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Free Books!! - Reading them in-store.


MeMeMeMeMe

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I'd say a chapter, unless we're talking Victor Hugo and his 100-page chapters, would be socially acceptable - I certainly would feel like a thief reading more, and would buy it immediately if I wanted to read more. After all, that 'I need to know what happens' feeling tells you that you're bound to like this, right?

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I'd say a chapter, unless we're talking Victor Hugo and his 100-page chapters, would be socially acceptable - I certainly would feel like a thief reading more, and would buy it immediately if I wanted to read more. After all, that 'I need to know what happens' feeling tells you that you're bound to like this, right?

 

That seems fair enough. I can imagine an eagle-eyed member of staff being suspicious about any more than a couple of pages, though.

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  • 2 months later...

I almost never read books in store. I generally have a look online at what books are out, so that I know what I'm going in the shop for. However I can never buy just the one book - even if I know what I'm looking for, I'll almost always see another book that interests me. I won't read any of the book, but I will read the blurb. If it interests me, I either buy it then or make a note of the title on my phone so that I don't forget about it.

 

Also, as a rule of thumb, if a blurb makes me laugh I'll buy the book. :lol:

 

P.S. I can't stop commenting on these old threads. ;)

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In Japan they has a specific verb for standing reading in a book shop- 'tatemi'. Literally 'stand reading'.

 

Personally I think each to their own, but when I worked in a bookshop I used to get VERY annoyed when people read for long periods without buying, especially if they took it into the coffee shop to read while they drank. Strictly speaking it was theft when they did that because the coffee shop was an independent concession, but no one ever said anything to anyone.

 

What really grinds my gears nowadays is people reading so close to the bookshelves you can't get to the shelf to look yourself! If you're gonna do it, at least move out of the way!:D

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What really grinds my gears nowadays is people reading so close to the bookshelves you can't get to the shelf to look yourself! If you're gonna do it, at least move out of the way!:D

 

Yes, i hate that too and when you say "excuse me" they look at you like you've just told them you are going to punch them in the face.

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I used to do it as a kid but now I take enough time as it is selecting books.

Though the shop I frequent lets anyone read any book for free. Serves tea even! They say they want to promote browsing. Yet it's hard to do there as it's an used books store and there's not much space to do that. Yet the shop is really amazing.

Edited by vinay87
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I used to go and sit in my local Portsmouth Waterstones and have a cup of tea whilst reading my book of a Saturday morning, but one day I forgot my book. So, I decided to take a copy of it off the shelf, and read that whilst I drank my tea, remember where I finished, and just move my bookmark in my actual copy.

 

I felt so guilty as I was about to walk out that someone was going to be buying a used book, I went back and bought the book, and a few others as a 'sorry'. All very elaborate really but meh.

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Nah I am not a fan either and won't be doing it again. I just think about how I would feel if I were to buy a book, thinking it was brand new then find that the pages were scuffed or damaged in anyway.

If I do pick up books from shelves to flick through, I take so much care not to bend the spine or crease the pages.

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If people don't want to buy the books they should go to a libary and read the books they.

 

Well said Laura.

 

I read the first few pages of most books (fiction) before I buy just to check that it lives up to the blurb and I like the writers style, with non fiction I tend to check the index to see what information the book contains and then read the relevant bits. I would never ever consider reading a whole book in this way though. I have to say that to me this is exceedingly distasteful and dare I say it, selfish, from both the authors and book sellers point of view - I mean both parties are in business and write in order to make money, and how can either do that if people are just going to take their work for free? It is disrespectful in the extreme. Sorry if this offends anyone, but you have to put yourself in their shoes. How would you like it if someone did this to you and showed such little respect for your work, time and effort? If you wouldn't work for free then you shouldn't expect other people to.

 

There appears to be no value placed on creativity in our society, but think for a moment how much poorer we would be without books, music and all the other things that entertain us. If writers and book stores do not sell enough books because people keep coming in and reading them for free they will soon go out of business, and then there will be no book sellers left.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I used to work in a bookshop and it would never have occurred to me to read the books on the shelves! It would have annoyed me greatly if I had wanted to buy something, only to discover that a colleague had been reading it and therefore the book looked "used", not one of the companies I worked for allowed you to read on the shop floor anyway and I'm pretty sure most of our customers would not have liked to see us perusing something they wanted to buy. They did put damaged/unwanted books in the break room for us to read at our leisure which was fine by me ;)

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