Where Do Readers Buy Books?

A Perfect Gift For Mother's Day

Where do you buy your books? Strictly at the local bookshop? Or online? Or at secondhand bookstores? Or at big box discount retailers? There are differences in prices, ambience and appeal, as well as your views on publishers.

I received a notice yesterday that Not Your Mother's Book On Being A Mom is no longer just a pre-order status on Amazon You can order it for immediate shipping at a 10% discount on the retail price. At Barnes and Noble, you can order this anthology as an ebook for close to half off the retail price of the print copy. I checked the Walmart booksite and did not find the book there. However, there was another title in the Not Your Mother's Book On... series and it was priced at about 1/3 off the retail price.

The bookstore that you physically walk into, stop and soak up the atmosphere, is more than likely going to sell at full retail price. I don't have a problem with that because that bookstore is offering me an experience along with the ability to purchase a book. Or two! The chain stores offer volume while the local bookseller has far fewer books but they might be high up on the atmosphere scale. Anyone who is a true reader benefits a great deal from a visit to a bookstore.

You're not going to find a recently released book in a secondhand store or your annual library book sale, so don't bother checking those places.

I buy books at different places. Sometimes, it's easier to order online so I do. Sometimes I am traveling and find a large retail bookseller and purchase books there. Sometimes, I go to my local bookstore and look for a title. If they don't have it on the shelf, I'm always offered the option of letting them order it for me.

If I'm in Kansas City and shopping at Costco, I always take time to browse the open bin book area. Good selections, good prices. Besides that, browsing through a whole lot of books is satisfying to my soul!

Book prices go up just like everything else in our world. It happens for good reasons. Publishers costs go up and must be passed on to the customer or the publishing house will soon be out of business. Those who self-publish print books also have costs which increase over time, as well. It's one reason that publishing as an ebook has become so attractive. The costs are lower and the author can set the selling price lower but still make a profit.

The next time you grumble about the price of a book, give consideration to all that goes into it. I hated to see the jump in prices of children's picture books. I understand full well why they had to go up but I also felt bad that it meant many children would have fewer books to call their own.

Where do you buy your books? Or are you a library user instead? How do you feel about paying full reatil price versus a discount seller? Let us know in the comments section below.

A Couple of Problems

I have a  couple of problems. First, the stack of books waiting for me to read is growing considerably larger day by day. An author sent me three of his books this week. I still have four of the six Catherine Cookson books I bought in England in early July, the book for my November book club meeting sits unopened in the living room, and there's another stack of books I purchased at a discount publishers clearninghouse several weeks ago. Add a few others that I ordered at Amazon a month ago and the stack is near to teetering over at any minute.

Second problem is this--which one shall I read next? The answer to that is easy. It has to be The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin because Book Club meets the second Tuesday in November and I would like to be able to understand and add to the discussion. But which one after that? Maybe I should put them in a scattered circle on the floor, close my eyes and pick the one my hand finds first. How's that for not being scientific? Maybe I'll look over the assorted titles and pick the one that appeals most on that particular day. 

Do you gather books like kids use to save baseball trading cards? Do you have stacks of books in the living room, bedroom, office and even the kitchen? I can't think of anything better to collect than books. Oh, they do need a bit of dusting now and then, especially the ones sitting on the shelf for a very long time. Do you feel guilty for having too many books? Especially a large number of ones you haven't read yet? Don't! I hereby forgive you for doing so. For me, and other avid readers, there can never be too many books. 

I have friends who cannot pass a bookstore without stopping just to look a bit. To a book lover, that look can be dangerous. To look is to want. To want is to purchase. To purchase is to add to your big pile of books at home. But believe me--you could do much worse with a collection habit than with books. There are people who collect old cars or antique tractors. Think of the storage problem they have. With books, you can always, always find a spot in your house to put them, even if they do rise like a stack of children's blocks. 

So go ahead and buy books. They inform, entertain, soothe the soul and are just plain wonderful. You'll always be able to find a spot to put them even if you have to build an addition onto your house.