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Book buys: Internet or bookshop?


Simonsays

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I have discovered that I get most ideas of books to buy via both bookshops and recommendations via media. So I get inspired and then I order them from an online book store because they are so much cheaper!!! 

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I get so many suggestions from Amazon and this site!  All I do is download the Sample and then I can scroll back when I need something to read/ try out.  So, it's all Kindle for me, I am vicious about my Kindle Fire.  Although I might have to break it for 100 Years of Solitude, which I've always wanted to read, but it doesn't come in Kindle for some reason.  I've even requested it from the publisher via Amazon.

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I am sure you can get it here in the UK on Kindle - maybe it's something to do with copyright and different territories? That annoys me too though when I find a great book that I really want to read and it's not on Kindle - I guess it's still relatively new technology though and everything in publishing works at a snails pace ...

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It's got a different publisher in the States - it's Penguin in the UK and Harper Perennial in the US, and it doesn't look like any of his books are available in English as Kindle versions in the US.  I suspect there's a legal reason why, maybe he refused to give permission, or perhaps there's a dispute between Amazon US and his publisher.

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There's something captivating about being in a book shop, searching for the right book. No matter how often I go into a book shop I am always able to spend hours on end in there just looking. With my finger gliding gently over the spines of the books and my head slightly tilted to read the titles, I browse alphabetically the books in search of one to take home with me.

 

Unfortunately, a visit to a book shop is not an occurrence that happens with any regularity. I live on a small island with the mainland an hour flight away. Whilst my preference is to buy my books at a book shop the most practical approach is to buy via the internet. I do find the benefit of recommendations when shopping through a site such as Amazon a real boon.

 

I must own I am still to step from the age of the dinosaur into modernity...I own no eReader. I believe it makes a great deal of sense for me to buy a Kindle, but I love the feel of a book in my hand. I'm not certain that the cold feel of plastic would bring me the same satisfaction.

Edited by Calexa
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I've been reading ebooks for a long time now, but my friends recently bought me a £50 Waterstones gift card (Waterstones is a book shop for those not from the UK). I am now back to becoming obsessed with books. I spent ages in Waterstones yesterday trying to decide what to buy.

 

Ultimately it makes more sense for me to buy ebooks because as a student I don't have much room to store paper books. But Waterstones have classics with some beautifully illustrated covers, along with some collections of an authors entire work (I recently bought a Shakespeare collection).

If I read an ebook and know it is something I will read again then I will buy it in its paper version.

Edited by Angury
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I've been reading ebooks for a long time now, but my friends recently bought me a £50 Waterstones gift card (Waterstones is a book shop for those not from the UK). I am now back to becoming obsessed with books. I spent ages in Waterstones yesterday trying to decide what to buy.

 

Ultimately it makes more sense for me to buy ebooks because as a student I don't have much room to store paper books. But Waterstones have classics with some beautifully illustrated covers, along with some collections of an authors entire work (I recently bought a Shakespeare collection).

If I read an ebook and know it is something I will read again then I will buy it in its paper version.

Thanks so much- I tried Abe Books- they are great!  I found a $25,000 copy :o But I will check out the seller you mentioned.  I also checked out Waterstones.  Making this search even harder, 100 years ago, The Count of Monte Cristo came out in TWO volumes. :banghead:

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  • 2 years later...

I've bought quite a few books through Abebooks in the last year. Although you have to watch prices on there - there are quite a few sellers who charge "optimistic" prices. That seems to encourage others to do likewise! But there are bargains to be had. Nothing quite like wandering through a shop and having a goooooooood browse though. If the shop also has a cafe, so much the better. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love browsing book stores, and whenever I pass one I have to go in for a look.  However, with the very occasional exception I tend to buy all my books online these days.  Apart from anything else it's usually cheaper and as I have a habit of buying books in bulk (usually 5 or 6 at a time) it's more convenient for them to be delivered straight to my door.  I have started to pick up the occasional book in my local supermarket too as I've found their prices too good to resist.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well being restricted in travelling at the moment I think my wife thought my book buying would be curtailed - but I now have quite a few shops who sell online bookmarked and have had more time to find old books that I was after. There are lots of used bookshops providing a good online service.

Doesn't beat browsing in a shop though!

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Are Amazon then pulping the books or selling them as used? If the latter, they should perhaps be paying more than a few cents.

 

I tend to give my used books to charity shops. Although I have a few I'm getting rid of which are worth a few pounds so might sell them separately to an online book buying service.

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  • 1 month later...

I have to admit that I prefer buying books online. I'm kind of living in a rural area without a single book shop! Can you believe it? It would take me twenty minutes by train and quite some money only to get to the closest book shop!

 

If there was a book shop in my village though, I'd definitely check it out.

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Yes it's a vicious circle isn't it really.  Then again rents are so high now that it's probably cheaper to operate online and presumably have somewhere to keep stock, rather than have a shop with all the bills to pay etc (and staff, who will sadly lose their jobs). 

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Over the last few months I have mainly been buying my books from actual book shops or supermarkets.  This is a turn up for me as I had previously only been buying for my ipad or from amazon and having the books delivered to my door.

 

I had been feeling guilty about buying online as I would be upset if the book shops disappeared, and I do like reading a proper book there is a sense of feel good factor when you get to the end page.

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I try to buy from shops or supermarkets as much as possible, but if the shops don't have a book I want, I'll either order it online and pick it up instore, or get it off the net if it's much cheaper.

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Ironically, buying from supermarkets does as much damage as buying online from the likes of Amazon. They all undercut bookshops through bulk buying power and shut them down in the same way.

 

But what Madeleine says is right - many specialist bookshops do find it easier now to exist online, with less overheads. And they can still provide a service that supermarkets and the likes of Waterstones can't.

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Supermarkets only tend to have a very limited selection anyway, usually the current big sellers, but very little back catalogue or books which aren't quite in the mass market ie guaranteed to sell, range.

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Supermarkets only tend to have a very limited selection anyway, usually the current big sellers, but very little back catalogue or books which aren't quite in the mass market ie guaranteed to sell, range.

 

True - but those they sell are many of the  new "big selling" books on the market at any 1 time - and if people buy in Tesco (and why shouldn't they - they're so cheap), then that's sales the usual bookshops are no longer getting. Ultimately its just the way the world is going. People will always want a bargain - the big supermarkets cottoned on to that. No sentiment in business!

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I mostly buy from bookshops because of three reasons: sometimes the font is really small making it hard to read, the book is thick so it's a pain holding it to read aaaaand... *drums sounds*   I can smell the book. I am not kidding. I sometimes see people also doing it so it does not feel strange anymore. Some people still stare though. 

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I mostly buy from bookshops because of three reasons: sometimes the font is really small making it hard to read, the book is thick so it's a pain holding it to read aaaaand... *drums sounds*   I can smell the book. I am not kidding. I sometimes see people also doing it so it does not feel strange anymore. Some people still stare though. 

 

When I was little, I always used to choose my book by its smell.  My mother thought I was crazy.  To this day, I still love wafting the pages of a new book and taking a big sniff of it.

 

These days, I buy the vast majority of my books online, and mainly from Amazon.  They have so many books for a penny plus p&p, and I can't resist that.  The town where I live has only a tiny secondhand bookshop, which I love browsing in from time to time, but their selection is so meagre.

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I know the feeling of having a tiny bookshop. We have two or three here but I rarely find anything I need (not to mention I never find something in a different language). We have one secondhand bookshop but it's tiny and the selection is very random. So I just wait for the bookfair or whenever some publisher comes into town once per month and try my luck there. 

 

My local library is a life saver though and I also have my Kindle so all in all things are not so bad. 

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