POLL: Where do you buy your books?

[Holly]

POLL: Where do you buy your books?

Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, or other online store website?

An e-reader?

The Old Brick Pile: a real bookstore?

A used bookstore?

Don't buy them -- use the library?



I usually buy mine from Amazon. I'd go to an Old Brick Pile, a real bookstore, but I live in the boondocks, and the nearest real bookstore is 30 miles away.

[AAlicia88]

I i'm looking for something that is fairly recent I'll pick it up at Target or Walmart. Otherwise I have to drive thirty miles out of the way to Barnes and Nobel, but the selection is worth it.

[CharleeVale]

Usually a physical store, but if they don't have it I'll go online.

CV

[BransfordGroupie]

Our little town doesn't have a bookstore anymore, so if K-mart, BigW or Target doesn’t have what I am looking for I'll would buy online. I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read anyway (that time is used for writing), so I try to buy most of mine from Audible.com so that I can listen to them while I am doing housework and any other task that doesn't require too much concentration. I listened to the Twilight Saga and have to say that the narrator (ILYANA KADUSHIN) can really bring a story to life.

[Bryan Russell/Ink]

All of the above.

[taylormillgirl]

If the library doesn't have what I want, I order used from Amazon.

[Dankrubis]

Since my Fiancée is a manager at Barnes and Noble, we're kinda forced to get all of our reading material there. Probably gonna pick up a Nook soon!

[Madaboutstories]

All of the above and sometimes even at the bus depot...I have an addictive personality, can you tell?

[Scott]

Online, then Borders, then borrowed from a friend or as a gift. No e-reader, yet. That's way off, if ever.

[casnow]

Up until last month (when I bought my eReader) it was Amazon if I was planning ahead, or in the airport if I wasn't. Now it's sony store or B&N online for eBooks or in the airport.

[Emily White]

I'm a fan of the library myself, but when I find some extra change lying around the house, I'll drive over to B&N to buy a book.

[Nick]

I used to get my books from Borders. In the past three months however, their DVD section has shrunk considerably and they no longer carry any Doctor Who (shame, as they were the cheapest for Classic Series DVDS -- sure, I have access to every episode, including reconstructions of the missing ones, online, but I like a good hard copy). The Young Adult section, which used to be fairly large and near the children's section, has now been moved to the front and eats up the vast majority of the store, and is surrounded by life-size Twilight standees and bright colors and things. In the library-like shelves along the far well it used to go literature -> literature -> literature -> history -> history -> biography/memoir -> some section I don't remember. Now it's literature -> history -> biography/memoir -> biography/memoir -> biography/memoir -> some section I don't remember. The mystery/thriller and sci-fi/fantasy sections are now much smaller and the aisles far narrower, all to make more room for their expanded YA section. But what really killed it all for me was the atmosphere has been staked. Used to be decent lighting but still on the dim side, nice music, and relatively peaceful and quiet. Now it's bright, the music is mostly hip-hop and pop and such, and people are being incessantly loud and chatty. And the cafe...Used to be, a couple of people would go into the cafe every now and again and have a nice quiet chat over a cuppa. Now it's jam-packed with people gibbering so loudly I can hear it from the children's section. So, we've terminated our seventeen relationship.

Now I go to Barnes & Noble. It's going to take a while, though. I'm so incredibly used to going to Borders I'll probably end up driving to the Borders lot a couple of times, and I'm so used to the red and wood look that the pale green and grey is a bit disconcerting for the first few minutes in the store. The biggest problem with having switched is I have no idea where anything is in Barnes & Noble. I almost exclusively shopped at Borders, so by the time elementary school ended, I knew my way around, and whenever they reorganized I was in there enough to know where things had been moved to within the month. My only real complaint with Barnes & Noble is their way of dividing things up. Borders got much more specific with sub-genres, which made it nice and easy to find certain things. Barnes & Noble lumps a ton of genres into their "literature" or "fiction" or whatever-the-devil-they-label-it section. Example: Barnes & Noble lumps historical fiction in with classics like War & Peace (albeit further away). Borders gave historical fiction its own small section. Spent half an hour wandering around the Barnes & Noble on Saturday looking for historical fiction before I discovered they lumped Bernard Cornwell in with a bunch of other different authors of varying genres. They do get brownie points for having more of the Sharpe series in stock than Borders, though.

Only order off of Amazon if a book is out of print (like the EDA novels) or is only available in bookstores in the UK.

/end long post

[Mira]

Amazon.

It's just a better selection than a brick and mortar. I can go to a brick and mortar, and half the time the book I want isn't there yet. I like Amazon's reccommendations - I can click around for hours.

The exception is - sometimes, I'll just take a few hours to go browse at Borders or Barnes and Noble. That's purely for fun, and I never leave without at least one or more books.

I love independent bookstores, too, for that same reason. But most of the time, Amazon.

[kristi]

All of the above. Friends give me books frequently too if they think I'll like something. In fact, the two next on my pile were given to me by friends. My favorite method though will always be by browsing my local bookstore. Bookstores are the closest thing to heaven on earth IMO :)

[knight_tour]

Since I work overseas, I buy all of mine from Amazon. When I visit the states, I like to browse bookstores (Borders or B&N), but their prices generally aren't competitive with Amazon, so I will find books I find interesting in the store, but then buy them on Amazon. Note, I won't buy hardcovers.