Flip Martian

I mainly go for used books but also buy new occasionally. I don't worry about the TBRs - I have about 1400 books at the moment and there are probably a few hundred on my TBR "pile"! I have books all over the house. I buy a book because I think it will be an interesting read. I'm not always in the mood to read about whatever that one is but I have the book for when I am. Which is fine.

Very much depends on whether its a charity shop specialising in books or not. Many of the usual "general goods" shops might just have a few shelves of unwanted fiction. The ones concentrating on books will have a wide selection with many genres all sorted into their own areas. I've seen pretty much most things in the more specialised ones.

Aha! Cool, ok. Ta

Interesting stuff; it did seem a weird way to operate.

I completely agree - the retailer, I guess, would argue they have staff and premises costs to cover. But even so, the way the split is generally assumed to work is extremely galling for the creator. I quite agree, the lion's share should go to the creator, it makes no sense to do otherwise. I can quite understand authors self publishing - I know musicians who do th esame. Indeed, I've done it myself.

I suppose the book someone reads does steer you towards some kind of opinion, yes. I wouldn't be shy about reading Mein Kampf in public (although I haven't really felt the need to read it) - like our dress sense or face or anything else, we can't control what opinions others form about us (and I'm old enough now not to care what people think, so I'd read what I want)

Its not just manufacturing cost though - its staff costs too. Editor, proofer, anyone else at the publishing company...all need paying (and I know proofers are generally freelance now; just factoring in their cost too). Mind you, I was talking to a used bookshop owner a few months ago and he said that most "mass market" biogs and suchlike are rarely even proofed now. And they're churned out by the thousands, as its cheaper for them to do that, then pulp any unsold. Seems like madness but I guess the same factors and business practices from other industries make their way into publishing to hammer down costs too.

Where? No link

I really don't think Amazon's model makes sense - it seems to assume that they can screw over authors and publishers by offering their customers the cheapest option as default and that authors and publishers will continue to produce the product for them to sell, regardless of whether its economic for them to do so. Maybe authors will ALWAYS write, just as musicians will ALWAYS write - another industry where the creator often now gets screwed over by making nothing or very little from the sale of the product. But ultimately the middle man - the publisher - will surely disappear if no-one is buying at a price they have budgeted for. While I'm all for retailers thinking about the consumer, ultimately they also need to think about whether their practices are are affecting those responsible for supplying what they sell.

100% yes. I finish a book and then look at all the hundreds of books I now have WAITING to be read and see which one I fancy. Biography one time, football subject the next, then a WW1 or WW2, or a music biog, or a historical account of something... I rarely read the same genre twice in a row.

Abebooks mainly these days, although private sellers on Amazon sometimes too. Agree on Wordery's delivery times being long. They are occasionally cheaper than Amazon for new books but I only use them if I'm not in a rush for the book.

I agree with that - I know people who only buy stuff they're actually looking for but I just go in and see if anything takes my eye. I took 2 bags into our local Age UK shop today and came home with 7 more (all £1 each). None of which I knew about before I went in. 99% of my books come in second hand. I've still never found food, hairs or anything else in them, apart from the odd bookmark

This seems to have worked so far. Whether I get any notifications to any replies, I don't know yet. Edited to add, yes I do get reply notifications, so that's ok. The one that came up on every new page can be blocked easily with the "always block" option.

It seems to be independent of the usual forum thing when you post when it asks if you want to be notified of any replies - that's a useful feature. Can't see what this one does when I load a page up. I'll keep clicking "always block" and hope it goes away...

I'm getting the "do you want to be notified of updates?" pop up every time I load a new page too. I have pop ups blocked on my Firefox. Not sure how this is a Firefox thing?

Interesting, David, thanks. Maybe it does depend on area but we have a number of used bookstores here which can be quite cheap - some more than others of course, and some only deal in antiquarian or valuable things but there are a few not far from me (within an hour's drive) where good quality books can be had for much less than the price of a new one. And we also have charity bookshops which are often cheaper still, if not containing perhaps the same large range of stock. Fairs here seem to be collections of dealers coming together - not aware they run any for charity here (perhaps as we have the charity bookshops). Hence my question as to whether anyone had been (and it looks like no-one has, here). Fortunately we have a site here (inprint.co.uk) which lists used bookshops, whether privately run or by charities and visitors can review them. Through that I have the location of them on my google map on my phone, so whenever I'm away anywhere I can see if one is nearby. But of course, like you, I also buy via Amazon (or Abebooks is another). The important thing is remembering to shop around and get the best price. As you say, often charity events (shops in our case here) are often the cheapest.

Thanks. How do they compare to any secondhand bookshops you visit at any other time? More choice? Cheaper? More expensive? I only wonder as I have a few regular shops I visit but have never been to a book fair. Just wondering if its worth the trip (would be at least an hour's drive to one from here).

So has anyone here from the UK been to the bookfairs that seem to crop up from time to time? They seem to be more secondhand and and antiquarian based - if anyone has any first hand experiences of these, do chime up.

If its non fiction, give me an idea of the kinds of things you're interested in, I have loads.

Interesting! I'll give it a go when it airs. Tricky job though, making the tech "more advanced than Enterprise but slightly more primitive than TOS".

Yes, it was quite uncharacteristic - seemed far more negative than his other travelogues. Perhaps he's just that bit too old to enjoy that kind of travel so much now.

There are (or were) only 2 authors who I would buy unseen as soon as they published - Terry Pratchett and Bill Bryson.

A fairly recent addition for librarything users - TinyCat. Designed by LibraryThing as an online catalogue for small libraries, anyone with a LT account can set their own up with very little effort - it reads your LT collection et voila - you have an online catalogue of all your books which you can share with friends (if that's your bag). I've already used it a couple of times to show people particular parts of my collection rather than describe it. Its free for personal use https://www.librarycat.org/ Mine is here if anyone's nosy): https://www.librarycat.org/lib/Flip_Martian/search/text/+mediacode%3A+1%2A

Thanks for that. Its nice to know I'm not weird. Well, not too weird anyway.

The last episode had us both shouting at the TV. The writer "disappearing up his own hole" seems pretty accurate. Very strange construction.