Book sales a plenty

If you have lots of Christmas cash in your hands, or if you just want some books at a low cost, you're in luck. The major online bookstores have some inventory clearances of which you might take advantage. Quite a bit of the stuff is made up of the same sad old books that sit in the remainder pile all year. But don't let that hold you back, with a bit of looking you can find some gems. Be aware that you might get a remainder mark on some of these books.

Amazon's page is OK. The treasure to trash ratio isn't that high, but you can get John Barry's The Great Influenza for five bucks. You can pick up the excellent Fifth Business by Robertson Davies for three. There are a fair number of art books on sale too, in case your coffee table is looking a little bare.

The Powells' page isn't a special holiday page but their normal sale page is worth a look. One of my favorite short story collections of all time, Lost in the City, is available for seven dollars. You can get the splendid Cloud Atlas for the same price.

The Barnes and Noble sale is large. You can get Sean Wilentz's Rise of American Democracy for a mere five dollars. One of the rare-everyone-should-read-it books, Guns, Germs and Steel can be yours for a little more than the price of an eggnog latte. Another surprise is that you can get Krepinevich's essential The Army and Vietnam at five dollars.