Book buying habits are changing rapidly, bookstores are closing, Amazon’s sales are robust. Personally, as much as I love bookstores, I find the temptation of having a book delivered to my door in a couple of days nearly always too strong to resist.
Where did you buy your last book? Online? At a bookstore? The supermarket?
I’m with Maya and Katie and a few others who are boycotting Amazon’s strong-arm tactics. Since the only books available in my tiny town are at the three grocery stores, my last purchase was a David Baldacci from WalMart. For online buys, I go to Powells or B&N. There are many other sources online besides Amazon.
Well I get through too many books to be able to buy them all new. second hand purshases are from charity shops or online.
BUT, if I decide there is a book I must have new or die, I go to my local bookshop and get it in person. There is no online equivilent of having it in my hot little hands, having a chat with the sales assistant about the book, and starting to read it as I walk out of the door.
Online direct from the publisher, ie. Snowbooks.
I must be smack dab in the middle of the Barnes and Noble demographic because I always find myself there with a cup of expensive coffee in my hand browsing books while my kids play in the kid’s area. I buy books there. a. lot. They did their market research well.
I usually go to my local family owned bookstore but sometimes I have to resort to amazon or alibris for oop books.
Amazon for new books, but I’ve been hitting the library used book sales this summer, and making a killing.
You know, I’m sitting here looking at my shelves of books and realize – I got almost all of these at yard sales. Hit them early or late – and wow! Bargains galore. EG, I got everything David Sedaris, James Frey, and Augusten Burroughs ever wrote for two quarters TOTAL last year.
Two big ones this weekend… time to buy more shelves. Peace, Linda
At a bookstore. The Kinokuniya branch in town almost feels like a second home to me.
Last one, “Nature Girl” by Carl Hiaasen, for just over $1 at an indoor flea market. Usually, though, I tend to inherit books from folks with multiple copies.
When I buy for myself, it’s usually at a big-box chain. I still don’t trust using my credit card online. *looks about shiftily*
My husband and I used to live in San Francisco and our favorite pasttime was trolling through all the great independent bookstores there (sigh). Since moving to Tallahassee, we’ve used Amazon for the majority of our book buying, with Borders running second. The recent opening of a new independent bookstore, however, promises some good competition for my wallet. I believe strongly in supporting local businesses and this one has really captured my heart since they now also have a cat in residence. What’s a bookstore without a cat snoozing in the display case?
Last Friday, bookstore at the mall, two sci-fi books for me, a Star Wars comic anthology for DH, a mass market fun book for kids, and an early-reader book for same. Total cost about $50. Books finished since then? All but one because I accidentally packed it and won’t find it again until we’re done moving.
There isn’t a local bookstore here so it’s usually the mall chain (borders maybe?), amazon, b&N online, or half(dot) com when I’m being cheap or trying to find something out of print.
I prefer brick and mortar stores, but I live in a very rural area with the nearest store 2-plus hours away. So Amazon is my friend. The drawback of amazon is that I don’t get to read the first couple of pages or see a lot of books I’d not otherwise know about. The good thing about amazon is that I get to read reviews and can see related items. The bad news is it’s so terribly easy to overspend. the good news is…free shipping!
Pros of convenience outweigh the cons.
Barnes and Noble in store last week, but most of the time it’s online through Amazon. I wait until I have several books to buy, then get free shipping.
Wow, I can’t believe no one said Half.com. I get all my hardbacks from there-the prices are just plain stupid good. Great for strapped income folk like me.
If I can’t wait and I’m having twitches, I run to B&N up the street.
Checked out your myspace last night and noticed something I just needed to come back and comment on. The Anne Dayton and Emily Vanderbilt book I bought at Borders on Sunday? It’s “The Book of Jane,” one of the ones you list as wishing you represented. I just found that interesting, as is the book.
I shop at Barnes & Noble and Borders. They are both equidistant from my house. Last books I bought were at B&N on Tuesday. 🙂 I like wandering around and reading back cover copy. I almost always come home with a book or two I wasn’t intending to buy.
I try not to buy from Amazon because of their policy of listing used books on the same page as new. If I’m looking for old backlist or just an older book I will use Amazon.
Barnes and Noble store. I had a gift membership, a gift card, and a coupon. Those three combinations can be very persuasive.
The only thing that beats a free book is to be able to get *two* free books thanks to coupons.
I bought “How to Write a Damn Good Novel” online from Amazon. I’m still working on the novel. Time will tell if it’s any good.
Library book sale for a quarter.
The library
I bought books four times this month. From:
*Amazon
*the local Borders (this IS our independent bookstore; welcome to smalltown America)
*the grocery store
*an independent online bookstore specializing in muxic books.
So, kind of a split vote from me 🙂
Borders, unless they don’t have what I want in stock, in which case B&N, then Amazon.
Heh. I just picked up a bunch of books at the Brown Elephant, a thrift store similar to the Salvation Army. Scored some good stuff, including a mint copy of Charles de Lint’s Mulengro for fifty cents.
I’m all over the map myself. I buy some used books at area used book stores, some books at Borders. Most of my purchases are on Amazon. I find it’s fun to keep track of my purchases from my wishlist—which is huuuge.
I look for books anywhere I go. Although one thing I don’t feel guilty about is supporting a certain local independent bookstore. The staff is always rude and I feel uncomfortable there, as if the staff thinks I’m going to steal something or perhaps smear boogers on the new bestsellers. Borders, while it has some staff that could be mistaken for zombies, does have some wonderful people working for it—people who love books and like talking about books.
I save my fiction list and when I visit my parents in Santa Barbara I go to the splendid independent bookstore Chaucer’s. I will usually buy a dozen books at a time, mostly hardback new fiction.
Costco. While the atosphere is not nearly as nice as a big name book store with a Starbucks…you can’t beat the price! I rarely walk out of that store without a book in my hand.
Yup, it’s amazon, but only because I haven’t handed in my kid’s scholastic book order yet. I would buy books on a train or in the rain…I would buy them anywhere. If they look good. And the price is good. And I’m feeling rich enough.
There is a weekly board game meetup at my local Borders and they have a liberal return policy, so I buy all my books there.
Ordered from Amazon–it’s like getting a Christmas present! Before that, I bought a book and some magazines from Barnes and Noble. And a paperback from the grocery store.
I bought a paperback book, Deadly Beloved from Dorchester Publishing at the New York Comic Con on April 18, 2008. It was by Max Allan Collins and it was part of the Hard Case Crime series. They sold it to me for $5. I don’t usually buy books I work in a library.
Powell’s online
Amazon.
The last time I bought a book in a real bookstore was when I had to catch a plane and needed something to read on it. So I grabbed Pratchett’s “Interesting Times”. Which disappointed a little.
Thrift store.
Wal-Mart, because it’s convenient and even though they don’t carry everything, the major new releases are usually there (and it’s easier to browse when the books face out). I do shop at Borders, but they’re so far out and I only like B&N for their reprints of classic novels.
I love bookstores…I can hang out for ours just thumbing through different books. DON’T TAKE AWAY MY BOOKSTORES!!!!
I bought my last book at my local small independent bookstore. I admit it’s the exception. Most of my books come either from Amazon (new and used) or from the local library — either borrowed or bought at the book sales. I also use half.com and campusi.com (a price comparison engine.)
Word Traffic Books, in Tallahassee, FL.
This in no way reflects my usual book-buying habits. I live an hour from the nearest bookstore (actually, I think Word Traffic might be the nearest bookstore, and it’s more than an hour). And the local libraries are tiny and mostly contain paperback romances and farming guides. So most of my reading material comes from Amazon.
Last pile of books I bought was Book of the Month Club and Paperback Book Club. (They don’t let me leave the house.) But seriously, if you buy a lot of books, there are good deals to be had.