Where does everyone buy their books?

[Aurora]

Just curious - do you all buy first hand books from book shops or used editions from ebay or amazon? Does it bother you if they have been used before or not?

[Leo Bloom]

Just curious - do you all buy first hand books from book shops or used editions from ebay or amazon? Does it bother you if they have been used before or not?

As for me, it's fairly often that by reading one or another book I stumble upon the next author or next book to read. Then I'm going to library (Apropos, it's almost fascinating to find marginal notes left by other readers.). My favorite books I buy at a bookshop.

[OrphanPip]

There is a used book shop around the corner from where I live, so that tends to be where I buy a lot of books. I also shop at some of the independent book shops downtown because they carry things other shops don't. I prefer browsing books in person at shops, but I occasionally buy off amazon when I know exactly what I want to buy.

[Lokasenna]

Well, Amazon if the books I want are on it.

That said, most of the books I buy are too specialised for Amazon - usually have to buy straight from the publishers.

Also, nothing beats pottering around a decrepit, ancient secondhand bookshop and finding something wonderful.

[Ecurb]

I'm a professional burglar. So when I break into ritsy homes and make off with jewelry, computers and cash, I always try to grab a couple of novels.

[stlukesguild]

For years I built my collection up through what I could find at second-hand book stores. This had pluses and minuses. There were always specific books that I sought that I could not find. On the other hand, there were always those great finds... books and writers I hadn't heard of and never would have consciously sought that just grabbed me.

Over the last 10 years or so the independent bookstores have become an endangered species here. There are exceptions near universities and in cities like New York, but the big chains slowly put the independents out of business... although we do still have a good chain that deals in used books: Half-Price Books. Starting around 10 or twelve years ago I began buying as much or more at Borders and Barnes & Noble as anywhere else.

Over the past 4 or 5 years I've reached something of a saturation point. I can rarely find anything I need (or want) at any book store. Of course there are books by Dickens or Zola or many other major writers that I do not yet own... but I realize that I can get them at anytime. For the books I particularly want (and this applies to music as well) I must turn to Amazon and their secondary dealers... or in certain circumstances, on companies like Alibris that deal with out of print books.

[Aurora]

it's almost fascinating to find marginal notes left by other readers

Agreed.

I've got many used books from Amazon, mostly ones that I read for my degree but I find now that even if I want new books Amazon is much cheaper than Waterstones etc. I do love going into book shops though and browsing the shiny covers :biggrin5:

[Leo Bloom]

I do love going into book shops though and browsing the shiny covers :biggrin5:

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold :D

[Shalot]

Kindle downloads right now. I also joined a book club. That is not working out. I have to buy two more books at club prices or something. And I forgot to reply to the featured selections twice so now I have some really overpriced hardback books that I have no desire to read. And it was too complicated to return them. But, in my family, people like to give each other books as Christmas presents. No one really knows what other family members like to read, but they give books anyway. So, with my accidental book club purchases, I now have Christmas gifts to give so that another family member can unwrap an unwanted book and say "Oh thank you!" and then remark to their significant other on the way home, "What the hell?" Maybe, for good measure, I'll wrap up the T is for Trespass book and VHS tape that I got as gifts last year. It will be a bonus. Speaking of bonues, there was a bonus DVD in one of my book club shipments. Maybe some family member was in a bookclub 10 years ago and that's where my VHS tape came from. Wow, I have really rambled.

I also buy books from Borders and from the used book store. I heard Borders was having financial difficulty. I hope bookstores are not replaced by Kindle books because there is just something about the atmosphere in a bookstore. And you can buy those hobby kits for $7.99 or something on sale. I have a Feng Shui kit, a yoga kit, a "draw really cool stuff" kit, a "learn to paint" kit, the Office Space kit with my very own jump to conclusions mat, and it seems like I had something else but I can't remember. Oh yeah, someone gave me a meditation kit for Christmas one year. It was actually pretty cool. It was just a book and CD that I played at work during the day for the purpose of annoying my coworkers but it was fine. So yeah, the Kindle books are working out okay, but in my opinion, there's nothing like a bookstore

[Aurora]

I sometimes wish that I had a kindle, although I imagine it takes something away from the experience of reading a book??


There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold :D

:yesnod: I'm a sucker for shiny

[faithosaurus]

We don't have a used bookstore nearby, so for novels I buy at bookstores like Barnes and Noble.

I go to Amazon for my school books usually; not textbooks but like, books that...pertain, for lack of better words. Like in my IB Chem class, I bought an IB booklet from there that had all the info.

[Venerable Bede]

I buy my books new most of the time, from big bookstores or Amazon.

[Paulclem]

I bought A Kestrel For A Knave by barry Hines in Oxfam yesterday. I also buy off Amazon, as you often can't get what you want. There a discount bookstore in town - opposite Oxfam, and I go in there often, though don't often find much. I did get a big, new, cheap Paradise Lost from there at Christmas though. I also look in the regular bookshop - particularly at classics or literary novels. I was wandering around the bookstoress again today as well. I'm a book sucker.

[country doctor]

right now the doc does most of his book buying at the assorted library book sales...you can't beat the price and the money goes to a great cause...five or six different libraries throughout the year...it would take the doc a couple years to catch up to all the books he's bought in the last year...and the sales keep popping up on the calender...


need the doc type more?

ROAR!

[Patrick_Bateman]

I desperately desperately try and buy as many books from local stores and Waterstones but Amazon is too easy and oh so cheap.

I have been buying more classical music from my local bookshop though, rather than Amazon.

[Helga]

I usually buy from the local bookstore if I know what I want to buy. I sometimes just want to browse in a certain bookstore, I always find something interesting there. I am also in a bookclub and get a book from them every other month.

[Drkshadow03]

A combination of used bookstores, Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Nobles, and Independent Chains.

1) I go to used bookstores as my first source because I hate paying full price for a book.

One of the used bookstores I go to up here gives you a FREE book for every TEN dollars you spend if you're paying in cash. The books cost between $ 3 - 4 dollars on average.

2) I hit the annual book sales at the libraries since the paperbacks cost like 25 cents. This is where you get the best deals and despite the plethora of James Patterson novels, there are often many good finds. One time I left one of these with around 30 books.

3) I shop for used books at Amazon.com. It's just much cheaper to buy used than new and usually it's in decent enough condition, even though you have to pay for shipping.

4) I shop at an Independent Book store in New York sometimes when I visit my parents. They often have cheap discounted new copies of Wordsworth Classic editions ($2 - $6).

5) I shop at the chains when I have a gift card to them (or when my local Borders was having going out of business sales and I could get discounted prices).

6) I used sites like Bookmooch and paperbackswap to trade books I don't want for ones I do (generally these books are books I bought cheap from Used Books that are in worse condition than I originally noticed, books my fiance no longer wants that she brought with her when we moved in together, books my family gives me that they don't want and I don't want, accidental purchases in which bought something I didn't realize I already owned).

I almost always buy books at an extreme discount whenever possible.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Sources include:
Half Price Books
Barnes and Noble either in paper form or in PDF download for the Nook recently acquired
Otherwise, I continue to slowly ply my way through the inherited Gurgle library.

.

[kiki1982]

As I find a book is only worth the price the paper it is printed on (ok and maybe also the paper the preface takes) I nearly only buy used books, or I look for the cheapest option.

So, now I have moved further from Trier and there is no decent book store in my town (all boring German things, not even good stuff. That would be a god-send), if I know what I want, I'll go to Amazon and order a used one there. They are indeed usually in pretty good condition. No reason to go 'uh'.

And for the rest, when we are in Trier, we go to our book store and maybe buy something, maybe not. When they see us coming they say hello (so sweet, :)). And whenever we see a book sale with other than German, we will have a look. Thus we spent the first hour of the afternoon we went to the great world Christmas market in Luxemburg on the second hand bookstall in the hall :rolleyes:. And the whole exhibition centre was still full of embassy's stalls...

[qimissung]

I love bookstores, used or new. I usually shop at Half-Price Books; they are about the only used bookstores around any more, which is so sad.

I used to shop occasionally at Borders, but they're gone now, too. That leaves Barnes and Noble, and I shop there sometimes, too. I like them well enough, but they don't always have what I'm looking for. For instance I went there a week ago to look for Ovid's Metamorphoses and they had one copy, and not the translation that I wanted. I was unable to order one from there either, which left Amazon. I ordered a new copy from Amazon and it was delivered to my doorstep in two days.

I love Amazon, too! The sheer convenience of it is wonderful. I sometimes order new books from them; often, though, I order used; I prefer the "like new" designation, and they usually are. The only drawback I've found is that it usually takes them about two weeks to arrive when I order from the used bookstores on their service.

[ralfyman]

I don't mind as long as there aren't marks in the text that I can't remove, but I usually look for a condition above acceptable. I try to avoid ex-library, but if it's available locally and cheap, I'll get it. And if I am willing to pay regular to premium price for hardcovers, I usually do so because it's out of print.

[Dinosaurrr]

I buy a lot of my books from amazon. If I can afford, or I really want a new copy, then yes, i'll buy new. But if its just for school, or something I'll only read once (e.g. autobiography) then that'll be bought secondhand. I don't have a problem with that, but yellow pages are a bit of a put off.

[Niamh]

I generally buy my books from work (support your local bookstore!!) but if they cant get a book in for me, I'll get it from Amazon or the book depository (who are usually cheaper).
I've no problem with second hand books, and if its the only way i can get a certain book, that fine with me.

[logophile]

I buy most of my books second hand if I'm honest... My local British Heart Foundation shop has a wonderful classic and antiquarian section which I hae purchased some of my most valued books from (most notably a leather bound copy of P.B Shelley's poetical works). I much prefer second hand books in general. They have a character that brand new books cannot replicate. I especially like when the previous owner has made notes or little pencil marks highlighting favourite passages. It adds so much to a book to know that someone else has gained the same appreciation (or sometimes more) from the pages that I am now. I also buy from the specialist bookshops around London and if I want something particular, Amazon.