A week or so ago, I was in the city, and decided to kill time by going to Unity Books, a wonderful independent bookstore that has, so far, managed to survive the arrival and departure of Borders, and more significantly, the shift to buying books and e-books online. I am one of those people who now reads most books on-line, and so it had been ages since I had browsed the shelves and tables piled high with new releases and best-sellers and obscure local publications.
Thirty minutes later, I walked out of Unity buzzing with enthusiasm. It had been a sensory experience: the colours of the books, vibrant, artistic, attractive, wooing me to pick them up and read them, buy them, take them home; the feel of those books, their weight, the ease with which I could flip through them, read the blurbs or reviews or author information, and stop at various pages to sample the writing. I fell in love again with books, real books, the hard copies – until I looked at the prices. They were three to four times more expensive than the e-books I buy on-line, and in my current pecuniary state, I can’t justify that expenditure. I left feeling guilty, knowing I probably wasn’t coming back to buy, yet knowing too that I want them so desperately to survive and prosper.
I feel your pain, but differently. I have so many books I can’t get to that I don’t allow myself to buy books (for the most part). I miss them, but I can’t seem to get my reading in. I don’t even have an e-reader. Sigh.
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I know how you feel! Some of my favourite independent book stores have recently moved to smaller locations, I know they are struggling, but physical books cost so much, and take up so much space.
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If I know I am going to want the book forever, I go for a paper copy. Sometimes I can just sense that I’m going to love a book forever. Books that feel more like entertainment for the moment get purchased as an e-book. I guess I don’t trust that they’ll be around forever like a paper book?
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i mainly go for paper copies of books i must say. i am not a collector of anything but books. I have a hard tim resisting. I am reading more e-books these days, but I still love going into a nice book store most of all.
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I read a mix of online and paper books. But I do love bookstores! Maybe books will become a vintage item that people will buy, just like they buy old records. You can’t really buy a used ebook, right?
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LOVE bookstores. Dh & I are at the local mega-bookstore every Saturday night after dinner out, without fail. I try to wait for the paperback but sometimes I simply MUST get the hardcover, NOW, lol. (Even if it then sits in my to-read pile until long after the paperback is available….!) You simply cannot browse through an online bookseller site the same way you can browse through a bricks & mortar & paper store.
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