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Your favourite bookshop / place to buy books

I think I prefer going to big book stores like Ottakars and Borders when I know what I'm looking for, like Garth Nix books or the Darren Shan Saga. I love the new book smell and most likely won't lend these books to anyone, especially someone who folds the covers under ( :eek: why, why would you do that?!?). I usually buy new titles in bigger stores.

I like going to Charity shops when I don't know what I'm going to get, when I just feel like having a look for something interesting. I always come out with something, especially because of the prices. Its handy having about 10 different charity shops within walking distance, especially since one of them is a Barnardos BOOKS. :rolleyes:
 
Like Ashlea, all the above. I have a hard time walking past a book store without going in.

I liked Chapters before they took out all the seating. I'd grab a few potential books, sit down, then read a chapter or so from each to help me decide which to buy. Now they've removed ALL the chairs and I don't spend nearly as much time there. Guess they didn't like people being too comfortable - weird!
 
I buy books. I buy the most from Amazon. The convenience can't be beat. For instance, I just bought two books less than a minute before writing this. However, I love to go in B&N, and I frequent BAM and Borders. Used stores are great too, but I'm terrible at digging to find stuff. I blame ADHD. :)

The way I want to spend money on books, they could almost be considered a schedule II narcotic. If I read them as fast as I wish I could, I'd be a broke book addict. :D
 
tartan_skirt said:
I think I prefer going to big book stores like Ottakars and Borders when I know what I'm looking for, like Garth Nix books or the Darren Shan Saga. I love the new book smell and most likely won't lend these books to anyone, especially someone who folds the covers under ( :eek: why, why would you do that?!?). I usually buy new titles in bigger stores.

I like going to Charity shops when I don't know what I'm going to get, when I just feel like having a look for something interesting. I always come out with something, especially because of the prices. Its handy having about 10 different charity shops within walking distance, especially since one of them is a Barnardos BOOKS. :rolleyes:
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You need to remember though, even big book stores don't ahve everything. I had to fly to Calgary (I was there anyway) until i found a copy of Garth Nix's "Sabriel"
 
Like Halo, I tend to find the cheapest first. :) The second hand books I buy must be acceptable quality, but I'm not that fussy. I've never bought a second hand that has handwritten notes or marks on them - names, yeah, but not meanie word like what xmissyo described.

Unlike Drizzt, I don't buy another book when one gets damaged - I'd be broke! Actually, I feel a little proud to see a little wear on the books I read - satisfaction of a book well read. I don't start bending them or tearing them on purpose, of course.

ds
 
Drizzt Do'Urden said:
You need to remember though, even big book stores don't ahve everything. I had to fly to Calgary (I was there anyway) until i found a copy of Garth Nix's "Sabriel"
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True, but I can usually find what I'm looking for in Ottakars or WHSmith where I live or if I get desperate I take a train up to Glasgow to Borders. Although I probably will have trouble when I'm looking for older or less popular books, but thats just the way it goes.
 
1908b9


1908dt

:)​
 
Mostly it depends on my mood. There are times when I like the big, spreading chain storess with cushy chairs where they don't mind you reading the whole darned book if you like! Other times, I like to wander through musty-smelling shelves filled to overflowing with volumes of all descriptions. The leather bound Moby Dick next to the 50's pulp horror. Never know what you'll find that you never knew existed or forgot you loved!

Sadly, I don't have either one around me anymore! :( Now I have to drive to one small corner shop and order everything. I'll USE Amazon and the like when I know what I want, but with a dial-up connection, it's no fun to 'wander'.
 
I like Ottakars (which happens to be a five minute walk from me) and Waterstones, but I prefer Ottakars with its rich aromas of coffee and the fact that they sell wicked three cheese and ham sandwiches, yummy. I could spend hours in that bookshop, literally hours.

I prefer to buy books in person, by that I mean not online because well you get to look at them and feel them and smell them... yes I love the smell of bookshops. In fact I'm quite infatuated with books themselves, they are so amazing. A cold screen of a computer does not match the warm feeling of a book...

Waterstones is okay but its a bit dark, although it reminds me of an old classical bookshop it is sometimes just a little opressing when you think of the warm natural greens of Ottakars and the friendly atmosphere and the coffee...

My other favourite place to shop for books is my local bookshop back at home (I'm living away from home in Student Halls...) it's small but its nice. Howeer it is also usually expensive. I don't mind spending a lot o money on books though, I think in the end it is worth it esecially if it is a good book.
 
Safia said:
I like Ottakars (which happens to be a five minute walk from me) and Waterstones, but I prefer Ottakars with its rich aromas of coffee and the fact that they sell wicked three cheese and ham sandwiches, yummy. I could spend hours in that bookshop, literally hours.

I prefer to buy books in person, by that I mean not online because well you get to look at them and feel them and smell them... yes I love the smell of bookshops. In fact I'm quite infatuated with books themselves, they are so amazing. A cold screen of a computer does not match the warm feeling of a book...

Waterstones is okay but its a bit dark, although it reminds me of an old classical bookshop it is sometimes just a little opressing when you think of the warm natural greens of Ottakars and the friendly atmosphere and the coffee...

My other favourite place to shop for books is my local bookshop back at home (I'm living away from home in Student Halls...) it's small but its nice. Howeer it is also usually expensive. I don't mind spending a lot o money on books though, I think in the end it is worth it esecially if it is a good book.
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I'd love to live near a bookshop.....I don't like the idea of Having food in bookstores. I mean, in most places that have coffee, they make sure you stay at the tables and drink it there, but food can make quite a mess.
 
It depends what I'm looking for.

Tesco - for new releases and best sellers. Can't get much cheaper without buying second hand.

Amazon - for hard to find books and good for finding similar types of books (ie. it gives you details of other authors which you may like based on the book you are looking at). Also good value.

Big bookshops with coffee aroma - for when I've got time to waste and really want to spend time searching the shelves. Ideally with sofa's to relax on. Good place to go with a similar minded friend to choose a couple of books and have a coffee & chat.
 
Ellison H bookshop. There's a guy there and he's the only person on earth who can pick books for me in my absence! I had a hysterectomy and was couch bound for a fortnight and he'd send 5 or 6 books a week for me to read without failing once!

Dymocks is good. You get points and discounts off other books.
 
I love Barnes & Noble, used to work for one of their subsidiaries (sp?) and since there's a store close to my house I'm in there more than I should be.
The kicker is that whenever I go into a B&N or Borders I always end up back in "bookstore worker" mode and start to straighten up the shelves and do face-outs. My husband has had to literally pull me out of a section for fear I'll clean it up. Maybe I should get a job there again.
I also love second-hand bookstores & thrift shops and since I'm not working at the moment that's where I feed my book-buying addiction.
But my most favorite place to buy books is from the Quality Paperback Book Club (www.qpb.com). There's something about having a book in paperback before the stores have it that thrills me. I feel "in" on something, like I can get books before the rest of the universe can
:rolleyes:
Their prices aren't bad either and once you buy enough and become a premier member (IE one who spends way more money than she should with them) you get all sorts of bonus offers and discounts.
 
I occasionly go into my local WHSmiths, but despite apparently being mainly a book store the selection is pretty awful. I prefer Waterstones, which has much more choice, albiet more expensive, which combined with my habit of impulse buying at least three every time I go in sets my wallet back a bit. Theres also a coffee shop just down the road from both. Whch is great if you've got time to kill. I'll only go online if I really want the book but cant find it.
 
If you're anywhere near Petersfield in the UK, check out the "Petersfield Book Shop" - it's great. Rooms and rooms full of old and antique, second hand and brand new, a dedicated first editions section, piles and piles of stuff on the floor that they don't have shelf space for yet, and a great bargain area where everything is "3 books for a pound", which unusually for a bargain section, actually *isn't* full of crud that nobody wants.

I went there for the first time yesterday and wondered how I'd managed to accidentally avoid it for so long. I spent probably no more than five quid and came home with 2 bags full. Places like this are amazing - there's so much in there to catch your eye that you may not have considered reading before.

Charing Cross Road in London is also pretty good. A few nice independant stores, Foyles being the biggest.

I'm not really one for the big chains, I like somewhere that you can poke around that doesn't predictably hit you with a hundred copies of (insert current bestseller here) as soon as you walk in the door.

Safia, we've got 2 branches of Ottaker's in town here, and neither has a coffee shop. Now I feel horribly cheated :D
 
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