How different it is.

[Paulclem]

I was just reflecting on the poetry thread about which poets I liked when remembered a poetry book I picked up in the 1980s. It happened to be on a second hand stall in my hometown, and was called Three Czech Poets referring to Vitezslav Nezval, Antonin Bartusek, and Josef Hanzlik. I thought I'd see if I could find the book on Amazon - which I did, and I have just bought it for a few quid.

Thinking back to the 80s made me realise how different all this book buying is now. I happened upon a poetry selection by chance in the 80s, but of course this was pure luck and it could have been any book. At that time I didn't order books, but looked for them on second hand stalls, libraries and bookshops. I realise now that my whole collection then was pure happenstance. It's so much easier now to follow through on an author or a theme or research. I sold that particular collection to a second hand shop when I went to Uni. Now I could take an entire digital library with me on my kindle. How different it is.

[stlukesguild]

I built much of my library in a similar manner. Of course there were certain authors and certain books that I was always on the lookout for... but much of what I purchased was based upon the luck of the draw... whatever I came upon in the number of used book stores I frequented. I use Amazon as much as anyone... although I'm not overly sold on replacing books with a digital library. On the other hand... digital art books have been a real Godsend. Still, I miss browsing through the musty old books in the little neighborhood book stores and stumbling upon some real gems that I might never have come upon otherwise. Luckily we still have one major used book store chain in the area.

Now what about all those hours I used to spend just browsing and reading in the book stores? I don't seem to have more time now. Of course I'm probably spending it all on LitNet and other forums.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I agree things have changed quite rapidly. It's also funny to note some of the randomness of finding books now comes about because of technology. One of the books I'm reading at the moment - The River, Olivia Laing (strange) came through an Amazon email. I mostly just delete these 95% of the time without looking but I ended up being sucked into this one, so really a chance encounter. Also one of the best chess books this year, Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book, no the best chess book this year, came about as I was searching for another book and that came up in the 'other books you might like' thing, so there's sort of a randomness about it still in a different way. Of course wandering around used book shops still pretty much can't be beaten. Also to note the Laing book I'm reading at the moment I decided to buy the paperback over the kindle copy even though the kindle version was cheaper.:yesnod: Well, I just liked the front cover.

[wreade1872]

In my local bookstores there's been a growing shift towards what they're calling 'Gift Books'. A few years ago classics (ie material out of copyright) was being made as cheap as possible to sell. You had some for a €1 or 2, now however if someone wants any of that material they tend to get it on an e-reader where most of it is free anyway.
So the stores are shifting tactics and are now selling the same stuff but in really fancy hardback editions. So they have stoker, doyle, poe, carroll, dickens etc. in these really nice and expensive editions, which as i say they tend to refer to as 'Gift Books'.
They have switched from selling the book for its contents to selling it for its looks.

I don't have any opinion as to whether this is good or bad its just interesting.

[JBI]

I agree things have changed quite rapidly. It's also funny to note some of the randomness of finding books now comes about because of technology. One of the books I'm reading at the moment - The River, Olivia Laing (strange) came through an Amazon email. I mostly just delete these 95% of the time without looking but I ended up being sucked into this one, so really a chance encounter. Also one of the best chess books this year, Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book, no the best chess book this year, came about as I was searching for another book and that came up in the 'other books you might like' thing, so there's sort of a randomness about it still in a different way. Of course wandering around used book shops still pretty much can't be beaten. Also to note the Laing book I'm reading at the moment I decided to buy the paperback over the kindle copy even though the kindle version was cheaper.:yesnod: Well, I just liked the front cover.

I used to get most of my reading from browsing through similar subject sections in major library (under the Library of Congress system). Basically I could wander around 4 levels of shelves on Chinese literature, and pick out books and random and read them - I did that for over a year and it generally gave me most of my ideas for purchasing. I also comb through university press catalogs, journals' book review and bibliography sections, other cited works by people in similar fields with similar interests, as well as the internet and Amazon's recommendations.

As for digital or print, much of it is the fault of the presses, who were too greedy for the service they were providing. In China I can buy top quality leather-bound editions for less than 5$ a volume. Specialty books, like my facsimiles of Song and Ming dynasty editions don't pass the 20$ mark.

In contrast I was dropping 20-30$ for paper-bound books while I was in university - Penguin classics in paperback still sell for almost 20$ in Toronto, I can buy them for a third the price here in China, and it just does not make sense mostly for books that are completely free online.

In simple terms, the Kindle is the ultimate book for reading novels. It is now more convenient than the paperback. For other books, it is still not perfected, or we are not accustomed to it at any rate.

In general, we are no longer bookshelf browsing people. I have noticed some library websites also offering related material suggestions, which makes the world a much brighter place.

As for lists, we generally are going to put the canon we are involved with as our centre, regardless of where we shop. This is just how serious reading is developed. Anybody serious about Western literature will know who Dante was, and will probably have read him. If we want to deal with editions then, it comes down to word of mouth and browsing capabilities, something only enhanced by the internet and the new medium.

In terms of random stumbling, I don't see how that is hampered by the internet - it is only enhanced. One of the problems many people have is not checking publishers, which is generally the go-to place for picking books. For instance, I liked when I started Columbia university press's books on Chinese literature. In about 2-3 months I broke through 70% of the list in one way or another. I once liked some Canadian poems published by a couple of Canadian presses - I then pursued their catalogs online and selected more works.

Stumbling is fine, but one should not discount this more systematic way of looking at text.

Then again, I get blurred easily as I am more an academic reader than casual reader, and I read with intention rather than with casual interest. I still read for pleasure, but that no longer fills 20% of my intake. I simply and overworked in my own field, which in China is loaded with specific lists of books which are deemed necessary (for anyone seriously pursuing a subject).

An interesting thing is how canonized everything here is - the government in every field basically made a list of 100-ish books that are absolutely required. All literature students seem to have the same canonical background more-or-less, with little variation. Generally casual reading is discouraged, which makes the academic studies, despite the mediocrity of many of the academies here, far more specific and unified - the fields are far more concentrated, and the scholarship far more precise than the sort of floaty-driftish nonsense we get from the sort of Post-Modern riff-raff that dominated the last 30-odd years of academic life in the US and Canada and is now on its way out.


I wonder though, how does one casually "browse" a sort of Canon - is that a thing of the past? Originally, books were generally read on reputation, from what I can understand. That is the basis of the classical education that marked learning until a couple of hundred years ago. Now we are basically swamped, with one end pulling toward "I am special" and another end pulling toward "get these Fresh Romances, guaranteed to be of the same quality as what you are used to." In a sense the second camp is far less presumptuous, in that it is aware of itself as a product, and promises to deliver exactly what it says it is. As for literary books, they are more miss than hit, and even the best authors rarely have more than 1 or 2 good volumes in a long list of compositions.

The internet is merely facilitating this beautiful experience of getting more of what you want. I am interested in the Canon (the Chinese Canon now), as well as history, Archaeology and artworks. The internet delivers the catalogs I want of books before they are even published. It also gives me the canon of books I want in an organized list. It makes reading more rigid, but it sure as hell gives me access to anything I would want, assuming I know where to look.

We are no longer in the run to the library and pull off the shelf age, luckily. We have come a long way in less than 10 years. I remember when the large scale book store was being criticized for killing the small book and second hand book stores. The second-hand book store I used to frequent now mostly sells used porn movies (an industry which is also stagnating, given the internet). The large scale book stores that were so criticized before now are mostly selling gifts. Simply put, there prices were never competitive with Amazon, their selection was never as wide, and their convenience was never as convenient.

Now I get my books cheaper, faster, and with better selection. I can browse more books, and get them in a light and portable device (no longer needing to drag myself to the library either, thanks to China have nearly no copyright regulations :)). The internet was in so many ways the liberator of the book. And reading downward instead of sideways is far easier on the eyes anyway.

[Jassy Melson]

Isn't it nice to have a self-proclaimed genius who has all the answers.

[Darcy88]

I still buy most of my books that way. I only order the odd specific book I know I won't be able to find in a used store.

[Paulclem]

I use the kindle for my entertainment reading, but still buy poetry and textbooks. It's a space thing.

The other thing about how it was then is that you were in thrall to the local bookshops and libraries, and you relied upon being guided by teachers in school. My parents read little and I had little money. Some of the teachers I knew gave me good recommendations and introduced us to authors like Tolkien, Vonnegut, Adams and Eliot for example, but beyond this, I realise I had little access - as did most of the population - to good books. When I was older I used to read the Times for the book recommendations, but now you can follow through reading and really get to grips with a subject. It's only on reflecting back that I realise how limited it was.

[Aylinn]

I don't miss the pre-Internet era. Before I had the access to the Internet, neither my family, nor my friends were interested in reading anything, apart from Harry Potter. I had no one to recommend me a book and I had look for one myself if I wanted to read anything, hoping that the book I chosen is good. Once the Internet appeared in my life, everything changed, I read people's opinions on the Internet, I could look for like-minded people and finding books which could be enjoyable become a great deal easier. I didn't have to depend on pure luck any more, so I am glad the Internet become popular when I was a teenager.

[Dark Muse]

Most the books I currently own which fill my bookshelves that I have yet to get around to reading were books that I have been collecting since I have been in high school that I just stumbled upon at book sales or used book stores. And I still enjoy browsing such places and discovering new books by pure chance that way, but I have also began to integrate the Internet and being able to order books into my book addiction.

It is more convenient if there is a specific book I know I want to read (or if I need the next book in a particular series) to just order it up online. also there are some books of which I simply have never been able to find in any of the bookstores I looked, so I will get them online.

In addition I do find it quite nifty to have any classic I want to read available for free.

Libraries have never worked for me, because I just don't like the time constraint of having to have a book finished by a certain time. So even prior to the Internet my use of libraries was uncommon, at least for personal reading.