posted
There is only one Powells and it's in Portland, but there are readers all over the world.
How do you get your books without a bookstore nearby?
I lived in South Charleston, West Virginia, several years ago, and really had a hard time finding books. But then, I happened to drop in on a little magazine shop one day, and found a few science fiction books in a rack. Heaven!
I got to talking to the proprietor and found that he ordered them from a catalog he received from a distributor. And he let me take a look at the catalog!
Before we moved away, I was stopping by his shop at least once a week to recommend books from his catalogs, and I was able to "browse" to my heart's content.
I realize that such a relationship may not be possible for everyone, but it is worth checking around to see if there isn't some shop near you that might consider selling a few books, and letting you peruse the catalogs (especially if they don't have to pay you to be their "buyer").
posted
Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com have worked well for me. Other than those, I have ordered "specialty" books from speacialty sites.
Posts: 3687 | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
I never know what's going to turn up when I look in a bookstore. I used to work in a used bookstore ("after you've read it, swap it for credit") and, once I got to know the inventory real well, I could find a lot of books of interest.
Amazon-dot-com is useful---I order a lot from them, on and off---but hardly the only place to look. Besides, they do not necessarily have everything. (I've been trying to track down a CD---any CD---with a particular song on it by a guy named Bill Amesbury, but I can't find one. (Such a CD may not exist.) I did find out a lot about Bill Amesbury in the search, too---maybe too much for my innocent mind.)
Quite frankly, that store is one of the best perks of living here. Nothing like sitting in the coffee shop looking out on Burnside on a rainy day, a brand new book in your left hand, a cup of coffee in your right . . . 3 stories of an ENTIRE CITY BLOCK behind you filled with all the books, new and used, you could ever want.
I found a SIGNED, LETTERED leatherbound first edition of Xenocide there once. Couldn't scrape up the cash to buy it though. One of the biggest bummers of my young life.
*sigh*
Interesting side note . . . I was in Emily Powell's (yes, the very same Powell) graduating class. Never figured she'd be the next one in line to take over the family biz. Don't know if any of you have had this experience, but it's VERY odd reading about your classmates in Forbes. Kinda makes you realize you grew up sometime when you weren't looking.
*sigh*
So, KDW, when did you make it to Powells? You from Portland, or just passing through at one point?
posted
Gotta put another plug in for the local library.
In my younger years, I distinctly remember the library trips we'd take as a family. I remember the kids' section, the big upholstered pit that was a reading area/playground, the way the rows of books lined up behind the pit. I remember the smell of the card catalogs (show of hands who has never seen a card catalog? Never mind, I don't want to remember how old I am, LOL) I remember the librarians at the front that I got to know when I did my 6th grade research report on the Paiute Indian Tribe, and the island report on the island of Sri Lanka.
Then I went to college and was immersed in that experience for a while, the huge college stacks, the certain comfy chairs (if you sat in them sideways, as no self-respecting college student would sit in them the proper way,) the 9:00 unwritten munchies break that everyone would take in the vending area of one of the towers.
Then I have no idea what happened. I graduated from college/grad school and forgot libraries existed, I suppose. Very strange.
Turns out, they're just chock full of great stuff. And these days, with this darn internet thing, you can ask your librarian to obtain for you a book that has never seen the light of your library's day. Inter-library loan. Fantastic thing. Don't get me started about all the other stuff they have there - big print books, books on CD, audio CDs, DVDs, puzzles, magazines, free internet access. It's crazy. No charge! Unless you return things late. And then - watch out, those 10c/day fines can quickly add up to...a dollar! (and that's only on the big-ticket items like the DVDs. Books have a much cheaper late fee. And then remember that internet thing? You can probably renew your items online if you want, avoid the late fees entirely!)
Anyway - that's my primary source of books these days. The one independent bookstore in town has a wonderful selection, but virtually no sci-fi. I asked the manager one time and he said they just don't do much business in sci-fi. Suppose I should buy from them more often, but they carry mostly titles I already own...sigh.
posted
I live in a small state, in a small town, and we have the most fantastic thing...maybe everyone has it, but I'd never heard of it before. It's called Books By Mail, and most of the libraries in the state let us rural folk check out anything over the internet and the state mails it to us. It's been a very long time since I've wanted a book I haven't been able to get. (One exception is the author Sally Watson, who I loved when I was a teenager. I wanted to share her books with my daughter, but apparently all her books are antiques and they won't let me use them.) It's not a great web site for browsing though.
Posts: 938 | Registered: May 2008
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posted
Austin Texas does have Borders and B&N as well as a local store, Book People downtown (where I never go, sigh, too far away). We also have a bunch of Half Price Books bookstores. What is not locally available I order from B&N online or abebooks.com (used books).
It's lots better than when I was a kid and there were no bookstores at all. I bought all my books off the spinner at the grocery store and drugstores.
My parents for some reason never took me to the library. I don't know why. My father was a scholar and we had a real library in our house (still do) in mostly four languages. My mother had a deal with the nearby drugstore. She paid them monthly and ran a tab. I was permitted to ride up there on my bike and select any paperbacks, magazines, and comic books I wanted. All I wanted.
Until a few years ago I pretty much owned every book, comic or magazine I'd ever read. Even the ones we bought in Baghdad. Mom shipped the books home and left the clothes there. Th books finally got to be too many and I gave a bunch away to Goodwill. I mean, did I REALLY need a copy of FOUR DAY WEEKEND where the cars took over America? Or GARBAGE WORLD about this asteroid where the solar system dumps its trash? I used to read everything and anything that appeared to be sf. I've gotten pickier these days.
posted
I just moved away from Tucson, AZ, where Bookman's is the place to find any book you're looking for, or find a book you never knew existed that you really need. They're magical places.
Now that I'm back in a small town in the midwest, it's the library, and online if I need to buy.
posted
One of my most noteworthy accomplishments was in spending several hours browsing at Powell's, then actually making it out of the store without buying anything. A friend who was with me was set to make the same claim, but about half a block away, she began shaking, then turned in her tracks and said, "I gotta go back in and buy that book I was looking at!" It's truly booklover's heaven.
I had the good fortune to take Michael Powell out to lunch several years ago (we ate Thai food), and to pick his brains about what sells and what doesn't in his bookstore. He told me the spine is where it's at... whatever you can do to make that spine attractive - a clever title, embossing on the book jacket, good art. He said there are very few titles that can be given the real estate to display the cover, and that most books have to entice the reader to pluck them off the shelf based on the spine. It is the "first 13" of the book's cover, so to speak. I thought that was a useful bit of insight for anyone who goes so far as to get to the publishing phase. Pay particular attention to what is displayed on the spine of the book cover.
But regardless of my deep love of Powell's (I told Michael I've at least made a house payment for him over the years), I second the nomination for your local library. I used to live in North Portland, and the library in St. Johns had a great science fiction and fantasy section. It was where I discovered a new author - Orson Scott Card. They had a great selection of his books, and I quickly consumed them all. Libraries are wonderful places to sample the wares from a variety of authors that you might be otherwise hestitate to "buy to try."
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I kinda gave up on libraries over the years. Two things hit me---prosperity and frustration. Prosperity meant I could afford to buy even the most expensive books. Frustration because the library system down here never had the books I wanted to read, or had them when I wanted to read them. It was a gradual fading out...
On the "superbookstores"...when I was younger (like, say, when I was running the abovementioned used bookstore), there were no Barnes-&-Nobles or Borders around here. Such things existed, but I could only visit them while on vacation. Now, there are two Books-a-Millions within easy reach plus a Barnes-&-Noble. (There was a Borders, just far enough away to put it out of easy everyday reach...which, I'm given to understand, closed up a few weeks ago. I never visited it.)
posted
I would love to use either of the two libraries in my area, but there's just one small snag. Okay, it's a major snag, darn it ! They're both township libraries and I don't live in those townships ! Oh, I can still get a library card there, but it's costly if you don't live in the township.
So, my hubby and I have discovered a treasure trove in a used bookstore not far from us. We still visit Borders but not near as often. What got me was one time when we were in the area, we went to Borders first where I picked up a book that looked promising. Then we went to the used book store, and there was the exact same book in the "books for 25 cents" rack ! Dang it !!!
The other place I've found to buy books, believe it or not, is Wal Mart. They are a dollar or more cheaper than places like Borders or Barnes & Noble .
[This message has been edited by Crystal Stevens (edited August 13, 2008).]
posted
Another thing about me and the libraries...I didn't start with them until I was about twenty or twenty-one. When I was a kid, I lived in a different place, and the nearest library was about, oh, ten miles from where I spent my nights, too far to walk and impossible to drive to when you don't have a car. Down here, when I got here, there was (and is) a county-wide library system and I could drop in on any of them with the car I had.
(That's stand-alone libraries, though. School libraries were my favorite haunt as a child---but, as for books and such, they're relatively dinky and thin. There were only six Heinleins in the library in my first school, one in my second school, and none in my third school. (Dunno what's around right now.))
posted
I grew up in Oxford, just down the road from Blackwell's, which meant it was a bit of a culture shock when I moved away. The public library there had masses of SF, which is how I got started reading it in my teens. Nowadays I use Amazon and Abebooks.com more and more. but I never miss a chance to browse, especially in second-hand bookshops.
Posts: 185 | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
I live in Columbus, Ohio, where there are 4 "Half Price Books" stores. Half Price Books is heaven on Earth. Lots and lots of books for very cheap (often less than half-price, actually). We also have a family-owned bookstore called "The Book Loft" that is a wonderful place. It's a huge, old house, with lots of tiny rooms and winding hallways and crazy stairways in odd places, and each room is a different book theme. It's very easy to literally get lost in there, just wandering around in the labyrinth of books. If you were looking for a specific book, it would be a very frustrating store, but for an afternoon of browsing, it is great. Almost magical, even.
I am moving to Newark, Ohio, where the only bookstore is a Waldenbooks in the mall. This is going to be rough.
[This message has been edited by wetwilly (edited August 18, 2008).]
posted
Kathleen, you more than likely are completely into this if you go to conventions, but there is a site called sfbc.com (scifi book club) which is the Columbia House of SciFi - you sign up and you get 5 or 6 free scifi books.
I'm a huge fan of Amazon, myself. This summer I just found out you can order your dry good groceries in bulk amounts and they deliver them straight to your door the next day. So I use Amazon.com a whole lot and really owe the website for knocking my quality-of-life points up a few notches.
Another of Rach's Website Reccomendations, is the paperbackswap.com. Quickly, what you do is you sign up for free, and list your paperback books, you automaticaly get a couple of credits. You DO NOT have to swap with the person who holds the book you want, you are swapping with the website. You use your credits to find and order a book from another member, who will send it to you absolutely free of charge to you. In order to continue trading, you must, when someone picks your book, print out and ship the book to them (then you pay for your shipping, see? still less than $3.00). If you are super-motivated, go yard-saleing one Saturday, and pick up a couple of groc. bags of paperbacks, then list them and you'll be a credit-millionaire in no time.
And, of course, Ebay has just about everything for sale.
posted
paperbackswap is a great way to get books. Thanks for mentioning it, Reagansgame. Bookins is another one, though they operate a little differently. I've obtained copies of books that way that I couldn't find otherwise.
[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited August 18, 2008).]
posted
wetwilly; That sounds so much like my used book store. I've been there several times and can finally find my way out without asking for help . It sure took me awhile to figure it all out though . I just love their excellent selection of science fiction and fantasy books. Posts: 1320 | Registered: May 2008
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quote:I grew up in Oxford, just down the road from Blackwell's
I live in Oxford! Only for the next week, though: I was only here for a year.
I love Blackwell's, though I generally buy books from Borders (huuuge selection and often quite cheap) or Amazon. Often I have a look in Waterstones on the way home from work, but rarely buy anything. I'm a sucker for those 3 for 2 offers...
posted
You mean other bookshops can flourish in Oxford now? It used to be Blackwell's and Thornton's, which only sells online now. I used to love the place. When I was a kid, Parker's had a big shop opposite Blackwell's for a few years, but they never did too well, and got taken over in the end.
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! They're both township libraries and I don't live in those townships 
! Oh, I can still get a library card there, but it's costly if you don't live in the township.
! Dang it !!!
.
. It sure took me awhile to figure it all out though 
