I buy a lot of books for myself. (Yes, I know I work in a library…!)
One of my pleasures used to be browsing in a bookshop. Yes, you read that right. I still enjoy this, sort of, but now when I browse in a bookshop, constantly at the back of my mind is the knowledge that I can get most books a lot more cheaply if I buy them online.
Just two years ago these were my favourite places to buy books, in descending order of preference:
- secondhand bookshop (Elizabeth’s)
- large bookshop (Border’s, Dymocks)
- independent bookshop (Oxford St Books, Planet Books)
- occasional online shopping (Amazon)
Now:
- online shopping (Book Depository)
- occasional independent bookshop (Planet Books, Oxford St Books) – all our Christmas gifts last year came from independent bookshops. Planet Books is still one of my favourite places in Perth, for the atmosphere and the sheer variety. Online booksellers cannot replicate this.
All these books? In paper, of course.
Two years from now, what will I be doing? If I were sensible and managed to turn off/reduce my consumerist impulses, I’d be borrowing from my local public library. I wonder if I will be getting most of my books online, and in digital formats. Will ebooks mean that we will not need a major refurbishment project to build bookshelves at home? Or is it going to be possible to borrow books in digital formats, from my local public library? The ideal would be if I could do this from my desktop or device without necessarily having to go to the library. (What would this mean for public libraries?)
Or would there be other models of distributing book content, subscription-based models from publisher, a la music streaming services that we’re starting to see today? (Thanks, M, for putting this idea in my head.)
Seems to me that book publishers are all scrambling to work out what they should be doing next. To an observer, it does all seem very messy at present (via).
13 Comments
I would love to reduce my consumerist habits, as you call them, but the public library here simply does not hack it when it comes to my reading needs. I read all over, and I read some very unconventional stuff. A trip out of town every few months usually addresses some of that. The local bookstores are not much better. No Borders here. B&N, and not even a very good one. The independents are mostly bad secondhand shops (as in a lot of Harlequins and Danielle Steele, oh, and all the Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, etc. you can handle). Love the shelf photo. I am not quite ready to go to ebooks yet for various reasons though. So, we’ll keep the print here a while longer.
Best, and keep on blogging.
If I recall from your reading, you read a good amount of graphic novels. I wonder how these will translate to digital formats and eInk especially. Someone I was reading the other day commented that Japanese manga is fine for digital because it’s mostly black and white, but Western stuff doesn’t always work so well because it’s in colour. And then there’s the size of most ebook readers so far. And of course don’t get me started on the availability of stuff in digital formats…
Love your shelves Con. I’d love to have that many books one day. Looks great.
yum, your shelves look good alongside the fireplace.
I like ziwi.co.nz and fishpond.co.nz for online orders – mainly of stuff that is hard to find in bookstores here. Borders is not too bad but if you want specialised stuff online is better and usually cheaper. I still often buy kids books in a store because they are usually presents and I’m so unorganised I don’t have time to order online *slaps hand*
I use my library at work, my public library (where my husband works) and my uni library, but still new books manage to find their way into my house! I have been buying online from Book Depository and Readings for a while, have a little secondhand bookshop I always visit when I go to Geelong, but if I go into a bookstore like Dymocks or Borders, I usually leave with a book for the kids too :).
I love the photos of your shelves by the fireplace- I always feel books add character and warmth to a room.
Well speaking as a public librarian in Perth 🙂 Yes there are some public libraries that are planning now to offer ebooks for loan in the next couple of years.
Yarra Plenty Library in Melbourne already does 🙂 And I beleive you can download direct from library website so you do not even have to enter the building. Some local public libraries are already working towards this and we are already aware of the need to improve our impact in areas online and outside our buildings.
I read every day but I buy surprisingly few books. Most of those that I do buy come from Op shops or book sales (I do miss Basement Books in Sydney though). I use my local library extensively and have been known to reserve books from their online catalogue using my phone while on the train! I also borrow books from my uni library and from friends. This saves me lots of money which I then spend on yarn instead. 🙂
Beautiful room. It makes me regret giving most of my books away when I left my last house. A house without books is not a home ^-^. I am slowly building up again.
Oh, that’s such a beautiful room!
Even though I buy plenty online, I still love book shops, and especially when travelling. I loved Boffin Books in Perth, and Kinokuniya and Aerial (and the one across the road from it B???) in Sydney. Some of my favourite travel memories are of bookshops.
ditto Tony’s comments, your beautiful bookshelves CW ~ truly something to behold
Hana, at last count we have 3528 books. You don’t want that many, they are hellish when you move house.
Penny, I’m not organised enought to buy book presents online either!
Steph, IMHO books ate the best furnishings/decorations a home can have.
Mel, obviously I need to use my public library more – and hassle them re ebook availability!
Molly, does your local library meet all your reading needs?
Kim, give.away.books…?!!
Tony, M and I have been known to plan holidays around bookshop visits.
@geomancer, thanks 🙂
Environmentally it would seem that public libraries are the go, but when you see how much my books are swapped, shared, read and re-read I guess I feel less bad about their footprint.
Then the faddy side of me steps in and wants smart paper to become affordable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyricon Then I’d dump paper no worries.
It’s very sad to hear that we at Elizabeth’s Bookshops have dropped down your list… We’ll just have to try harder to make the retail experience so pleasant that it can compete with online prices. Best wishes.