The best alternative Prime Day sale lets you save on books — and no, it's not through Amazon

Book covers of children's books on sale at Bookshop.org — (Image credit: Bookshop.org)

It's easy to forget that Amazon rose to the public consciousness by selling books, giving you quick and easy access to a library's full of published material that could land on your doorstep with a single click. So why not commemorate the current Amazon Prime Day deals by picking up a new book or two?

Oh, I don't mean at Amazon. There's plenty of other tech, from the top laptop deals to the best Prime Day TV sales, that you can pick up via Amazon's seemingly infinite online warehouse. Instead, let me steer you to Bookshop.org, which is holding an Anti-Prime sale of its own.

Bookshop.org's sales event runs through Wednesay (October 8), just like the Amazon Prime event. And as part of the promotion, the online bookseller is offering free shipping on orders placed on its site.

What's more, the Bookshop.org event coincides with Banned Books Week, in which you can save 20% off books that have run wound up on banned lists across the country. You can save on everything from children's books like "Baseball Saved Us," about life in a World War II internment camp, to classics like George Orwell's "Animal Farm." Just use the 'BBW25' code at checkout to save.

When you buy through Bookshop.org, you're also helping support local independent bookstores as the retailer says it gives more than 80% of its profit margin to independent booksellers. Presumably, very little of that money is going to fund a lavish multiday wedding in Venice. Some 1,900-plus bookstores do business with Bookshop.org.

So find a book you like at Bookshop.com, place your order and save the costs of shipping if you order by Wednesday night. Or explore some of the other Prime Day challengers like the anti-Prime Day event at Lowe's or Walmart's fall sale.

Philip Michaels is a Managing Editor at Tom's Guide. He's been covering personal technology since 1999 and was in the building when Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone for the first time. He's been evaluating smartphones since that first iPhone debuted in 2007, and he's been following phone carriers and smartphone plans since 2015. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics, old movies and proper butchery techniques. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.

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