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Free Books!! - Reading them in-store.


MeMeMeMeMe

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I don't really just wander through book shops. I only go in to buy specific books and then I choose them from the back of the shelf so no-one else has been touching them :D I usually research the books - reviews/comments etc - online first, rather than just looking in book shops. Unless they're second hand book shops where I do just wander around.

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I've never done that - I would hate it if someone wanted to buy the only copy left of a book and it looked like it had been read. What's the point of buying a brand new book if people have already pawed through it? I always look for the nicest copy of any book - any damage or if it looks like it's been read it goes back on the shelf.

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Nothing wrong with looking at the first page but physically reading half the book then putting it back on the shelf - annoys me no end :D

 

And as a bookseller (albeit one on sick leave) it's rare for us to discount on damage unless it's major/the only copy left and even then that doesn't happen often :smile2:

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And as a bookseller (albeit one on sick leave) it's rare for us to discount on damage unless it's major/the only copy left and even then that doesn't happen often :D

 

So if a book had a tear through the front cover, ye'd still expect full price?

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So if a book had a tear through the front cover, ye'd still expect full price?

 

We'd get told to take 5% off probably, if the customer wanted it with a gert big rip - depending on how it was damaged it's often easier for us to destroy that copy and request a new one. Personally I wouldn't want the ripped one though :D

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I don't really just wander through book shops. I only go in to buy specific books and then I choose them from the back of the shelf so no-one else has been touching them :smile2: I usually research the books - reviews/comments etc - online first, rather than just looking in book shops. Unless they're second hand book shops where I do just wander around.

 

This describes me exactly. I go to a lot of trouble sometimes to get the best-looking copy on the shelf.

 

Umm, you could say they get destroyed :D They get "front-paged"...

 

What does that mean? Does that have something to do with that bit of writing you sometimes see at the front of a book saying that if the book doesn't have a cover, then it is an illegal copy, or something?

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What does that mean? Does that have something to do with that bit of writing you sometimes see at the front of a book saying that if the book doesn't have a cover, then it is an illegal copy, or something?

 

Yes, the title page & front cover get ripped off and sent to the publisher for credit, the book is supposed to go in the bin :D

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Some charity Shops sells books in an awful state.

 

Yeah, but they get 'em for free! Although I used to do voluntary work for a Cancer Research shop, and actually there were reasonable standards about putting anything out to sell. People probably don't realise the amount of stuff that gets donated to such places, and how much is just thrown out for being substandard.

 

What I don't like is when book shops with brand new books have paperbacks with a break in the spine where someone's been rather too forceful in their browsing.

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Yes, the title page & front cover get ripped off and sent to the publisher for credit, the book is supposed to go in the bin :D

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I always wondered about it because I've never seen a book without its cover. Just as well, because I'd probably cry if I did!

 

Me too. I think the booksellers in the
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Our Waterstones (used to be Ottakers) has a cafe in it and I often used to sit with a book from their shelves and leaf through it when I was having a coffee. However, I'm always very careful with books - even my own -when reading and nobody would ever have known they had been opened. If I had accidentally cracked a spine, I would have felt obliged to buy the book myself.

 

PS I've moved this thread into the General Book Discussions area of the forum (and amended the thread title a little) as you're not actually offering books for sale or swap.

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PS I've moved this thread into the General Book Discussions area of the forum (and amended the thread title a little) as you're not actually offering books for sale or swap.

 

Sorry fellow admin, but I'm the one who moved it to the Buying/Selling section, as that section is also for general discussions about buying and selling.. and I'm about to move it back there again! :smile2:

 

Honestly, you can't get the staff these days! :D

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We'd get told to take 5% off probably, if the customer wanted it with a gert big rip - depending on how it was damaged it's often easier for us to destroy that copy and request a new one. Personally I wouldn't want the ripped one though :D

 

I just loved the fact that you said 'gert'!!

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In hour town if you read the books regular without buying it you are politely asked to leave the book shop. There is also a policy of not allowing people to stand at the magazine rack reading the magazines in our local WH Smiths. If caught you are asked to buy the mag or leave.

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In hour town if you read the books regular without buying it you are politely asked to leave the book shop. There is also a policy of not allowing people to stand at the magazine rack reading the magazines in our local WH Smiths. If caught you are asked to buy the mag or leave.

 

From their point of view it's understandable, but it makes me wonder if there's a certain cut-off point where someone has read 'too much' before that happens. I assume there isn't some sort of a legal time-limit imposed on how much someone can read something in a shop without being told to buy it or leave? Does a shop have a legal right to kick someone out if they've been 'browsing' for too long?

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