January book report: Quantumbooks Waltham

[Ted Roche]

I encourage everyone to buy locally when possible, and I'm pleased to  
report Quantumbooks is a local vendor worthy of your patronage.

Laura and I spent some time at Quantumbooks in Waltham yesterday and  
I wanted to let you know the store is alive and well. As Tim O'Reilly  
wrote a couple of years ago [1], you need to buy where you shop. I  
was concerned when Quantum took over for SoftPro, as the SoftPro  
staff had set a very high bar of knowledge, courtesy and quality  
service.  Yesterday, I was pleased to find very well stocked shelves  
(lots and lots more books than my last visit) and a couple of special  
deals. The sales people were knowledgeable and knew where to find  
several titles I asked about., and went out of their way to ensure I  
got the best deal and all the discounts I might get.

Keep an eye on their in-store promotions and website [2] for good  
deals. This week, they had a good-sized pile of O'Reilly "hurts" -  
dinged, bent and torn books - at 50% or better off the cover price. I  
had signed up for their mailing list, though I don't see a link on  
their web site. It's probably worth the effort to visit the store and  
get on the list. We got quite a bargain. With the discounts and  
promotions, we likely met or beat the good deal user group discount  
O'Reilly extends us directly, and we got to heft the books and browse  
the titles -- I decided to pass on one title because the book was  
just too massive for my level of interest. I also picked up several  
titles because I had heard of them and a bit of browsing proved they  
were just what I needed.

[1] http://tim.oreilly.com/articles/buy_where_shop.html
[2] http://www.quantumbooks.com/

Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com