Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "buying-books"
Book Shopping
There are big arguments about Kindle versus real books and indie bookstores versus chains versus Amazon. All I know is that when I get near a lot of books, I want some of them. Okay, a lot of them.
Yesterday a friend and I hit a bookstore where the manager (who knows real customers when she sees them) engaged us in conversation. Soon we were trading authors and titles. There's nothing like, "Have you read..." for lovers of reading.
I bought. My friend bought. The manager added a couple of titles to her TBR list. And everyone got happier, despite life's buffets.
Bookstores, online lists, fliers in the library, even Amazon's "People who read this also liked..." offer possibilities for reading, and it's like picking flowers in a huge garden. You can't pick them all. You don't know which are the perfect ones for you, but standing in the midst of it all, you don't care. It's just fun to have all those choices, all those possibilities for satisfaction.
Yesterday a friend and I hit a bookstore where the manager (who knows real customers when she sees them) engaged us in conversation. Soon we were trading authors and titles. There's nothing like, "Have you read..." for lovers of reading.
I bought. My friend bought. The manager added a couple of titles to her TBR list. And everyone got happier, despite life's buffets.
Bookstores, online lists, fliers in the library, even Amazon's "People who read this also liked..." offer possibilities for reading, and it's like picking flowers in a huge garden. You can't pick them all. You don't know which are the perfect ones for you, but standing in the midst of it all, you don't care. It's just fun to have all those choices, all those possibilities for satisfaction.
Browsing
Your computer says it does, but it just isn't the same. I love my Kindle, but I sometimes want to go to a bookstore and just wander through the aisles, especially the mystery section. I look at the covers, read the back, the inside front, and often the author info. I don't know if the photo influences me to buy the book, but it's fun to know what the writer looks like. I put some back, take some home. Anticipation.
Amazon tries to give me the same experience, but it is not the same. Amazon works best when you know exactly which book you want. You go there. You buy it. Bam! It's on your Kindle. Instant gratification.
I guess there will always be room for both in my life. Sometimes I don't know what I want to read, and a bookstore is the place to help with that. Other times, Kindle is perfect, because there is no bookstore where I live, and it's inconvenient to drive thirty miles for a browse.
Having both options is the best of all possible worlds.
Amazon tries to give me the same experience, but it is not the same. Amazon works best when you know exactly which book you want. You go there. You buy it. Bam! It's on your Kindle. Instant gratification.
I guess there will always be room for both in my life. Sometimes I don't know what I want to read, and a bookstore is the place to help with that. Other times, Kindle is perfect, because there is no bookstore where I live, and it's inconvenient to drive thirty miles for a browse.
Having both options is the best of all possible worlds.
