Amazon
"Hi My names Beowulf and I'm a bookworm.
It's been 1 day since I read my last book. "
I feel like an addict sometimes.. having to feed my insatiable cravings for reading material. And when you don't have a book in your bag you get withdrawal symptoms.. frantically reading anything you can get your hands on.. often stooping as low as reading the headlines of the Sun newspaper over the shoulder of the commuter standing in front of you.
The problem is feeding my addiction is ,like all addictions, proving expensive. I'm on at least one book a week at the moment. I get most of my books on the high street. I'm not a fan of online book shopping unless there's something I know I want. I like to run my fingers in a gentle caress along the bookshelves, plucking books here and there and reading the blurb on the back before picking my victim and pouncing on it, purchasing it to devour later.
What I want is a really good , well stocked, friendly, yet cheap, second hand book store, but I've not found one nearby. I know there's the book market on the Southbank at weekends.. but I'm rarely in that part of town ..
so, pray tell fellow addicts... where do you get your fix?
Amazon
I have several ways to feed my addiction
online shopping - when i know what I want - usually the cheapest way
tesco and the like when I want something trashy - 2 for £7
borrow - sometimes trade - from/with friends - as I have limited storage I'm always lookinf for homes for books I have finished with.
a real book shop - although it's got to be a big one so that it has all the sorts of thing I like to read in it - is also likely to do the most damage to my budget.
good Second hand book shops are hard to come buy and rarely have the variety of stock to appeal to me - I do tend to pop into every one that I encounter - an occasionaly get great finds - like in a dingy little shop in Sydney where I found several Asimov books for only a couple of dollars each!!
yes, Amazon for me too
Charity shops & the library mainly. I also get hand me downs (and swap books with friends)
It's not often that I buy brand new books though when I do it's a nice spoil
i mainly use amazon for both new and secondhand books
but I also buy at fetes and markets, not had much luck with charity shops
have you tried http://www.bookbarninternational.co.uk/default.html
(Derek, the founder sadly died last year )
I am a heavy reader too; mostly factual stuff.
I would love to support my local book shops even the biggies like Borders, but the price savings on line are too great. I ordered 5 books this week (Amazon) saving £38 on local prices.
One book alone: £14.99 in Borders and £8.45 on Amazon. Even greater savings buying second hand on Amazon.
Usually I use BookBrain, which checks the cheapest way of buying the book including delivery. Also, you could join the British Library, which is free, has pretty much every book under the sun and you can order your books online (just need a fair bit of ID to get a library card).
My problem is that I like to keep the books I enjoy and reread them. There's only so many bookshelves you can have...
Hey Beo,
You could do a lot worse than popping up the road to Kentish Town in your lunch hour. Not only is there an excellent local bookshop there, but if it's second hand books you're after, there's also a book-specific Oxfam which always has some really interesting stuff in it (see the first entry on this page).
Can't help you for closer to home though, I don't know that part of town.
HTH
Tess
I love books...Bibliophile sends me a catalogue (like a broadsheet newspaper) at frequent intervals. Some really good books at good prices. I don't do them online, but their web address is bibliophilebooks.com. Haven't bought a turkey from them yet.
Other than that, I usually get my books at charity shops. Black Cat bookshop in Leicester used to be pretty good (haven't been for a while, admittedly). There are some towns which are book hotspots which I try to find when I'm on holiday...e.g Hay-on-Wye (30-odd bookshops) plus there is a village in SW Scotland where every other cottage is a treasure trove bookshop - and I can't remember where it is!
Enjoy
where do you think Beo heralds from? (Wigtown)
Mainly bookshops because I love the smell bookshops (I know I am weird). Years ago I always used to go to Foyles.
Sometimes I buy on line at Amazon.
I never buy at supermarkets it’s my own private war against supermarket domination and them destroying specialist shops.
Sadly I do not read anything like the amount I used to due to spending too much time on the forum. Facebook and driving to work.
I am reading we danced all night by Martin Pugh, a social history book about the between war years. I haven’t read enough to say whether it is any good yet but bought it from W H Smiths
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