Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

I try to spread my dollars around, and I try not to buy online except as a last resort.  People forget (or don’t care) that when you’re not shopping in your own town you’re removing money from your local economy, money needed for salaries, taxes for roads, taxes to support your public library, etc.

So I prioritize:  I spend first at my local independent bookstore, Goerings Books(http://www.goerings.com).  In addition to having the best trained bookselling staff, Goerings hosts local authors for booksignings and readings, even small press authors like Darlene Marshall.

However, Goerings isn’t big on mass market romance, so for that I shop at Borders, Waldenbooks and Books-A-Million, again patronizing my local bricks-and-mortar store.  All three stores discount if you have a membership card, so it’s worth my while to shop there.

My third place is Target, ‘cause they also discount books.  And I luuuuurve Target. I just wish they had a bigger books area.

The only books I buy online anymore are used books and ebook downloads.

I shop the public library first—we’re really blessed where I live & have a great library system and the reserve lists tend to move quickly—

Having said that, RANT WARNING...my pet peeve is people who take out a popular book, know there is a huge reserve list waiting for it & still keep it out until the very day it’s due even when they brought it home & read it that very night and it’s just going to sit untouched on the shelf for the next two weeks—if you’re *done* with it, show some class & drop it off so the next person can have a turn.  There’s usually even a book drop in case you get there after the library closes.  Rant off.  :-)

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, if I strike out at the library, I usually do some version of the following…

1) check to see if my local UBS has it
2) check w/my mother-in-law.  She tends to buy everything & is kind enough to share, though sometimes I feel guilty because it tends to take me a while to read the things she loans me
3) check online places like ebay, half.com, amazon, bn.com
4) check the big box stores in the area

I tend to avoid most of the other places because of the lack of inventory.

If I find something I know I really want to read I buy it & put it in my TBR pile, which right now is so huge I think I could go a year or so & get all my reading from books already in the house, but that wouldn’t be much fun now, would it?  :-)

Being a librarian, I shop at the library first too—and may I just say that contrary to popular opinion, staff don’t get first crack at the bestsellers. Dammit.

After that, UBS or the local independent bookstore (which just opened a branch in NYC if any Bitches thereabouts want to check it out).

Speaking of which, I was in there yesterday spending a gift certificate and counted FIVE shelves of nothing but Nora. Holy moly.

I really really try to keep my book buying money in town, but the lure and availability of used books is strong for me.  My husband has a spiff credit card (’points’ put on it for his sales at his business) which works at Borders, that is pretty freaking awesome.  Nothing like dropping a hundred guilt free dollars (points!  tax free points!) on books every month or so.  Also I have a local used bookstore where I have credit which takes about half the price off of whatever I’m buying.  I have to admit though, if it’s more than 5 years old, I probably hit amazon, ebay or half.com for a used copy, since the used bookstore with good stock is all the way across my enormous sprawl of a city. 

I’m also defintely trying to order books from up and coming authors at Borders instead of hitting amazon.  It takes a little longer, but I feel less guilty.

I have to buy anything online since the only American books that get here are from Danielle Steel and some Noras that I already bought in e-book format.
Love to buy on powells.com, since the shipping to Mexico is free for orders above $50.

Trudi

Now I feel all guilty--I buy pretty much all my books online now, mostly from Barnes & Noble and Buy.com. 

I’ve got an excuse, though--I’m an American in Germany, English language books in German bookstores are hideously expensive (and there’s not a huge selection), and while the BX has an okay selection for the size, it takes them forever to get new books in, and I need my must-buys now!

I go to WalMart, Barnes and Noble and 2 used bookstores we have here.  One of them takes books in trade, which works well.  I also go to half.com a lot.  I can buy a book in good condition for 75 cents and if it costs 2.00 to get it mailed to me, I’m still getting it cheap.  I don’t use the libraries here because they suck.  My local Target’s book section looks like a bomb dropped in the middle of it.  It’s just sad and if Wally World can have a decent books section why can’t they?

I spread my money around as well. I buy most of my hardcovers at Amazon, cause 35% off or more? A deal.

Mass market big names are usually purchased at Target, they don’t have a huuuge selection, but it is guaranteed they will have the newest Roberts, Kleypas, Quinn, etc.

Anything else is usually purchased at Borders. And now that they have the new Borders Rewards card (for free!!!)—I am sold. I always have at least one 25% off coupon which I use for any trade papaerbacks I want, and then when I buy it, I get a free coupon for the next weekend for another 25% off one item. I may have to buy them one at a time, but it is a big money saver on expensive trade paperbacks that I *have* to have. All midlist mass markets I want are usually bought there as well, and I do special order through the store, if necessary.

Where I currently live, used bookstores are few and far between, as well as majorly crappy, but when I go visit family in Southern California, I always make the rounds—within an hour of my parents’ house there are 3, yes 3, primarily romance used bookstores. That’s where I buy my hard to finds.

I don’t buy a lot of romance so the local chain store, Chapters, serves those needs quite well. They always have Shannon McKenna, Holly and Kleypas stocked.

For new hardcovers I shop online because they’re so so much cheaper there and I like free shipping. For all the rest I spread it more or less evenly among the local chain and independent and the few used stores we have here. Oh and BookCloseOuts website which always has a swell inventory of remainders. For scholarly texts I borrow from my on-campus library; if I like ‘em a lot I buy it from my local independent. Unless it’s science, then it’s Chapters, which typically has a more robust and varied science stock.

(I buy a lot of books. Damn. The store clerks like to joke that I single-handedly keep them from starvation/working at Chapters (depending on which store I’m at). Heh.)

I’m primarily a SF/F buyer, and I go to Borders to buy books—or just pick them up online. There’s generally a huge selection of speculative fiction, even at smaller outlets like the Borders Express in the mall.

I go to different book stores for different things. 

Olssen’s is good for literary fiction and non-fiction but has a pathetic romance/popular fiction selection.  Politics and Prose is good for history and other nonfiction. 

The UBS in Silver Spring is a long drive away from my home, but only a few Metro stops away from the office, and is very romance friendly.  My problem is getting there regularly.

I lurve the Borders in Columbia, because their romance section is pretty diverse, if not huge.  Still, they’ve got a good selection.  Plus they have a very good selection of fantasy, and a lot of the Luna releases are shelved there, adding to the potential haul.  They stock all of the Harlequin series lines, but are a little slow about changing over at the end of the month.  The staff are good about tracking street dates, too, so new releases are shelved on the official release date. 

I have a love-hate relationship with the B.Dalton at the train station, which I mentioned in a blog over the weekend.  They are kind of bipolar when it comes to romance.  Lots of NYT Best Seller popular fiction and lots of political stuff, loads of magazines.  Romance is iffy.  New stuff often doesn’t appear until a week or two after the street date, midlist authors are pretty much nonexistent on the shelves after whatever the initial order (3 copies? 5?) have been sold.  Usually only go in there when I’ve forgotten my commute book or finished it earlier than anticipated.

The new/used bookstore in my neighborhood—I seldom patronize it since it changed hands, because romance is not a genre the new owners are interested in.  Sci-fi and fantasy are acceptable, but no romance unless it is Nora Roberts or Jayne Ann Krentz. 

The B&N near me – in the middle of a tourist trap, so I avoid it.  No parking, but a nice walk.  A lot of tourists use it as a place to hang while waiting for reservations or the next tour of the aquarium or just to get out of the heat and humidity in the summer, which leads to overcrowding.  The book selection is very much geared toward impulse purchases for tourists.

The Target nearest my home is good for category/series books, but only early in the month, because they don’t restock.  Otherwise, their romance selection is not impressive – some scattered Julia Quinn and Nora Robert books.  It carries a considerably larger YA selection, a mix of self help, women’s fiction and other popular fiction.

My local library is pretty good for books to check out and books to buy.  Paperback sell for $0.25 each, some of which are donated and some of which are library discards.  Found four new releases for $1.00 last month, including the new Kleypas and Stuart releases. 

Online, I buy used at a couple of independent UBS sites.  Mostly Romance is good, and the owner (I want to say SandyC but that may not be correct) will track down books that you are trying to find based on descriptions if you don’t have a title.  Amazon is my last resort for new books usually; in part I like to give bricks and mortar stores my business, but it also comes down to browse-ability.  I like to hold the book in my hands and flip through the first chapter, and the Look Inside feature online is just not the same.  I’ve also relatively recently started using Paperbackswap.com and participating in a Yahoo swap group.

Sorry for the book-length post. I didn’t realize that I had that much to say about the local book shopping.

I shop around at Amazon, then special order from my local independent bookstore.  Unless I want to buy used, in which case I usually have no choice but Amazon.  The town I grew up in had a whole mass-market paperback bookstore, but I haven’t seen one of those in Seattle.

Once upon a time, when I had access to the NYPL, I was a library shopper, buy a book, hah!!  Then I left and went to Ohio, we will not speak of that horror.  Now I am in Phoenix and I don’t even know where the local library is.  Where I buy is determined by how far it is from home/work and what is easily available.

I am generally a Borders/B&N kinda girl, but recently, I think mostly due to work, and well, the cheap shipping at Amazon, I have been a big online shopper.  I can plot out my book purchases for a good 4 to 5 months and even better they have the manga that I also like.

I love the convenience of online shopping, even though I can’t find an excerpt, it makes the autobuy authors easier.  I save the new and experimental for the bricks and morta stores.

But there is nothing that gives me the same high as hitting the bookstore on a random day and finding that book you didn’t realize was out and grabbing the last copy of it.  Or mebbe, that’s just me?

I shop anywhere and everywhere that has books; drugstores, grocery stores, online, UBS, box stores, Walmart, Costco ... and the list goes on. If I’m there, I’m checking for books.

If I stick to the big box store (the only one we have in this small city), I notice they basically stock top romance listings, with a small selection of authors in romance. I think we’ve got five bookshelves total for romance. Very little to choose from that I don’t already have or have already passed over.

Walmart, Costco and the grocery/drug stores I find basically stock bigger names and any Harlequin group - but only new releases.

You guys made Bookslut a few weeks ago with the whole Napoli thing. It’s pretty awesome to see a romance site quoted at litblogs.

Countess of Barre-Becking

My favorite bookstore is the local UBS, but I haven’t been able to find much there lately.

I used to do a lot of trades on some Yahoo Groups, but now I trade on PaperBack Swap and a science fiction and fantasy trade site.

I buy books from half.com occasionally, but with rising shipping costs and half.com now being an ebay company, I don’t buy books on there nearly as much as I used to. 

Sometimes I go to an SFF specialty store, but their used book prices are pretty high for books in pretty bad condition, so I only go there if I’m desperate for a book.  Occasionally, they will still have out of print books on the new book shelves though so I’ve been able to get several hard to find books for new book prices rather than the OOP prices they charge for used books.

Lately, I’ve been using Borders coupons and now their Rewards program to buy a few new books per month.  I get all of my manga there because with a coupon, it’s the same price as a mass market pb.

I usually buy Julia Quinn’s books at Target, but I haven’t been able to find any of my other favorite authors there.

I also have a library habit and I have to force myself not to get tons of books from the local library and other libraries in the system so I can read my own books first.  It’s very difficult now that I work at the library though.

Finally, I get free ebooks from Project Gutenberg and Baen Free Library.

E.D’Trix - I got on the Borders mailing list and I get coupons every week for 10-25% without joining their rewards card.  I don’t see the appeal of their card.  From what I can determine, you get one day each month where you get a discount if you spend $50.00 worth.  I’m not organized enough to plan ahead. I really have never gotten a good explanation of why I should get their card.  At first I was told it was a credit card. Every employee tells me something different.

I do belong to the the B&N card and have for years.  It is 25.00 a year but I get 10-15% off everyday and it is good discounts for their coffee and desserts as well.

Due to my location (’burbs of DC) I’m primarily stuck with the big box bookstores. There is one good, local UBS that has a reasonable selection of romances. As a result, I hunt for books wherever I am- supermarket, Wally World, Target, wherever.

For hard to find midlisters I usually order from Amazon. OOPs wherever I find the best deal.

I spend a healthy amount monthly, despite pretending I’m on a budget, and I can be cheap because it allows me to buy more books.

Since I don’t really have the space for more books, I do Booksfree now.  If there’s a particular book I want, it’s usually off to the nearest bookstore.  I get some books from Amazon, but I always want the instant gratification. 

(Oh, by the way, this is my first comment!)

I read alot, which unfortunately means I buy alot.  Mostly familiar authors, and I know which have new titles coming (sooo easy to track on-line).  Unfamiliar authors are checked out of library so as not to waste good book money. 

Local book purchases are usually Borders or Barnes & Noble (Somebody @ BN doesn’t know what a lay-down date is and new publications are often available early). Smaller stores have less selection and I have usually read the good ones before they show up on these shelves.

Less mainstream publishers I buy at Borders/Amazon on-line (Amy Lane, etc.), and the occasional e-book (Jory Strong, Allyson James...) And always watch SB for new recommendations!!!

I love my independent. She’s put me onto several authors I wouldn’t have found without her. I’ll go on line to shop for gifts (then I don’t have to worry about getting it into the mail) otherwise I like to get my hands on em!

Bookpeople, Austin TX. Voted best independent bookstore by a Bunch of Important People. And I love it too. There is also a store in Austin called Book Woman, a feminist bookstore...it’s pretty good too.

Amazon, powells, alibris...and all the online shops. You can find whatever you want, in stock, at all times. And you don’t have to look all over the store for it...’is it biography, nonfiction, women’s studies...grrr I’ll just get it on amazon’

I like Half Price Books too for out of print and the weird/wacky. And I also go to little used book shops here and there. Those used book shops seem to go out of business really fast.

I do go to Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc because I am a book junkie and will get my crack wherever I can. Though they never seem to have what I want.

If it is not a new release I usually hit eBay.  Most of the time I end up spending more on shipping than on the actual book, but even then I generally total less than $3 for a paperback book. 

If it is a new release I usually end up getting it at Walmart because that is where I do my grocery shopping so I am in there at least twice a week anyway.  It is physically impossible for me not to browse through the book dept. when I am there and they also usually have the new releases on the shelves a few days earlier so that is the first place I see it.

My favorite way to kill an afternoon is to go to B&N, get something highly caffinated from Starbucks and just wander aimlessly for hours.  Since those visits usually end up being pretty expensive I can only do it two or three times a year.  My whole family knows that for all gift giving occasions my favorite gift to recieve is a B&N gift card.

I actually love the whole experience of shopping in a great bookstore packed with wonderful books because I can wonder around and maybe pick up new authors who might not necessarily have got much buzz. There’s a specialist romance/fantasy bookstore in NZ I love for that very reason.

But because like Darla, I’m currently in a non-English speaking country, I buy online a lot. I shudder to think what I would’ve done before the internet.

Um, obviously I meant “wander” though “wandering around wondering” is also good.

There are no bookstores whatsoever in my hometown. And the library--well, they do usually get some of the big name authors’ latest hardbacks in, but generally, I’m the one supplying their shelves, because if it’s one I think I might want to read again, but I’m not sure, I donate it to the library and let them put it on Their shelves…

Once a week, though, I drive in to Amarillo, where there is a Barnes & Noble, and two Hastings stores, plus a couple of used bookstores. One of them specializes in romance--I found a couple of brand-new-to-me early Jayne Ann Krentz’s--the other has a fair bit of romance but a whole lot of other stuff. I tend to buy online from BN.com only when I can’t find the books in the store in the “big city,” generally when it’s something that’s been recommended here or at Romance Readers’ Anonymous.

I’m all about Half Price Books, though I used to love the UBS in my old hometown (Burleson, TX)--they had a huge romance section, and lots for like 50 cents.  I shop through Amazon to find titles to look for in real stores, because I can’t usually justify spending $3.49/book on shipping.  Going to have to look at eBay or half.com now, thanks to some previous commenters.  Also need to find the library around here now that I have a working caragain…

I work at the library here in town so I buy my non-romance with my employee discount.  I’ve tried to limit my purchase of new books to autobuys and those that I MUST READ NOW (then don’t) and get everything else from the library. They’re really good about stocking romance. Most months I can also get some of the previous month’s new releases at the Friends sale.  I’ve been spoiled by my library and hate the thought of one day living where the library won’t be as good.

There’s a really great UBS here as well and I buy the bulk of my romance there, they offer a 20% discount on new books.

I pick books up at Meijer on occasion, especially if I know the UBS has already sold out. Sometimes I go to HalfPrice books and that’s where I bust out the credit card instead of the checkbook.

I have a couple favorite bookstores that I haunt.
They stock the authors and subgenres I like (I’m a Regency fan).
I also like to shop when I travel.
Last time I was in England, I went crazy at the bookstores there, grabbing up all the harder to find in North America titles and authors.
I was shopping blind there (as some of the authors were unfamiliar to me) but wow, did I discover some gems!

Living on a writer’s income, I get most of my books from the library.  They have an interlibrary loan system, so I can request pretty much whatever I want online and pick it up at my local branch. 

I used to feel guilty for not paying for most of my books, but:

1) If I really love a book I’ve borrowed, I’ll often buy it, usually from the indie store across the street from the library (they’re small, but they’ll order anything), because God forbid I leave my Habitrail and actually DRIVE somewhere else. 
2) Checking out a book makes it more likely the librarians will order that author’s next book, or maybe even more copies of that current book.
3) I tell everyone I know, including my blog readers, about books I’ve loved.

I calculated that last year, if I had paid retail for all the books I checked out, it would have equaled our property tax payment.  So the way I see it, I got a year’s worth of free fire department and police services.

I never buy hardcovers. Although if I just can’t wait for the paperback to be released I will shop at the local library first as well.

I have never really brought a book online other than at http://www.trademe.co.nz which a New Zealand version of ebay.  I have purchased a couple of e-books if that counts.

I pretty much spend my hard earned cash at a local specialty scfi/romance bookstore called Barbara’s Books. I and some friends of mine call Barbara the store owner our “pusher” as she always has what we want and need. LOL

I’m blessed to be in the Bay Area. First crack is ALWAYS the fabulous STACY’S in downtown San Francisco. It’s a big independent with a huge selection of every genre out there. They almost never let me down and I feel good about shopping there.

If they don’t have the book I want, I pop around the corner to ALEXANDER’S, another independent (good for everything but romance).

For romance I usually buy from an independent store about 20 minutes south of me (in Newark) called BookEnds. They specialize in romance and pretty much ALWAYS have what I want.

If I’m desperate, I’ll go to B&N or order from Amazon.

A short PSA

Jeri said: Checking out a book makes it more likely the librarians will order that author’s next book, or maybe even more copies of that current book

She’s absolutely right. Hint: librarians hate to have incomplete series on the shelf, so if you donate one of a series you’ve made its sequels more likely to be purchased.

Also, most libraries are more than happy to hear recommendations from patrons—we want to know what appeals to our users, after all! So look for a form (electronic on the library’s website or on paper in branches) that you can fill out, or ask library staff how to suggest books.

p.s. In many countries (including Canada & the UK) authors receive small royalty payments based on how many copies of their books are in libraries. It’s called the public lending right, and I’ve never understood why it doesn’t exist in the States.

Nobody’s mentioned abebooks.com or the book grabs at RWA nationals—two of my favorite places to stock up on reading material.

Someone mentioned Bookpeople and Book Woman in Austin, TX. LOVE those places. Anyone visiting Austin should consider stopping in there—my first trip to Book Woman, I dropped *hundreds* and ended up with enough titles to fill about a foot and a half of shelf space.

I buy books everywhere. Buy, rent, trade, whatever. Today I’m going to the mall bookstore to buy the Crusie/Mayer release ... finally.

I feel no guilt whatsoever that I’m dodging local sales tax by ordering online. If my local government needs that 9% sales tax that badly, maybe they should take a look at their spending.

Library first, but if I want to buy the book, I either go to my local Chapters or buy from Amazon. It’s about 50-50.

The way I see it, I’ve spent hundreds of hours enjoying the browsing in my local Chapters, and I’ve spent hundreds of hours browsing Amazon, finding books I can’t get anywhere else. The nice atmosphere at Chapters costs money, and just because Amazon is a website doesn’t mean it’s cheap to maintain. I give back to both businesses by buying from them.

I’ve sort of stopped shopping at the UBS, since I’m aware of author royalties. No dissing those who shop there, though - a budget is a budget, and UBS’s need biz too.

I use the library first since I also work in one. Unfortunately, our director doesn’t think much of romances so we have to depend on donations for most of them. I agree with the importance of helping out your own community, but the only place in town that sells books is a tiny section in Wal-mart. Since being able to browse is half the fun I drive about an hour to Books-a-Million at least once a month and have a day of sheer bliss. If I absolutely cannot find a book anywhere then I order it online.