Booking Through Thursday - Book Buying?

Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

I’ve asked, in the past, about whether you more often buy your books, or get them from libraries. What I want to know today, is, WHY BUY? If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?

I used to be a die-hard library user and would rarely buy books. But something shifted this last year -- as my reading increased (thanks in part to LibraryThing), my book lust did too, exponentially and so, of course, did my TBR pile.

Why buy? I LOVE being able to finish a book, walk over to the bookshelf, ponder what I want to read next and just pull it off the shelf. Great books, no waiting! That said, I buy almost all my books used, most of them from Goodwill (charity store) for a couple bucks each. If I can't find what I'm looking for there, Powell's is just down the street and they have tons of used books.

I also get a lot of free books -- some mooched from book pals around the world and some ARCs (Advanced Reader Copy) from publishers - Shelf Awareness is a great resource for finding out about freebies from publishers. I'm also a moocher as well as a moochee - I love passing on good books to friends. The ones I keep are usually the hardcovers and/or the ones that are really special to me and that I'm sure to re-read.

And -- I still love my library. At any given time, I usually have ~20 books, DVDs and CDs checked out or reserved. We have a great library system here in Portland, a beautiful central library building and lots of good neighborhood branches (that's ours in the photo at right). I support our library through my overdue fines (ahem).

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Booking Through Thursday - Early Memories of Libraries

The Booking Through Thursday questions today were suggested by Margaret:

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?

The BookMobile came to our neighborhood every couple of weeks in the summer, when we didn't have access to our school library. It was exciting - almost as exciting as visits from the ice cream truck! I remember it feeling like a special treat to walk the few blocks to the van to discover what treasures it held this time. (There was always a chance I might run into Jimmy O'Brien there too!)

It was tiny. It was hot and cramped. It smelled of dust and diesel and sweaty little bodies. And I loved it. During those summers I discovered the stories of Helen Keller and Anne Frank, Clara Barton and Little Women. Here were adventure, inspiration, girl and women role models that were far out of the norm of my little 1960s suburban neighborhood: escape, all lined up on a few small shelves in an old van.

We lived quite a distance from the brick and mortar public library, so having the BookMobile come to the neighborhood probably saved me from an overdose of MAD and TEEN magazines and daytime television.
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Read Elizabeth's skunk-book connection here and Angela's Nancy Drew memories here.

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Booking Through Thursday - Bookstores and Libraries

This week's Booking Through Thursday conundrum:

What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable? Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop … what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit?

Deb's question this week was prompted by the sudden destruction of one of her favorite bookstores when it caught fire over the 4th of July weekend. What a sad thing - just the thought of all those books burning makes me shudder.


I live in Portland, a bookstore- and library-rich city. The loss of any of my favorites would be distressing but, frankly, would barely be a blip in my own reading habit.


I use the library system quite a bit (Central Library, photo above); our county has invested a lot in our libraries, and the taxpayers have shown good support for the system. We have a branch in our neighborhood and can order up any book in the system online and have it sent to the local branch. The inventory is incredible - there's rarely a book I'm looking for that the library doesn't have.

Of course, we have Powell's Books here in Portland - we're just across the river from the main store (Powell's City of Books - the largest used and new bookstore in the world) and one of the smaller neighborhood stores, which is no slouch, is right up the street from us.

In Other Words Women's Books and Resources is the last surviving non-profit feminist bookstore in the United States. I used to shop there quite a lot when they were in my neighborhood, but they're somewhat less accessible to me now.

There are lots of other independent bookstores in town, new and used. I feel very fortunate to have the variety and the good local businesses here. There's no reason for me to shop at Barnes and Nobles or Borders, and I don't. I think it's important to support local bookstores and not let the big bullies put them out of business. That said, I do occasionally order books from Amazon because it's so easy to push that button when I'm lusting after a book at 11pm. I've also been buying lots of good used books lately from Goodwill (known as a charity shop across the pond), which doesn't further the cause of the indies, but does put some disadvantaged people to work.

So the lesson, I suppose, is: diversify! If one book stream runs dry, there are others to fill in the gaps. Ok, I'll quit mixing metaphors now and go read.

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