/lit/ - Literature

[Zeeburg No.5400480]

>not buying books from your local bookstore
>ordering them online from amazon
>not wanting to support small business

[Anonymous No.5400493]

>>5400480
You don't know what I do, so stop being judgmental.

[Anonymous No.5400495]

I'm pretty sure my local bookstore is just ripping off my /lit/ recommendations. I should start recommending things I'm not currently in possession of as this might function as a pre-order service, you're right OP.

[Anonymous No.5400500]

>>5400480
>not buying them from Barnes and Noble
>not supporting the last bookstore chain
I'm not going through my Borders crisis again, you fuck.

[Anonymous No.5400505]

>>5400480
>Not using Abebooks

I thought everyone on /lit/ used it? They're always such nice people.

[Anonymous No.5400510]

I don't get the buy "small business" "locally" type marketing. Capitalism doesn't care about national boundaries or inexperience. Why should I waste more money?

[Anonymous No.5400513]

the "literary" book store is 30 minutes away, fuck that

[Anonymous No.5400517]

>>5400510
Because building up your local businesses builds up your local economy.

[Anonymous No.5400523]

>>5400517
but the inconvenience weakens my personal economy
also the return from the local economy is unreliable

[Anonymous No.5400533]

>>5400523
But the that money isn't returning to you, if you use it on your local circle it will eventually return to you in the form of better service or just payments done to you.
For example, the used books store could buy your books or they could hire you to move heavy stuff or they could do those things with someone who would in turn pay you for something else. Once the capital leaves your circle it only reduces to total economic potential of that space until it's return through Bill Gates buying gum in you local drugstore or something.

[Anonymous No.5400556]

>>5400533
not the anon youre replying to but

they'd buy my books without me buying their books anyway

its very unlikely that me buying books from the local bookstore would increase their revenue to such a degree that they'd need to hire new staff. even if that happened, they wouldn't be hiring me, since i have little experience.

>once the capital leaves your circle it only reduces the total economic potential of that space

and once the extra capital i didn't have to spend leaves my pocket my personal economic potential is reduced. i dont live anywhere with a good local book store or used book store. if i spent retail on books i'd be spending at least 8 times as much money as from an online source

[Anonymous No.5400566]

>>5400517
What does my local economy matter though in a globalized world?

[Anonymous No.5400578]

>>5400556
If people spent their money localy someone would consider putting a bookstore and it would reduce individual costs and open the chance for local writers to share their works in the community.

I mean, not really, maybe. It's purely theoretical and stuff.

[Anonymous No.5400584]

>>5400566
Because the local will always be the source of your personal income and quality of life. The global market only helps the people in control of it who re invest in their local areas, that's how you get Beverly Hills or Silicon valley.

[Anonymous No.5400598]

amazon delivers to my door

[Anonymous No.5400602]

>>5400598
So do the kids with burning paper bags full of shit.
It's nice to go out, make some vitamin D, meet people.

[Anonymous No.5400608]

>go to local bookstore
>no philosophy
>no poetry
>85% bestsellers
>15% random bullshit

[Anonymous No.5400623]

>>5400608
>buy outside
>only kids and people who want to read some crap buy
>sell the things people buy
>hurr durr, why isn't there material for people who don't buy shit like me
Nice way to fuck the kids that don't know what they want so they buy what they find. Do you at least ask if they bring books you order?

[Anonymous No.5400627]

>Buying books

[Anonymous No.5400638]

My local bookstore is 8 km away and only has bestsellers.

[Anonymous No.5400643]

>>5400638
How is that local?

[Anonymous No.5400648]

>>5400623
i had more trouble reading this post than i did reading Chaucer

[Anonymous No.5400649]

>>5400643
It's the closest one from where I live.

[Anonymous No.5400667]

>>5400602
>It's nice to go out, make some vitamin D, meet people.

[Anonymous No.5400718]

Are you french op?

[Anonymous No.5400723]

>>5400602
>It's nice to go out, make some vitamin D, meet people.
>4chan

[The cats No.5400742]

>>5400723
>That guy who pretends it's 2006 at every opportunity

[Anonymous No.5400763]

>>5400742
time stopped in 2006 and i love anime and mudkips and tom green is cool desu

[Zeeburg No.5400785]

>>5400718
No, m8

[Anonymous No.5400950]

Well I live in a small country and I prefer English books, they never have anything interesting at all.

But it does bother me that Amazon owns Abebooks and bookdepository.
Tips of some good bookshops not owned by Amazon would be nice.

[Anonymous No.5401010]

>>5400480
>buying from price minister
>I'm buying FROM small businesses

[Anonymous No.5402784]

>>5400500
>be me with another paycheck
>gonna buy philosophy and books of interests
>'philosophy' section
>Marx, Of Bullshit, 30 "Philosophy of some Shitty Show", Religious philosophy
>well fuck this
>want books on far-right ideology to understand their views
>Offered Ann Frank, Mein Kampf with commentary by Mr.Sheklesberg, Why Republics are Stupid, and Remember the 6 Gorzillion.
>"Do you offer The Doctrine of Fascism?"
>liberal scum looks at me and pretends to look
>hear her mumble something about nazis.

Fuck Barnes and Noble

[Anonymous No.5402789]

>>5400608

>tfw the new-age/parapsychology section is bigger than the poetry and philosophy sections combined

fuck bookstores

[Anonymous No.5402790]

>>5400763
tom green is a fat nigger

hey guys let's go play gaia online and go FISHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

habbo

[Anonymous No.5402793]

>>5402789

capitalism is ghey

[Anonymous No.5402794]

>>5400480
>local bookstore buys from amazon


NOW WHAT OP

[Anonymous No.5402796]

>travel twenty miles to local bookstore
>hey do you have ________?
>nope.
>how about _____?
>nope.
>_____, _____, or _____?
>nope.
>thanks.

[Anonymous No.5402800]

>>5402784
Sounds like you've got a persecution complex.

[Anonymous No.5402807]

>>5402796
>local bookstore is shit because nobody goes there
>they only buy best sellers and shit like that
>even less people go there
>bookstore becomes even worse
>rinse + repeat

[Anonymous No.5402808]

>>5402800
don't care to be honest. Can never find anything there. Better just ordering books online, downloading the books,o r if you live in a town with about eight antique stores as I do then buy old books.

[Anonymous No.5402809]

>>5400480
because i dont have a local bookstore.

and the only that i know are a bunch of pretentious assholes, they always talk about shit authors like that bandana wearing guy.. what is his names? ah yes that fucking pynchon, fuck the store has a awful name "/lit/" what kind of retard names a bookstore that? why not? /dicks/?

Fucking fucks.

[Anonymous No.5402810]

>mfw people still buy physical books

[Anonymous No.5402840]

>>5400513
30 minutes? Are you shitting me?

[Anonymous No.5402845]

>>5400638
>8 km away
city boys thinking this is far

[Anonymous No.5402848]

>>5402845
>Country boys thinking they're better than city boys

Do you know city boys walk more than country boys? You're all fat retards.

[Anonymous No.5402854]

>>5402848
>Do you know city boys walk
To the nearest mcdonald's.

[Anonymous No.5402855]

>>5402796
Expand your horizons son.

[Anonymous No.5402860]

>>5402854
And country boys hit the drive thru

[Anonymous No.5402861]

>>5402789
god, this.
My friend and I used to look at spellbooks in that bullshit section for fun. We're basically master wizards now

[Anonymous No.5402863]

>>5402860
With a bat.

[Anonymous No.5402866]

>>5400608
>be foreign student in france
>not as good in french as to read french literature without having to spend huge amounts of time on a book
>want to buy some books in english
>go to the english section of a huge book chain store
>only stephen king and grrm, and other best sellers
>fuck this shit

[Anonymous No.5402867]

>>5402863
http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2012/09/obesity-higher-in-rural-america-than-in-urban-parts-of-the-country-uf-researchers-colleagues-find.html

Stay fat, cletus.

[Anonymous No.5402876]

>>5402867
>in-rural-america
>america
>my problem
lel
enjoy your bible belt

[Anonymous No.5402883]

>>5402876
Where do you live then friend?

[Anonymous No.5402904]

>>5400480
>local bookstore
T-thanks for reminding me that my town is too small for anything but a so-so local library...

[Anonymous No.5402908]

>>5402883
>being the only person on /lit/ who hasn't moved to northern Italy so they can walk around the hills all day and think deep thoughts

I bet you don't even cosplay as Nietzsche.

[Anonymous No.5402912]

>>5402908
lel, ruralfags in Italy are more obese than those in Urban Italy:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17942006

Though putting aside the contrived feud, it sounds wonderful. Show me some pictures of your hills.

[Anonymous No.5402923]

>being inefficient on pourpose

[Anonymous No.5402942]

>>5402855
My horizons are too broad.

[Anonymous No.5402964]

>>5400480
fuck business
pirate everything
mincome now

[Anonymous No.5403018]

If I support a business, it's because I like their business practices and the items they sell.

I'm not going to mindlessly support some shitty bookstore run by a cantankerous goon just because it is a "small business" local bookstore. It has to sell what I want, how I want.

Sorry, pal.

[Anonymous No.5403029]

>>5400480
my local bookshop is a Waterstones which are shit

although there is a Oxfam which is god-tier

[Anonymous No.5403055]

>implying personal choices make a difference

[Anonymous No.5403056]

>>5403018
Hey, quit being reasonable will ya? That shit's not allowed in these parts, ya know?

[Anonymous No.5403069]

I occasionally help out local bookstores but I mostly buy from Amazon. Shrug. I'll buy stuff at festivals, readings, or if I want some weird poetry I go to SPD. I guess, some of the indie publishers I've checked out are direct purchase on their site only so I've done that every now and again too. I just feel a little duped when the stores don't really offer anything. Barnes and Noble tends to suck. Their employees typically know anything about the books I'm interested in (international fiction, contemporary poetry, etc.) and they often don't carry what I'm looking for. Plus they don't host any readings in my area so I'm at a loss. Some of the independent book stores I can get behind but out in the suburbs my choices are a little limited.

[Anonymous No.5403147]

>>5400480
I buy most of my books from the Amazon marketplace. Mostly used stuff, and a lot of it comes from Goodwill.

[Anonymous No.5403297]

my nearest bookstore is a kinokuniya. i think they're doing well financially anyway but i like to buy from shops because i can actually browse the shelves (and pick out a copy of a book which isn't horrendously dog eared like it would be from amazon)

[Anonymous No.5403398]

I try, but they either don't have the books I look for, or charge a higher price than it could cost me to import them.

Stll, I normally go once every moth to see if they have anything new that oculd interest me, and one of two times I end buying something from them.

The real problem there is that there's not enough of a market for them to bring a greater number of titles, and is always just whats popular and sure to sell what ends in their catalogue.

[Anonymous No.5403437]

>>5400480
Small businesses are just capitalist exploiters with a happy face while they strike their blows against the worker with their artisan grass-fed leather whips.

[The cats No.5403445]

>>5403069
>"Shrug"
>"International fiction"
>Contemporary poetry

[Anonymous No.5403446]

>>5400480

Ah, the "local bookshop". Aside from some half decent used booksellers, that would be a choice among (1) large national chain of general bookshops very popular fiction heavy, (2) one of two chains selling mainly popular fiction at full and discount rates, (3) smaller chain essentially trying to be #1, (4) ubiquitous national chain of newsagent-stationers with mediocre book section selling popular fiction and similar, (5) educational booksellers stocking little or nothing but set books. I order online (not from Amazon; sometimes from chain #1) because otherwise, I am not going to find the things I want: in one recent case, I went to every bricks and mortar bookshop in a wide radius, and still ended up ordering the two volumes I was missing from a popular detective series, because not one of these shops stocked them.

[Anonymous No.5403462]

>>5403446
Used bookstores are really where it's at.

[Anonymous No.5403473]

why would I buy books when they are already free provided by a local library? if my tax dollars pay for books, then I am morally justified in downloading them from pirate bay and reading them on my kindle. fuck book stores, fuck amazon and fuck all you pithy wannabe posers who think a book shelf makes you well read

[Anonymous No.5403488]

>>5403473
I take books out from the library, but I also buy books when I want to own them, like reference books, favorite novels, or books I will reread. I never buy them new though, I get them "used", which often just means someone bought them and never read them.

I agree with you on the library point though, most people vastly under utilize them.

[Anonymous No.5403508]

>>5403462

I often get better, more interesting stuff from browsing used bookshops and charity sales, than I do from any local bookshop selling new books.

[Anonymous No.5403520]

>>5403508
Near why I live, every year this church has a bag sale, where it's a paper bag like you'd use from the supermarket full of books for $1. I'll spend $5 and get about a hundred great books. It's a wonderful thing. I'll get some trash books too, because hey, the price doesn't change. Man, I can't wait for that sale this year.

[Anonymous No.5403537]

>>5402789
god yes
this >>5402793

>>5402807
No, they eventually close and go work at borders. Borders takes all the money and spends it in new york and usa goes forward and forward while you can0t find a job.

>>5402866
It's just as bad when you want to read any author in the original language and your country doesn't match it.

[Anonymous No.5403541]

>>5403537
>It's just as bad when you want to read any author in the original language and your country doesn't match it.

Do you people not have libraries?

[Anonymous No.5403578]

>>5403541
My college library doesn't really care for /lit/'s flavor of the week and prefers to compensate with theoretical books that help on the subjects of the classes.
As far as I know there isn't a big state library outside of college related ones in thsi city.

[Anonymous No.5403583]

>>5403578
Check if your college library participates in national book lending. Most libraries do. You can have titles shipped to your library under the guise of doing "research" and then read it to your heart's content.

[Anonymous No.5403587]

I don't have a local bookstore besides B&N.

[Anonymous No.5403635]

>>5403583
I'll google in the morning. Do I check for national book lending?
What's the deal, like exchange students but books? Is it more money laundering? spoiler: it always is

[Anonymous No.5403651]

>>5403635
Don't google, ask your school librarian. It'll save you a lot of time. >You can get drugs shipped in books<

[Anonymous No.5403657]

>>5403651
Now I'm double interested, do i google for that too?

[Anonymous No.5403663]

>>5403657
Just give your research librarian the sign "Red Cheetahs Howl in the Night", then wait for the counter-sign. It should be "Flamingos in Taiwan Fuck with the Lights On".

[Anonymous No.5403679]

>>5403541

Public libraries are under pressure pretty much everywhere: the publishers do not like them, because they see them as lost sales; the politicians see them as easily cuttable. In some places, they have been underresourced and poorly managed for decades. Depending on your reading interests, you may require a more specialized library, such as a university, but in some places those - even if publically funded - do not necessarily grant access, let alone lending, rights to the public. If you have a library system that satisfies your reading requirements, then you are fortunate, but rare.

[Anonymous No.5403689]

>>5403679
Fair enough. It's really too bad it's happening. If I ever come into any money in my life, I think I'll put a lot of it towards libraries.

[tfwnoemailfieldanymore;_; No.5403697]

>Implying local book shops exist
Barns and Nobel is the only one within 50miles of me.

[Anonymous No.5403698]

>Going to a used bookstore this week
>Know that they have the book I want in stock
>Your money is going to help people you like
Damn, this feels comfy

[Anonymous No.5403721]

I do buy from bookstores, but given the amount of time you spend hoking around for anything worth buying you always notice stuff about the shop. One thing I've found out about Waterstones is that the history section is completely out of order.

For example it's 75% British history despite the British population in this city being practically nil, yet the Irish history section is a tiny shelf in the corner despite it being relatively well sized at Easons. And it's only gotten worse since they've merged history and politics so now it's really disorganized too. But politics was a shit section to begin with so it's okay.

Another thing is how lazily it's organized, the worst offender for lazy organization being the fiction section. There's no need for a massive unsorted monolith taking up multiple walls just as one "fiction" section, and how much hassle it is to scan every shelf to see what there is worth reading just puts you off reading fiction.

[Anonymous No.5403731]

>>5403663
Will do! Thanks a lot mate!

[Anonymous No.5403736]

>>5403721
Oh, but that history thing isn't a problem, it's planned passive indoctrination. Hope you like it, it's a gift.

[Anonymous No.5403742]

>>5403721

This. I've said often that a bookshop doesn't have to be huge to be interesting: small, well and thoughtfully managed, shops can have good and interesting stocks; massive ones can be deadly dull (which was the death knell for a chain that started up here in the 1990s, and pretty soon was bought by the now largest chain: they had massive floorspace, but nothing to justify it).

[Anonymous No.5403864]

>paying twice as much because you somehow believe small business is better than big business

[Anonymous No.5403880]

>>5403864
>paying more for what you believe
I know, its weird but supposedly that's the good thing of capitalism.

[Anonymous No.5403983]

>>5403864
Small businesses are, in both theory and practice, more responsive to the needs/wants of the consumer.

It's why Netflix killed Blockbuster and Samsung ate Sony's lunch. Big businesses almost never stay on top for long.

[Anonymous No.5403996]

> waterstones

[Anonymous No.5404033]

>>5403520

A local charity does something similar: at their regular fund raising events, usually biannual, they have two stalls, one individually priced, one with everything priced at the equivalent of about $0.50 / £0.30 / €0.36. On the latter, there is a lot of variety - popular novels in poor condition paperback, up to unusual stuff in good hardbacks: basically, whatever people have donated. Of course, publishers tend not to like used book sales either - no royalties.

[Anonymous No.5404059]

>>5403864

In some cases, a slightly more expensive option might really be the better. For instance, in the past, of two major music shops where I am, one tended only to stock what was produced by the limited local disc-manufacturing industry; the other did imports as a matter of routine. This meant that the latter tended to stock off the shelf things that would be a special order, if available at all, at the former. Same goes for books: I won't absolutely never buy from, say, a newsagent or supermarket, but I prefer if I can to support the bookselling businesses that (1) stock a wider range of material and not just what they think they can shift in massive quanitiies, and (2) provide the best service - and that can be something as simple as having a well ordered and well managed store. This may be more expensive, on average, but it also means I am more likely to be able to get what I am after.

And bookshops and such do still have a place, because of serendipity. Online is great if you know exactly what you want; it's less good for discovering things that are not expected or obviously related to something else you are looking for. For that, a bookshop, or a library, is much better.

[Anonymous No.5404129]

>>5400493
Sorry.

[Anonymous No.5404133]

>buying books new in the first place

[Anonymous No.5404139]

>>5404133

>his taste is so entry that he can find whatever he wants in e-book or second hand

lol plen pls

[Anonymous No.5404146]

>>5404139
not that guy, but y taste is so exit that there are no affordable new copies of the books i want

[Anonymous No.5404154]

>>5404146

>this very annoying yet somehow reassuringly patrician feel when

[Anonymous No.5404808]

>>5403721
That's what you get for living in Cork and not walking around the corner to Connolly Books like a real person

[Anonymous No.5404869]

>>5400480

I paid under $50 on Abebooks/Amazon and got like 15 books. I'd be lucky to get about 4 if I went to B&N, maybe 7 from the local used ones.

Get fuckerd, cunt

[Anonymous No.5404902]

>>5400505
lel, abebooks is an amazon company

[Anonymous No.5404963]

>>5404808
I'd report this for advertising but the chances of him having a computer are slim.

[Anonymous No.5404981]

>>5404963
The chances of him having anything more advanced than a wax tablet and stylus are slim

[Anonymous No.5405000]

>>5400480
>18 ? and more for a paperback
>mostly bestseller crap
thats why i order online.

[Anonymous No.5405094]

>>5405000
18 euro*

[Anonymous No.5405127]

>>5402784
My experience there is always the opposite. My local B&N has a pretty decent philosophy and history sections. They even have majority of Pynchon books and like, four different versions of The Ulysses.
Their Shakespeare section is nothing to spit upon, either.
The only problem is that I stop there often enough as I work across the street, and there is never, ever nothing new in my interests sections, because nobody ever buys anything beyond YA fiction and NY Times bestsellers.
For shame...

[Anonymous No.5405298]

>>5402789
Feels good not to be an American.

[Anonymous No.5405318]

>>5400480
I spend about $50 every month at HPB, I'm supporting my local bookstore

[Anonymous No.5405319]

>>5400480
I went into town to buy some books recently, went to the Waterstones, the Blackwells and the indie bookshop. None of them had anything by Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson or Deleuze & Guattari.

[Anonymous No.5405323]

>>5400480
why would i shop at local business? everything is at least 50% more expensive there.

[Anonymous No.5405397]

>>5405318
>purchasing used books

so you don't like the authors? they don't get any money from you buying used

[Anonymous No.5406169]

>>5402912
>Veneto

[Anonymous No.5406275]

>>5403679
>the publishers do not like them, because they see them as lost sales
So it's finally happening, they're starting to complain about that too.
Jesus christ people in the entertainment business are fucking terrible.

[Anonymous No.5406369]

>>5405127
>They even have majority of Pynchon books and like, four different versions of The Ulysses.
>Their Shakespeare section is nothing to spit upon, either.

Which is precisely the problem: chain bookshops mostly stock the lowest common denominator stuff they can guarantee lots of people will read. Anything remotely unusual or specialized, and you're probably out of luck.

[Anonymous No.5406381]

>>5406275

The new model is to licence libraries electronic copies with a capped numbers of borrowings. When that expires, the library has to buy a new licence. Because nobody wants to read tattered old ebooks, obviously..

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.5406414]

>>5405397
what if the author is kill

[Anonymous No.5406471]

>>5403721
>There's no need for a massive unsorted monolith taking up multiple walls just as one "fiction" section
actually i think it's better. throw everything fiction under one category, i'll navigate the stuff i need by alphabetical order. genre organizing is fucked up 90% of the time.

[walf No.5406474]

i went to the nearest chain book store and they didn't have a copy of the unbearable lightness of being. i went to this locally owned book store in the next town over and they had a copy of it with a shitty movie cover for a dollar. i'm planning on going to this used book store that i just found out existed in the poor part of my town. it should be interesting.

[Anonymous No.5406503]

>>5406471
I'd really like of libraries and bookstores started using chronological order. People can check paticular data and dates on their rotaries now a days, right? Otherwise you just go in order.

[Anonymous No.5406515]

>>5405397
I generally don't give a fuck about the authors. no. They'll probably keep writing even when a poorfag anyway.

[Anonymous No.5406526]

>>5400480

>buying books

found a place in my town today which gives away books for free, you can take away 3 at a time, no cost.
I didn't have much time but I managed to find Siddhartha for me and books by Zadie Smith and Magaret Atwood for my sister.
It's part of some recycling scheme, shit is cash, defintely going back there.

[Anonymous No.5406540]

>>5405397
I like authors but I like not making publishers rich more.

[Anonymous No.5406548]

>>5400480
I do support my small business. The only thing is they only have the mainstream stuff of all genre's for the most part. So if I want to get something like You Can't Win or The Good Soldier or something like that then they don't have it. Plus, they have a real shitty poetry section.

[Anonymous No.5406551]

>>5406503
>sigh why can't i have my post-sincere crime meta-fiction smut shelf?
alright then

[Anonymous No.5406560]

>>5405127
The B&N store I go to about once or twice a year when I get a little paranoid about buying a book I want new offline or something due to a shitty cover has all of Pynchon's books on the shelf at all times with all the good covers, none of that waldo shit. The only thing that made me sad was I really wanted a hard back of Mason & Dixon but they didn't carry it.

[Anonymous No.5406578]

>>5403520
Those sales are so boss. I anticipate them every year.

[Anonymous No.5406585]

>>5406551
What?
I want the shelf to ignore anything and go in chronological order of publication. That way we could easily see what could had read certain author between his works or we wouldn0t have threads asking "what do I read after X" because you just read what was wrote after that.

[Anonymous No.5406589]

>>5406585
i thought you didn't like the idea and were being facetious. appy polly loggies

[walf No.5406592]

>>5406585
i think the problem with this is that it would fall apart towards the 1900s because there's so much random stuff that's been published. there would be huge gaps in between books by the same author.

[Anonymous No.5406596]

>>5406589
Nah, we post-sincere now, whatever that means. It feels better.

[Anonymous No.5406750]

I went to the nearest bookstore the other day. They didn't have the book I was looking for. I went to the second nearest bookstore. They only had a commentary of the book for children with extracts. I went home, bought it on Amazon and received it the next day.

That book was the Odyssey.

[Anonymous No.5406783]

>>5406592
Maybe in a very varied library, but in most book stores it wouldn't be such a huge distance. They could have them by year and inside each year alphabetical to make it easier, I guess, if you're a lazy slob. Otherwise you should just sit down and read until you find what you want.