Electronic media and out of print books...

[Kristine]

How many people have gone looking for a book/group of books that is out of print (fiction- stand alone or series) only to find it out of print?  How interested would you be to buy it in electronic format to read it on your cell phone, Kindle...etc?

Is there enough out there that this has never happened to you and/or if something was not available from your local bookstore you would find something else more current to read or did you find the first two of an old trilogy where the last book (like the first two you found at that rummage sale) is out of print and you've been searching for it for years?

Just curious...

[Yeratel]

There's a huge amount of stuff out there through readprint.com or Project Guttenberg, though it's all public domain. BAEN has a lot of their out-of-print scifi and fantasy titles available to read or download on their website. I'm not sure what other publishers have followed suit.

[LizW65]

I usually just go to AbeBooks or one of my local used bookstores, if I want it badly enough.  Being technologically challenged (and a bit of a purist where books are concerned), I don't have the slightest desire to read a whole book electronically.  If you look hard enough you can find just about any book used.

[Moritz]

If you live abroad/ overseas, it gets more interesting. Finding old, used, out of print American novels is almost impossible where I live (the new stuff can be ordered in booskstores or via amazon of course). I know some Americans and Canadians who work in NGOs in the Balkans, and they only get stuff as electronic books via the internet (unless I sent them care packages with dead wood inside).