I think we may have had a thread about this years ago, but it's time for another.

A comment ren made in another thread brought this to mind, about a trip to the library looming. I get half to two thirds of my books from the public library. I very rarely buy new books - when I do buy books I buy them used. Even so, the house is full full full of books.

I once worked out what it would cost us if the whole family bought everything we read new at a bookstore - it came to over $20,000 a year....

So, how about you - do you buy books, borrow them, steal 'em?

"So, how about you - do you buy books, borrow them, steal 'em?"

Can I say all 3, but only steal them if they are mine and haven't been returned to me? Say, being at a friends and just happening to notice that my book from 4 years ago is just lying there...

Most of the time I get my books at the library, but I also have another great supply. My mother will not be without a book. When I say she will not be without a book I mean the only thing she does without one in her hand is drive a car. She burns a book or newspaper at least twice a year because she sets them down near the stove while she cooks. She will not buy a purse that cannot hold a hardback and when we go on vacation she takes a suitcase just for books. She will not use the library because she really ruins a book when she reads them, not only does she sometimes set them alight but she drops them in the tub, breaks the spines by folding them back on themselves and gets them covered with food, hairdye, and anything else she touches all day.

She reads really fast so she buys books by volume not for subject. I've seen her just grab 10 books at random. History, gardening, cooking, fiction, best seller. Subjects that have nothing to do with each other.

Since no one has the room for that many books, she sends them home with my sister and I when we visit every week for Sunday dinner. She devides them into 3 piles. One for books I will like, one for my sister and one that we will both enjoy and have to trade off. I come home with at least 5 books a week. Sometimes she even assigns books to us on things we wouldn't normally read, then asks us questions about them later.

I buy few books in hardback, mostly favorite series. Those I purchase either on sale at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.com. However, I must say that B & N is on my "do not shop" list right now. The newest and nearest store had put books so high up one has to stand on a step stool to read the titles! Since my complaints have gone nowhere I have stopped frequenting the store.

I'll buy books at Half Price Book Store, especially if it is one that is out of print.

However, much of the time I rent books-on-tape, except now that I have an MP3 player I can download a book from the library and listen to them while quilting or doing anything that doesn't need attention while doing it. I also listen to them in the car while driving.

What would we do without used book stores?

Okay, I will be serious now. I use our public library a lot and also trade with friends and family. I learned a long time ago not to loan anything I considered a keeper to anyone but my closest friends who are also respecters of books. That's where my tongue-in-cheek comment about *stealing* came from.
We also have a great *gently used* bookstore downtown called the Ravens Nest. You can buy, trade, and also receive credits for freebies. Right now I have 23 credits, which doesn't sound like many, but will actually get me about 10 books and hardcovers at that if I want. I have no room left in this huge house for more (still doesn't stop me though), but taking them into the the store really helps me weed out my books that aren't in the *Must Keep* category. For financial reasons, I force myself to stay out of Barnes & Noble and Borders, but I do have a $75.00 Gift Card from Borders that I haven't used yet - amazing in itself.

If I buy a book, it's usually paperback and will be used to pass around with friends and family. I haven't gotten into the books on tape yet. If any of you have listened to them, do you like hearing books read aloud? I do drive on some rather long trips and have been thinking about buying some. Would love to know how others feel about books on tape (I guess CDs now, huh?).

We love books on CD for long trips, especially ones where we are familiar with the roads and scenery.(like the long trip from here in PA down to South Carolina, where our daughter is in college) It makes the trip go unbelievably faster. Our local library has a good selection of them, and sometimes we get them from Cracker Barrel, who has a $3.49/week rental program.
One thing to be careful of, though - audio books come in both abridged and unabridged versions. If our trip is long enough, we always try to get the unabridged. Sometimes the abridged ones just leave too much out!

Love books on tape, could not do without them. Fabulous for when you are doing your housework, driving, walking the dog...

CDs don't work as well for this as cassettes do, oddly enough. I keep my player in my pocket, and if I need to stop listening for any reason, I don't even need to see it in order to stop the cassette - it's the big button. I just put my hand in my pocket and there it is. Then when I want to start it up again, I am in exactly the same place I left off.
With a CD player, I have to haul it out and find the pause button. If I need to turn it off for a longer while, depending on which player I'm using, I have to remember where I was, or have the player automatically start up again on the next track. Now, listening to music, losing two minutes (or whatever) of a song is no big deal, and if you really want to hear it all, you just go back and start the track again. Listening to a story, though, well, missing two minutes means a lot, and going back to the start of the track means several minutes of listening to something I've already heard. CDs skip, too, if you are moving vigorously, and start acting up in stupid ways when the batteries are nearly dead.
I've reconciled myself to listening to books on CD because I haven't really got any choice - new books are only released on CD or MP3. It's great when I find something I want to hear available on cassette, though.

I get the majority of books I read from the public library. I normally only buy books that I absolutely love and must own. Usually I buy those from amazon.com or alibris.com (used). The only time I buy a new book is if I happen to be in the bookstore and just cannot resist the temptation.

My house, too, is overrun with books.

Some books I've had since high school and were purchased at B Dalton. I've still got a few history textbooks [ stuff like Only Yesterday and The American Political Tradition ] from that era, too. I liked them so much that I kept them. Most of the art conservation text books were my husband's, and were bought in D.C. during the 1970's.
I have a few brand new books, which I actually went to Barnes and Noble for in recent years, but it always seems like such luxury, and I feel vaguely guilty for days. There's a wonderful book warehouse here in town, with thousands of books in it. Generally, some obliging runner will look your selection up on the computer inventory and dash back to fetch it for you. I love this place and if you don't mind hosing down the pages with a bit of spray Lysol to areate and de-mold the pages - one can have a perfectly acceptable copy of most anything, for a dollar or two.
These days, this is where most of our books come from, and of course there's always the library.

Mostly the library, and actualy a lot of the time, I just read whatever I find in the house, from books that my dad has picked up from the library. I do buy books (or get them as gifts) of series' and authors I know I like, or if I just can't wait my turn to get it from the library (I'm like #178 on the waiting list currently for the new James Patterson book).

I don't have a lot of time for pleasurable reading during the school year though, so I read books that I've had to purchase for school. I've discovered some wonderful little bookstores in the city though, thanks to profs making me run all over town to get the required texts because they don't want to use the high-priced capitalist bookstore that the University owns.

The majority of my books come from yard sales and thrift shops. I have obtained some great books at these places, and usually for less than a dollar.

I also frequent the library. I like to request the titles I want on the library website and have them delivered to the branch closest to home. A wonderful service!

I sort of refer to all "listening" books as "books-on-tape" because that was all I used to get. As others have noted, many are on CD now. I did wind up having to reconcile to CDs where I have to keep my place noted. However, with my MP3 now it is much easier.

As to how I like listening to them, it does have a great deal to do with the reader. I particularly like George Guidall and Barbara Rosenblat. Some readers take a bit of getting used to, especially after having listened to 2 or 3 books who have the same reader. All in all, I love listening to books. Yet, I still read, at bedtime, waiting for the Dr., or whatever. So, I may wind up listening/reading to 3 books at a time.

I love keeping books after I read them so seldom get any from a library - they're usually bought brand new. Second hand will do if I can't find a particular book new. This system is not without its flaws - I recently did a clean up and put eight boxes of books away and they'll probably never see the light of day again.

i think I would lose track if I listened to a book - doesn't your mind wander at all when you listen to them? I'm sure mine would and I wouldn't ahve a clue where they were up to!

Well, Copago, that is why I do something mindless while I listen to them! (I *don't* want to hear any remarks about the lack of my mind.) Actually, while quilting, it is no problem listening to a book. Now if I was trying to balance the checkbook,..... one or the other would be waaay off.

I tend to get most of my books from the library and then, if I really enjoy the book, it goes on my 'to buy' list.
My mum's best friend is also a lover of the same kind of books as me, and occasionally she cleans out her book collection and gives me some.

My local library is a great place to get a book or two. I shop online for brand new books, and also can not be without my audio books! When I was younger, I used to love going in Charity shops and buying books too.

This cool online place called Edward R. Hamilton Booksellers. They are located in Falls Village, Connecticut. I also haunt the bargain book tables at Borders.

It isn't very often that I buy a new book, but when I do it's normally from a supermarket & reduced! A lot of my books come from charity shops or car boot sales. As it's rare for me to read a book more than once, I don't see the point in paying full price for it. I've also bought from the internet before but that's only for one I can't find elsewhere.
I have so many books that I ought to get rid of, but that's not as easy as it used to be because a lot of second-hand bookshops have disappeared so it's no longer possible to sell them on or trade them in. I shall have to set up my own stall at a car boot sale, but as I don't drive, it makes it kind of tricky!

I get my books from everywhere. I buy them new and used. I buy them online. I get a lot of them from library sales and "junktique" stores, yard sales and second hand stores. Currently I'm paying the price for my addiction. I'm moving and have to pack them all up. At last count (in 2001) I had over 7,000. That's a lot of boxes! Probably 10 to 20 percent of them are over a century old and have to be handled with some delicacy. I should be finished packing by the next millenium.

I buy all my books online or 90% of them online due to reading mostly in english and the local bookstore or library don't have to books I want to read. Which means I spend way to much money on books during a year as they are all new except for those I buy on ebay.

Frøya ,hi! Where have you been? You were missed!

Hi ren I've been studying and working, and during the summer holidays I've been working on a ship without much time online