Books

[circumspice]

Where do you get your books?

When I lived in a huge metropolitan city, I used to buy books from book stores or check out books from public libraries. After moving to a somewhat remote rural area that became impractical. The county where I live has only two libraries. I exhausted much of my preferred reading material in one library in less than a decade. (due to budget constraints the demand was greater than they could supply) They did offer inter-library loans but it often took weeks to get the book I wanted. If I wanted to go to a book store it was a day trip of a minimum of 45 miles one way. So those trips were necessarily infrequent. When we finally got our one & only thrift store, it became an important source of reading material, depending upon donations, of course. Our two libraries also had book sales to dispose of older books or excess donated books. The nearest local library has two large book racks located outside on the front porch to hold free books, magazines, audio & video materials. They keep the best inside & sell them for nominal prices, such as 25 cents for paperbacks & 50 cents for hardcover books. Sometimes they sell the finer books for prices ranging from $1 to $5. Our only thrift store sells books for 25-50 cents, except on Free Book Fridays. On a recent trip to the library I found a pristine copy of Ian Tattersall's book called The Human Odyssey on the free book rack outside. It was published in 1993. I'm sure that much of it has been superceded by various discoveries over the past 25 years. But it's still a great find & holding a printed book in hand seems more satisfying than reading ephemeral data on the internet.

I sometimes also get free digital books from various sources on the internet such as Amazon or The Gutenberg Project. I have 2 Kindles & my phone to download digital content. I also infrequently buy books online. I made a recent purchase of a set of books & the total weight was 48 lbs. The seller split the set into two boxes for shipping. Boy was I glad that I didn't need to lug a nearly 50 lb box from the Post Office to home...

I'll always find a way to get reading materials.

[Minimalist]

As I have aged I find that reading books is difficult. The light is never right. I now use a e-reader on my tablet. All the light I need.

I also download a lot of scholarly articles from Academia.edu.

[MichelleH]

I've used Biblio.com, they are a kind of a book broker so you will things from the UK, Australia, etc. I've also used Thriftbooks.com with success. But I'm with Min, if I can download it to my e-reader it's best. My husband used to get really irritated when we would go on a road trip and I would fill the back seat with reading material.

[Dan48]

mostly online, on different sites, I just use the usual search

[Raten]

Pride and Prejudice
This book has been a favourite for generations of women around the world. It was read in aristocratic drawing rooms, literary salons and rural estates, it was hidden from the parents of grammar school girls, for whom the novel by Jane Austen became a literal "school of life". And now this book, forever entered the golden fund of world literature, has not lost a bit of its inimitable charm, sophistication and brilliance ...