Do you miss going to bookstores?

[ZodWallop]

Yeah, I used to love going to Wonderworld/Richard Kyle Books in Long Beach and numerous indies and used book stores (Acres of Books). They are all gone now.

Where I live now, there used to be a Borders and Barnes and Noble within a mile of each other. I used to like to go and browse and just sort of hang around. Since Borders has closed I've stopped going to the mall it was in completely.

B&N is still going strong, but I don't go there much since I do read exclusively ebooks now. Mostly I just go to take the kid.

[issybird]

A town near me has a wonderful old-timey indie bookstore, the kind with titles curated by the staff and lots of local interest stuff. I respect the townspeople, since obviously they buy books there instead of just using it as a showcase for ordering books from Amazon. “Buy local” in action.

I just don’t buy paper anymore.

[ownedbycats]

All the ones in my area worth anything shut down. Now there's just a Indigo/Coles at the mall.

Not at all coincidental that my switch to nearly 100% digital coincided with that...

[Sydney's Mom]

Yes, I miss going to bookstores. When I worked in downtown Chicago, I would go almost every day. When I started working from home, I would go twice a year before vacations. But since I got my kindle, I only look at the NYT Best sellers list online, and shop from there.

[Bembo]

I used to really enjoy going to used bookstores and leafing around. It was a good day if I found something I've had on my to-read list for a while. Nothing beats the smell of a good bookstore. I've only been reading on my Kobo for the past few months and I've gotten used to it, but I do miss the physical feel.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Bembo

Nothing beats the smell of a good bookstore.

That's something I've never understood. I dislike the smell and feel of paper books, immediately fell in love with my first eink reader 10 years ago and never looked back. No more paper, what a blessing!

Naturally people are very different in their likes and dislikes, but loving the smell/feel of paper and print has been always a total mystery for me.

[DiapDealer]

New book smell = glue
Old book smell = mold/decay

I don't care for either.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Bembo

I used to really enjoy going to used bookstores and leafing around. It was a good day if I found something I've had on my to-read list for a while. Nothing beats the smell of a good bookstore. I've only been reading on my Kobo for the past few months and I've gotten used to it, but I do miss the physical feel.

Me too. I can still "smell" used bookstores when I think about them. Another one I used to go to, when I lived near Portland (Washougal, Washington), was Powell's Books.

[ZodWallop]

A couple of people have mentioned discoverability/finding hidden gems at bookstores. But for me at least, my scope has vastly increased thanks to the internet. With blogs and book sites like LibraryThing, I've discovered more hidden gems than I could ever read. Plus ebooks have brought many old, cult OOP books back and made them easily available, as often as not for less than what their paperback cover price was.

I miss bookstores, sure. But really, it's just nostalgia. The truth is, when I go to one I mostly wander with my kid or read on the Kobo while she shops.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by maddz

I miss second-hand bookstores because you never know what gems you will find, but unless it's a specialist genre bookstore, I don't miss the wall-to-wall chick lit or best sellers. I find that general bookstores usually have minimal genre fiction and that tends to be new titles with little if any backlist. Even a specialist store often doesn't have the breadth I can find online.

Besides, now I've moved to a smallish market town, getting to bookstores is a pain.

I used to haunt the various 2nd hand book stores within 10 Mi. before I got my first reader. Before I moved, there was only 1 left.
Browsed the shelves at the local 'Thrift' stores: mostly cheap romance by lesser known's.

And Used book (and needlework) stores were always on our 'must visit' list while traveling in days gone bye.
Distance is another difference I found when visiting the UK. Here in the US, we think nothing about going 30 Mi. for a (great) burger. They were shocked when I returned the hired car after 2 weeks, with 1200 Mi on the clock.

[Apache]

My wife grew up in Houston, the fourth largest city in the US. Her best friend and college roommate lived fifty miles away and was in the Houston City limits. I brought her to a small town in Georgia and it shocked her when people complained about being from out of town and she discovered the town was fifteen miles away.
Apache

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

A couple of people have mentioned discoverability/finding hidden gems at bookstores. But for me at least, my scope has vastly increased thanks to the internet.

Not quite the same thing for me. I like eBooks because they're cheap (the ones I buy anyhow) and plentiful, but finding a specific book in a used book store is just a more tangible (and enjoyable) experience, for me anyhow. Especially when you find an old book that was printed with a letter press. You can almost "feel" the words.

I buy eBooks for my father and lately he's been wanting me to find the the "real" books for him. I'm the only one in my family who really likes eBooks, but I've found some printed books recently and I'm beginning to realize how much I enjoyed them. I'm not going away from eBooks, but their may be more printed books in the mix soon.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Not quite the same thing for me. I like eBooks because they're cheap (the ones I buy anyhow)

The one thing that bums me out is that in my province, you only need to pay the 5% federal sales tax on physical books.

But eBooks? The provincial portion also applies, so that's 15% sales tax.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The one thing that bums me out is that in my province, you only need to pay the 5% federal sales tax on physical books.

But eBooks? The provincial portion also applies, so that's 15% sales tax.

I would never, never suggest a virtual move to Alberta.

And actually I wouldn’t; tax dodging is not a good thing. But you can see the temptation.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Not quite the same thing for me. I like eBooks because they're cheap (the ones I buy anyhow) and plentiful, but finding a specific book in a used book store is just a more tangible (and enjoyable) experience, for me anyhow. Especially when you find an old book that was printed with a letter press. You can almost "feel" the words.

I buy eBooks for my father and lately he's been wanting me to find the the "real" books for him. I'm the only one in my family who really likes eBooks, but I've found some printed books recently and I'm beginning to realize how much I enjoyed them. I'm not going away from eBooks, but their may be more printed books in the mix soon.

For me, I started on eBooks because I thought the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight was neat. But once I had one and read on it for less than a day, I realized I likely wouldn't be buying any more paper books.

I have nothing against paper. But I have something like 10 Ikea Billy bookcases around the house, stuffed to the gills and am not looking forward to moving them. And when I have the same book on my reader or in paper, I invariably read on my reader. It's just easier to haul around.

I don't have the nostalgia for old books everyone else seems to have. Dust and rotting pulp would not be my cologne of choice. And not every book I have was inscribed with a delightful note from my dear aged grandmother or English professor or both. Whenever I hear that hoary old anecdote I just think 'jeeze, have none of these people ever picked up a cheap Louis L'Amour/Stephen King/John Grisham/James Patterson paperback at the Hudson bookstore in the airport?'

I really need to donate/toss some (many) of my paper books.

...finding a specific book in a used book store is just a more tangible (and enjoyable) experience, for me anyhow.

See, when I read about some forgotten old horror novel on the Too Much Horror Fiction blog and then go to Amazon and see that it has been made available as an ebook, it makes me very happy. Often, it is not available. But as time goes on, more and more stuff is returning to 'print'.