My "I Told You So" Moment
I'm going to take a moment here - just a brief one - to say that I stopped using Amazon back in the fall of 2000, when they changed their privacy policy to declare my personal information as part of their property so they could sell it if they felt like it.
And sure, they said it was just in case of bankruptcy, to make it clear that it was an asset, and they weren't PLANNING on selling it, but still...
I'd also like to point out that the Harvard Bookstore in Harvard Square (http://www.harvard.com) will do SAME DAY DELIVERY on a nice, non-polluting BICYCLE to Cambridge, as well as parts of Somerville and Allston. They'll do next day delivery to the rest of Somerville as well as Watertown, Brighton, Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Boston, and South Boston.
In addition, Pandemonium (http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/) and Porter Square Books (http://www.portersquarebooks.com) are locally owned, have fantastic selections, and support the local writing community with both their stock and their events.
Both Harvard Bookstore & Pandemonium stock used books and all three stock gay/les/bi/trans titles.
All three bookstores deserve your patronage more than Amazon does.
You can find specific used books using the meta-search engine http://www.bookfinder.com, which searches the ABE network and tons of small, independent bookstores (as well as B&N, Powells, & Amazon).
Finally, with regard to your music purchases, Newbury Comics is a locally owned and operated chain with a METRIC TON of new AND used, cheap CDs, movies & TV shows on both VHS & DVD, lots of vinyl, AND cool toys.