21st Century Literature discussion
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What Do You Think About Book Subscriptions? (9/19/21)
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Marc
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Sep 19, 2021 09:23PM
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At the moment I'm subscribed to:Fitzcarraldo (but due to the EU taxation system this will end for good in January)
Galley Beggar Press
Influx, who now have EU friendly subscriptions out in October! hurrah!
Do date these three presses have never disappointed me.
Personally subscribing to a small press is always a good thing because they usually publish cutting edge fiction and by subscribing you are helping them publish more book. The downside is if you live in the EU some subscriptions may not be available.
I'm not much one for subscriptions in general, much less ones for books. There are a few indie presses I'd like to take chance on, but at the moment, I have neither the committed inclination nor, more importantly, the stable storage space for such.
I've subscribed to Open Letter, & Other Stories, Charco, Two Lines, Restless Book Club, and (currently) Archipelago. I've loved them all.
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Many years ago I subscribed to Galley Beggar for a year but found their output inconsistent and I wasn't reading many of them. I subscribed to And Other Stories for a few years but I accumulated so many that I stopped the subscription and just order adhoc now.I currently have a Charco subscription.
I'm subscribed to Weatherglass Press, Nordisk, Pereine, Galley Beggar, Fitzcarraldo, Les Fugitives and Charco Press.Also Influx & Istros - although there you more pick the books in advance that you want and it can be a subset.
And the Republic of Consciousness Prize monthly bookclub - albeit that tends to overlap with the individual lists, so typically half are duplicates.
I've previously subscribed to And Other Stories (stopped as I tended to want the books that weren't the ones on the subscription), Two Lines Press (postage from US ended up >> cost of books) and Tilted Axis (subscribers seemed to get books after bookshops) - in all cases the books were good, but the subscription wasn't really working for me.
I'd recommend all of them - depends on taste really as each publisher is different.
In terms of keeping up - I've managed it largely by simply noy buying other books until I've got through them - I don't let my TBR pile get above 10 books before I shut up shop.
My subscriptions are Fitzcarraldo, Charco and Weatherglass. My Galley Beggar subscription ran out recently and I didn’t renew. I’m also in the RoC book club and, like Paul, I get a few duplicates. But for me a subscription isn’t a way to buy books as much as it is a way to support a press.
I have no subscriptions at the moment because I have too many unread books on my shelves. I did Open Letter for a year and only read half with the rest still waiting. About 35 years ago I subscribed to the Time/Life series that published a series of out-of-print books. At that time, I did not have massive numbers of books on the shelf and eagerly awaited the arrival of each book. I still have about half of on a keeper shelf, awaiting re-reading.
The one subscription service that always intrigues me is the New York Books Review Classic, which is I think $150 per year. Someday I might get that one. https://www.nyrb.com/pages/the-nyrb-c...
I confess to be currently to have a six books in a year subscription to the NYBR Classic, which I signed up for mid-year during a sale. The books are beautiful but I've yet to find time to read one with all the award long and short lists I've taken on, so I won't renew but will eventually get to reading them!
