Got the new Levenger catalog today (and what does "new" mean for those guys, anyway? this week's?) and saw the item listing for their Page Points—which used to be my favorite Levenger item. They still are, sort of: except that Levenger changed the design of their Page Points and the old (and better) design can be had for 1/2 the price at Lee Valley Tools, where they sell them as book darts. Book darts, very handy:
... and as you can see: you can sure go through a lot of them. If I use 50 on Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke (a real possibility—and I'm not quite done), that adds $10 to the "price" of the book. But it would have been $20 if I still shopped for them at Levenger.
Yes, that is a Brodart wrapper on the dust jacket. Most economical way to buy them is direct from Brodart, in the huge rolls. I like the Just-A-Fold III Archival Quality covers. Works out to about $.50 a hardcover. Totally worth it: more than one book has been saved from a spill by a quick lifting of the cover and gentle wiping of the plastic.
OK, that's the enough of this week's installment of "The Frugal Librarian." Next week: how shopping at Oriental foods wholesalers can really put the zing back into your reading habits!
Fun fact: this post comes up as the fifth result in a Google search for "Brodart wrapper."
Posted by: Wyl | December 13, 2007 at 10:12 AM
You can also pick these up direct from the Book Darts folks in bulk at their website -- www.bookdarts.com.
Posted by: Taylor Meek | December 13, 2007 at 08:16 PM
Thanks, Taylor! That's a killer discovery—especially since if you buy in bulk (qty 2000), you can get them for just $.08/piece (or 20% of what you'd pay at Levenger).
As for Google: yeah, it's weird... it's like Google loves me. All my posts are highly-ranked in Google. Maybe part of their algorithm is "Written by Joel Turnipseed" subroutine?
Posted by: minnesotaj | December 13, 2007 at 08:39 PM