Library or Bookstore?

I have been buying the books I read for about a year and a half now, usually used. If I end up not liking them I sell them or use BookMooch to get rid of them. Lately I've been thinking about starting to use the library more, both to support it and to save a little money. I like having books on my shelf and I like being able to write in them when I find something interesting. I'm finding, though, that I don't really re-read them and I never really do much with them after I read them. They end up being a conversation piece or just a memory of what I've read. Anyway, I just finished a book from the library and when I returned it it felt good not worry about where I could find my own copy and how much it would cost. (However, I'm awfully attached to the ones I already own. :))

Just out of curiosity what do others here do?

You seem to forget that many texts are available on-line, in which case you have the option to print them or not. For example I read Grant's Memoirs on line, and they are not available at either a bookstore, and I imagine what passes for libraries (outside of large cities and universities) in many locations.
Cheers,
John

Due to lack of income (due to being a teenager with a busy school life :p) I go to the library. I buy books when it's something I will read heaps though - and also when people ask what I want for birthdays and Christmas I reply "BOOKS!!" and that saves me some money - just I don't get them for ages! :lol:
But I have a feeling even if I was able to pay for all my books, I'd still go to the library - I love libraries!! :D
Also I don't buy my books because it's so darn hard trying to decide which ones I want!! :lol:

Personally I prefer the library... my own library that is. I have been collecting books for years and now have a more than sizable collection because I rarely get rid of a book unless I am certain that I will never wish to read it again or because I have purchased a better edition of the same work. All art, to me, involves a form of dialog. Certainly there is the dialog between the artist and the audience... but there is also a dialog between the artist and other artists. There is no telling when I am reading one book how I may be directed to another book... another writer. In most instances I have also found that my own library is far more inclusive in areas that interest me than are most public libraries outside of the larger metropolitan ones.

yes support the library, a couple of papers and studies in the uk have sasid that if current user trends continue by 2015-2020 public libraries will become obsolete. And then where will we be? I work in a library and here is the 'insider scoop' on how to manage your books, borrow borrow borrow, if yu like it so much you know you will want to reread it buy it. Now normally if Ive borrowed it 3 times Ill go out and buy it. Also ex-stock sales you can get fairly good books really really really cheap... then just redonate it to the library if you want to get rid of it. I have a traffic of about 50 books every couple of months going through my house from one books sale to another.
But the thing to rember with librtary books is the fines I currenlt hwave a £50 fine on my uni library account because I got distracted and have forgotten to renew my books :eek2: and it is soooo easy to avoid I was just lazy dont let that happen to you.

Plus the thing with book stores if you didnt like the book youve wasted your money.

Bookstores! Since we don't have any decent libraries here, my only resort is buying books (or downloading/reading them online). I wish we had more libraries here though.

I can't choose. I love owning the books i read but i love exploring new books in my school library.

Bookstore.I just hate constantly keeping in mind that I have to return the book - I will rather purchase it than borrow it.Anyway,I just think of it as the beginning of a huge collection I'm going to have one day.

I like library, but practically bookstore. / due to many reasons.

Library, definitely.
And you are being told that by a girl who, as somebody put, has "more than sizeable collection" at her home - yet, I still feel better going to library and discovering new things, to a point that I tend to borrow books I have at home (sometimes without noticing). :D I have, for example, three copies of A Hero of Our Time in my own collection (Russian original as a part of "collected Lermontov", Croatian translation, Italian translation), and I am pretty sure my parents own one in their collection a couple of rooms away, yet I read the copy from the library both times I was reading it. :p A weird child, I know.

I do buy books, but usually I buy books I have already read and am sure I would like to have, in addition to dictionaries, histories of art, works of such kind. Literature, though, I usually buy after having read it.
And I still love libraries.

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Originally Posted by Nightshade

yes support the library, a couple of papers and studies in the uk have sasid that if current user trends continue by 2015-2020 public libraries will become obsolete. And then where will we be? I work in a library and here is the 'insider scoop' on how to manage your books, borrow borrow borrow, if yu like it so much you know you will want to reread it buy it. Now normally if Ive borrowed it 3 times Ill go out and buy it. Also ex-stock sales you can get fairly good books really really really cheap... then just redonate it to the library if you want to get rid of it. I have a traffic of about 50 books every couple of months going through my house from one books sale to another.
But the thing to rember with librtary books is the fines I currenlt hwave a £50 fine on my uni library account because I got distracted and have forgotten to renew my books :eek2: and it is soooo easy to avoid I was just lazy dont let that happen to you.

Plus the thing with book stores if you didnt like the book youve wasted your money.

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YAHHHHHHHH!!!! I agree with you completely. Now, I've a "waiting list" of books I want to get but if they aren't ones that I have read more than once and will read again they are classics. The library booksales...:p H E A V E N!!!! Once I filled a whole paper bag with thick luscious books...12 to be exact. And only 3 of them were paperback. I paid a grand total of 3 bucks for them and Oh! don't they look gorgeous on my bookshelves now...Have yet to read them all, but I'm working on it....As a volunteer sorting donations, too, if I find a book that I really want I can take it...I keep telling myself "no, no more books, you have at least 20 at home," but I came home with [i]Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and Cry, the Beloved Country I'm going to end up with books to last me fifty years after I die! :D LIbrary is grand...really grand. My second home.

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Originally Posted by Nossa

Bookstores! Since we don't have any decent libraries here, my only resort is buying books (or downloading/reading them online). I wish we had more libraries here though.

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Egypt has always fascinated me, I really must get there some day.

The Royal Library of Alexandria and the new one.

That said, I get most of my books from Amazon.com, it's just easier.

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Originally Posted by Antiquarian

Bookstore.

I don't like the covers the library puts on the books and I don't like handling books that have been heaven-knows-where. I also never seem to return them on time, and that makes me feel bad.

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Seconded. I never liked public libraries. :crash:

I hate spending money, so I'm for the library all the way. I love libraries. I guess we have pretty good libraries around here, I've been able to find most of the books I want pretty easily. I live right in the middle of 4 different counties, so I have 4 different library systems to choose from. One or the other usually has what I'm looking for. I like getting movies and music from the library, too.

I prefer to buy the books that I want to read. I honestly have never gotten rid of any that I have read (unless, of course, it was something so bad - then I just tossed it off for somebody else to suffer with while they read it). I have a pretty extensive collection for my own "library". I suppose that since I like the "look" of books on shelves, that is why I prefer to buy and keep books. If I ever go to the library, it is because I want to save money on the books that I wouldn't normally pick out for myself. Those books are the ones that are recommended by others for me to read. Also, another reason I prefer buying books over the library is because I have an unlimited amount of time to read them. I kind of hate the pressure of the due date.

I love bookstores, I can spend hours in them. And come out empty handed! :p I can't really afford to buy all the books that I want to read, and I usually have my eye on photography books which cost a bomb! Or huge cookery books...

Having said that, I feel quite lucky that my uni library and the council library is usually well stocked. And there's always the constant problem that I'm never too sure where I'm going to live next year so buying books would mean thinking about shipping them somewhere else.

So, until I'll have a more permanent adress, the library will do just fine. I'll just continue daydreaming in bookstores...

I love libraries! Even if just because I am surrounded by so many books... But I rather buy books because I just love to see them on my shelves. And sometimes if I borrow a book and love it I buy it afterwards nonetheless. Even if I don't reread it. I just can't bear the thought that there is abook I love out there that I don't possess. However, a library is good for books I am not sure about. Then I just read about fifty pages of a volume and if I happen to like it I buy it and read the rest of it in my own copy...

Bookstores tend to calm me down and sort of let me relax. Libraries make me start running around crazily (and I've just started work there!)

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Originally Posted by novelsryou

Egypt has always fascinated me, I really must get there some day.

The Royal Library of Alexandria and the new one.

That said, I get most of my books from Amazon.com, it's just easier.

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I'm glad you find Egypt fascinating :D
As for the two libraries you mentioned, it's not possible for me to borrow or even read in those libraries cuz I live over 250 Km from them :p I'm in Cairo, and they're in Alexandria, that's over 2 and a half hours travelling.
Amazon is also not practical, cuz it's way more expensive cuz I'm in Egypt. I think I'll stick to the bookstores here, and so far I do find most of the books I need, I have experience in books hunting..lol...so I can find most of the stuff I need for very affordable prices and those I can't find I either buy for the high prices they're sold with, or I can just *whispers* download them online :blush:

Libraries. Love 'em. I even joined the Friends group so I could help my local library.

I do buy books by authors that I truly enjoy, but I sure couldn't afford to buy all the books I enjoy reading. My at home library is small because we retired and moved a few years back and I had to downsize. Gave away several hundred books. *sob*

Both- If I've read a book before and really liked it, I tend to buy it. If I want to find books that I haven't read before or am not sure I'll like (or if I want a lot of them), I tend to go to the library. I really love the library, it's just that half the time, I completely forget what the due date is/ forget to renew the books and end up having to pay fines (like right now for example)...

Libraries. There are absolutely books that I'm glad I'm own - and for my academic work there are some books that I need to own.

But libraries are so close to my heart, I will always prefer them and prefer taking books out from the library to buying them. I love the way libraries smell.

And most of all, when I was a kid I was sustained entirely by my local public library. I would take out book after book - read it, and return it, and take out the next book. and the next book. etc. It was wonderful. And then I discovered interlibrary loan, and my selection of books was endless. It was such a great experience. I love(d) my library. :D

I wish I read that frequently these days.

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Originally Posted by kratsayra

And most of all, when I was a kid I was sustained entirely by my local public library. I would take out book after book - read it, and return it, and take out the next book. and the next book. etc. It was wonderful. And then I discovered interlibrary loan, and my selection of books was endless. It was such a great experience. I love(d) my library. :D

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I loved going to the library as a kid. My mom took me and my siblings there alot. It felt so awesome to come home with a fresh stack of books. I also liked just hanging out at the library. I liked to get a book and find a corner somewhere in the library. I just loved being surrounded by books.

No libraries (especially those containing English books) seem to be anywhere around. That leaves many works available online and book-stores (including an old book-store which I abolsutely love). But I would like it a lot if we had any good library nearby. Oh and there is this school library, but most of the books found there (the ones I want to read) are as abridged versions which I hardly ever enjoy...

I'm a big fan of libraries especially when the book club makes me read stuff I wouldn't ordinarily read but I must admit there is something about a bookstore with rows and rows of brand new never opened books.

Which do you prefer, buying or borrowing books?

It's buying for me - I love the sense of ownership :D Plus, I can take my time to read the book without worrying about deadlines.

Borrowing, I'm on too fixed a budget to buy many books outside my school requirements. That being said, I like owning the book, but until such time as my income can handle it, I'll need to stick to the library.

I love to buy books to but sometimes the budget does not allow. Lately I have only been buying books by the authors I want to keep, everything else I borrow

I always buy the book if I can - I hate constantly having to think about returning them after borrowing.

borrowing because books are so expensive! :flare:

I love the feeling of being around so many books, so even if I was to buy more than borrow, I would still go to the library for the sake of being around so many books!! :) But as it stands, I borrow more often as I am often low on money! I use birthdays and other events as excuses to get people to buy me books!! :D. Thats one thing I've always loved about getting awards at school, is that the award comes with a book voucher!! Oh I loved the year where I ended up with about $150 (AU) in book vouchers!!! :D

I love buying books, and feel so good in owning the book, whenever I want, I read them. But, the money matters :bawling: I cannot buy anybook I like, just essential ones. Borrowing books makes me nervous about the due date, I have to finish reading as soon as I can, and of course not write in the book.

Hey Sprinks, good for you that you get books as presents, I wonder why people around me do not pay attention to this desire of me. I have a cousine, she thinks of spending money on books as nonsense. Always she says, how you dare to spend your money on all these books.

I almost always buy my books. I like being able to refer back to them as reference for other books or when speaking with family and friends.

I mostly buy, people mostly borrow from me, they rarely return, so i buy again.. thus it goes..

I used to have Tractatus' problem, then I stopped associating with humans. But I was going to comment that stealing is cheaper than buying and more convenient than borrowing.

A little bit of both. I buy my favorite books - the ones I will read over and over again. When I'm reading a book for the first time I usually just borrow it.

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Originally Posted by tractatus

I mostly buy, people mostly borrow from me, they rarely return, so i buy again.. thus it goes..

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Originally Posted by PeterL

I used to have Tractatus' problem, then I stopped associating with humans. But I was going to comment that stealing is cheaper than buying and more convenient than borrowing.

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I cannot tolerate such things especially borrowing my books and not returning. I had such problems so never lend a book and if lend, ask the one to return.

Yes, I agree stealinf is cheaper :D but others do the same cheaper one :lol: which made you stop associating with humans.