I've been recommending good jewelry making books I've come across. Before you buy any of them though, you really ought to check them out.

1. LOCAL LENDING LIBRARY
Borrow it first. A library is such a tremendous free resource if you are lucky enough to have one near you. If you really like a book, then by all means purchase it. If your local library doesn't have the book you want, be sure to ask about inter-library lending. They can borrow the book for you from another library. This additional service may or may not be free.

2. BOOKSTORE BOOK REVIEWS
You could also go to online book stores like Amazon or Chapters Canada and check out their reviews - I usually link to Amazon. Sometimes, you can see the contents page as well as a few internal pages.

3. LIBRARYTHING
You could check out my reviews. I maintain a list of the books I either own or have borrowed from the library. The majority are jewelry making books as well as some of the historical books I read for the blog. Librarything is an online book cataloging service which I use. It is free for the first 200 books and then it costs $25 for life.

I now have nearly 100 books listed and have rated all of them. Librarything is also a social site in a way and it allows libraries to be shared - here is the Beading Gem's catalogue. To see the reviews, click on the index card icon on the right. Now, my opinion of what constitutes a good book might defer from yours. So Librarything also lets you see how others rated the book too.



4. GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH

Google's massive Library Project is worth using and keeping an eye on for future changes. Their Google Book Search is a fantastic way to preview a book in the comfort of your own home and it's free. The ability to preview several pages of an in-copyright or even download an entire out-of-copyright book is awesome.

I typed in "origami jewelry" and picked the top book from the search results which happens to be Ayako Brodek's book. I was able to see the first ten pages of the book which allowed me to gauge the book - I thought some of the tiny creations were amazing! Over on the right, you can either rate it or go ahead and buy it from a list of suppliers.

Google plans to offer a paid service where you can read millions of entire books online - the books you buy will always be there, stored on your virtual bookshelf until your next reading session!



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The Beading Gem's Journal
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