GatorDeb

For books I don't buy physical books anymore, just Kindle editions. There's plenty of Kindle material to keep me occupied for a while. Most are $9.99.


I also like to have tons of periodicals available - The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, get transferred to my Kindle daily for free when I connect it to my PC while I sleep through Mobipocket Reader. It keeps up to one week of headlines on the Kindle (I can change it from 1 day to 2 weeks) and only transfers unread content (also customizable). I also have blogs like The Daily Kos and Cognitive Daily transferred over. All for free. The one periodical I pay for is The Reader's Digest $18 a year because they don't have comprehensive RSS feeds, so I get it through Amazon.

I don't even go to the library anymore most of the time. The Kindle has revolutionized the way I read.

Jason Bovberg

I'm all about actual books. I have a library I'm very proud of. To me, a book is a work of art, just like a painting. It's something tactile to hold and value as a whole. The presentation--the cover, the jacket art, the paper, the heft, the font, the design--is also important to me. It all adds up to an artwork, something I can savor and admire after the fact, particularly with books I'm especially fond of.

To me, a digital copy of a book is like taking a Polaroid of the Mona Lisa.

Lateralus

I double dip on all my books, I purchase the book used from Amazon.com and then I get the audiobook from Audible.com I find I retain information better if somebody reads to me and I read along in the book at the same time. Not to mention it helps when I hit words I don't know how to pronounce; that is very helpful consideriting I read a lot of books on terrorism and foreign cultures.

That being said the iPod changed my life, before I could only read 2-4 books a year now I'm pushing 50+.

Mordred

I steal them from bookstores.

Cosmic Bus

If there's something new out that I'd really like to read, I'll borrow it from work. Otherwise, everything comes from Paperback Swap.

circes

Half priced books...read them and resell them

GatorDeb

I've used paperbackswap and the books I get are all yellowed or dirty or old-looking. I won't get books from there ever again (I tried 10 different books).

Hank Ringworm

I don't obtain my reading material. I get it.

That said, I buy serious stuff. That is, authors I know, books I've heard good things about from people I trust. I go to the library for things I'm not sure about. That is, stuff I read about in passing that sounds interesting, books I've heard good things about from people I think are morons.

Cosmic Bus

YMMV, I guess. Aside from some actual paperbacks from the '70s that I've gotten that have obviously been read and re-read, everything else has been pristine, inlcuding some very nice first-edition hardcovers and interestingly designed UK editions. Not that I care either way; I'm a read-it-and-trade-it kind of person... Don't have any interest in keeping them for display or anything.

milo bloom

half.com, Halfprice Books, garage sales, flea markets, antique stores, thrift stores (sense a trend?)

I was just working putting some of our books back on shelves last night, I totally gave up on sorting fiction from non-fiction, etc, our bookshelves look like a used bookstore themselves.

Pointyskull

I use the library extensively. Request books/DVDs/Cds online, get 'em in a day or two.

I may buy a nonfiction title periodically, if I feel it's something I may go back and reference at some point.

Easy

I like both paperback swap and bookmooch, although it is nearly impossible to get recently published books from them. I still buy a hardcover now and then, though not nearly as often as I once did.
I will never own a kindle or any proprietary format reader.

bishop2knight

I'm with FunkDaddy J. I love a nice, new, tightly bound hard cover. I don't have all that many books in my collection, but it does bring me satisfaction to look at the spines sitting there, tempting me with the stories they contain.

celmendo

half-priced books unless I just have to have it as soon as it comes out.

solipsta

Amazon, physical bookstores and my university library.

tonyc3742

Annual library booksale (purchase), library (checkout). I have a book waiting for me there, as a matter of fact.
Very occasionally used bookstores.

innocentfreak

I get a lot of books from the library though I feel bad whenever I actually enjoy the book hence my other thread a while back.

I always buy the authors I love usually new through Amazon. I don't have any good used book stores locally.

This is also something else that has always bothered my. Why are new book sales so uncommon? I mean as many paperbacks as there are that are out there why do you so rarely see sales at the big book stores. Is there some large clearance book chain I am missing? You see it on hardbacks, but never on paperbacks. Do they all get credit for sending books back that don't sell?

Deke Rivers

Kindle for me..like not having 'works of art" piled up all over the house..
give me "Polaroids" any day...

Josh-da-man

Barnes & Noble and Borders frequently have sales on bestselling hardcovers and trade paperbacks; usually around 20-30% off (and sometimes as high as 40%). Borders also always seems to have some kind buy 2-get-1-free kind of sale going on with select trade paperbacks.

As for the hardcover books you see at stores selling for around $5.98-$7.98, those are remainders. When books are released in hardcover, they generally have a short window of availability (usually about a year, until a paperback version comes out). After that window closes, those leftover books are called remainders, and they're sold at a steep discount to clear out overstock.

Paperbacks, when they are sent back, were stripped. "Stripping" a book means that the seller tears the front cover off and sends it back for a refund. Stripped books are supposed to be destroyed. I'm not sure if they still strip paperbacks and magazines, though, with the whole green/recycling thing that's all the rage these days.

As to you other question, yes, there are some bookstores that sell remaindered stock in both hardcover and paperback. I've seen a few in outlet malls. And there are also mail order businesses like www.hamiltonbook.com and www.bookcloseouts.com that specialize in discounted overstock.

innocentfreak

Yeah I know about stripping since I used to work retail and had to do it once a month for magazines. It just never made sense to me for paperbacks though I guess both companies can use it as a write-off. There are many paperbacks I would take a chance on and pick up at half price especially ones I can't find at the library. The best sale I have ever seen locally is 4 for 5 on select paperbacks.

scarface983

i buy them used from ebay, or thrift stores, they are cheaper, i only read them about 1 time though

Travis McClain

I'm another library user. I figure 1) my taxes are helping pay for it anyway and 2) while I am likely to re-watch a movie or re-play an album, I am very unlikely to re-read a book.

I am, however, completely addicted to Half Price Books. I've scored some really nice finds in CD's and DVD's there, and have occasionally found something to read. This year, I snagged a paperback of Peter O'Toole's "Loitering with Intent: The Child" for a quarter and Herb F. Solow & Robert Justman's "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" in hardback for $3.00.

Count me among those who prefer tangible books to digital. I don't mind going digital for audiobooks, though I'm wary of sites like iTunes where the entire book is one large file. For an hour or so, that's one thing. I am very unlikely, though, to make it through an entire seven hour, unabridged audiobook without interruption. And, yes, I echo the sentiment that dust jacket art, font selection and the other aspects of an actual book do represent a work of art. I don't find that to be true of all books, including a lot of paperbacks. When possible, I like early printings of books, especially older books. There's something kind of exciting about opening, say, a used 1959 paperback printing of an Ian Fleming Bond thriller and getting that "old book" smell as I turn the pages. Sometimes I wonder just how many other people have read that exact copy of the book I now own. It connects me to the book in a way that I don't find with other media. I get it with vinyl, but not CD.

msdmoney

I've been using audible.com a lot lately. i can get through a lot more books in audio form, because I can listen during a lot of time I wouldn't be able to read. Listen to an audibook during my short 15 minute commute to work, and each day at the gym and doing any work around the apartment, I can get through an audibook or every week or two depending on the length. Audible has had some good sales since I started, I was able to pick up a lot of cheap books for $6 or so in addition to my book a month as a member.

For traditional books, I use paperbacks a lot of times on amazon as a filler for free shipping, and I've picked up a lot of books at used book stores.

Ranger

I like the kindle concept but it's still new tech and thus expensive. DRM is another negative. I might digital copies of my favorite books when I think it's reasonable to do so.

I like going to the bookstore (BAM and BN). The bookstore is pretty much one of the few places where the customers are quiet and polite.

Tommy Ceez

NICE!

I need your help!

Iim trying to pick up the complete Harvard Classics set on Craigslist and I found a guy but want to confirm the sets quality before I drive to Conn.

How would you phrase an email asking for more details than GOOD CONDITION?