened in Florida I suppose it is to be expected. Thank heavens for the internet!

Another great source for maps, which I print out and use when reading about a particular action, battle, etc. is wikipedia. Superb maps, and a great aid to understanding what is going on, terrain, etc., as you read the text of your book. These wiki maps helped immensely when reading a detailed book on, say, Chickamauga or Shiloh ( and yes, I’ve read “The Maps of Chickamauga”… the best yet of this series. I hope someone follows this method on all the battles, even the lesser ones.

Oh, yeah…. I buy from Alibris quite a lot, usually used for peanuts.

I also picked up the latest article you wrote on the Leister house – great job, I enjoyed it!
Chris

Glad to say I’ve yet to have a bad experience with an ABE seller. Though I’m sure it could happen.

Next time I’m at my Borders, I’ll try to tell (if possible) what’s taking the place, shelf-space wise, of the formerly large CW section. The history section itself hasn’t shrunk, so some other era must have expanded. At least I think it must have.

But I do know that this Borders has a pretty solid colonial / Revolutionary War section. And WWII.