Booklr Questions – Do you buy books new, used, or go to the library?
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Do you buy books new, used, or go to the library?
As much as I should go to the library and borrow book, I don’t. I haven’t had a library card since I was in middle school. And while I went to the library a lot during high school and college, it was usually to get books for my grandmother, who was home bound. I did stop by the library in my home town a few months ago, thinking I would get myself a new library card, but I was pretty unimpressed with the selection of books available in the categories I like to read. Oh well.
Instead, I end up buying most of the books I read. I do buy new books, but I’m not opposed to getting them used either. My favorite places to buy new books are actually at discount stores, which usually have a good selection of publisher surplus books for as little as $1 each.
Photo by ReadTheBloodyBook.
The more expensive books I purchase are usually special editions, like the B&N Leatherbound Classics, or beautiful British editions via the Book Depository.
Where do you get your books?
These days, I download a lot of classics from Gutenberg or a handful of other sites that offer public-domain fiction. I used to do the used book run down to the coast every year or so but a few years back, even second-hand paperbacks were getting as pricey as new. I can no longer afford to pay 10 Euros or more for a used book! Also, as you mentioned, one does run out of physical space. I do buy a few used books from Amazon, usually something special. Fancy TV chef cookbooks that cost a bomb when the series airs, are often available second hand for pennies a few months later! Some of them (and not just cookbooks) have obviously never been opened.
Spain went totally foaming at the mouth bananas out of control with the “copyright” issue a couple of years ago. Now they want people to pay a Euro “deposit” on library books, in a lot of places. Except that, yeah, somehow getting your deposit back is never easy. Never mind culture, never mind that you pay a “user’s fee” to get a library card! Just like for a while they wanted hairdressers to pay “royalties” if they wanted to have the radio on during business hours! Trouble with that is, the “Society of Authors” is in the hands of a dozen or fewer celebrities and you can bet your bottom dollar that any payments would never, ever get to the writers or singers in question. (The radio-royalty thing lasted for about 2 months before public outcry stopped the nonsense.)
As you say, there’s nothing at our local libraries that I actually want to read, anyway. Most of the books available are bad translations of English-language books, the kind where you can run your hand over the surface and feel the original underneath whimpering to be set free.
That doesn’t sound pleasant. I do have to say that one thing America has done right is the free public library system. Even if they don’t usually have the books I like to read, it’s great to know that it’s there. It’s one thing I’m happy to have my tax dollars go towards. I don’t understand the deposit on library books at all. We have late fees, but they never ask for money unless you don’t return the item in question.
In case you haven’t seen it, Amazon does have a good selection of public-domain literature in the classics section. There isn’t an easy way to find it, basically you have to sort by price, but I like having access to those classics on my Kindle app whenever it’s convenient. Even the books for which I own physical copies.
Do you borrow books from friends? There’s an old saying “He who lends his books to his friends loses both.” Here, it’s very true. People who would never dream of shoplifting will borrow a book and you never see it again. When you ask, some people will either deny they ever borrowed it, or just shrug and laugh and say, “Oh I have no idea where it is.”
I only lend books to family, and just ones that I don’t mind if I don’t get back. Of course, books aren’t so expensive here, so I only really worry about hoarding my vintage and special edition books.
And as far as borrowing, I’d rather have someone tell me a book is amazing, and then go support the author myself.
STOP PRESS!! They just opened what looks to be a decent second-hand bookshop here in town! Not full of tacky, battered magazines-bound-as-books that no one wants, not expensive historical tomes, but real books! I have several English paperbacks and 1980s cookbooks I’ve outgrown, must take them along and see if someone there will want them.
This is AWESOME! I am beyond excited for you. We have a few small secondhand shops within a half-hour of my house, but they don’t buy books from customers. They only sell them.