Collecting on a Shoestring II (cont')

Determine a Travel Route in Focus Area

Not to fear, I have several days to try and visit most of these book stores. But which ones must I leave out? This leads to part two, where we determine travel routes within the focus area.

To do this portion, several items are required:

• Highlighter Markers
• Road Map of the Focus Area
• Pen or Pencil
• Global positioning map, http://city.net/maps/address/ or similar
• Phone book of focus area or Internet equivalent such as http://superpages.com/
• Printer

These tools are nearly essential for planning to hit a large volume of used book stores, especially if the area they are located in is unfamiliar to you.

First, take a road map and phone book of the focus area and start looking at the addresses of the used book stores. Using a pen or pencil, mark the locations on the roadmap of all the book stores of interest. In the likelihood that you don't have a phonebook of the focus area, try sites like http://superpages.com/ and search for them. If you are unfamiliar with the city or area that you intend to visit, putting dots on a large roadmap can be difficult. In cases like this, I swear by global positioning maps such as http://city.net/maps/address/ -zoom in and out to get the right bearings on the roadmap.

The roadmap should have all of the used book stores indicated once this task is completed. With the task complete, it is necessary to give the map a look over to determine the travel route that makes the most sense for your time and travel requirements. Connect the dots with a highlighter to plan out a general travel route. (The illustration below indicates used book stores as black dots, and the connecting lines indicate the order at which I'd like to visit them. Pay special notice to Mel's Books, it will be referred to later).

Some of the dots may be isolated from the others or not easy to access. Unless you have unlimited free time, consider skipping these stores unless they specialize in Sci-Fi/Fantasy or Children's books. Better yet, it may be a good idea to call them and ask them to search their shelves to confirm if they are worth the special attention of an out-of-the way visit.

Next Section -->