I miss browsing libraries and book stores

RobFreundlich · 03-27-2018, 08:59 AM

I miss the experience of going to the book store or library, picking a section ("genre", for those of you who only ever shop online), and just looking around.

Starting in the A's, looking at the spines of the books, trailing my fingers along them, seeing and feeling the different sizes, reading the titles until one grabs my attention and I pull it out to read the blurb on the back. Looking at the covers of the books the staff have turned face-out instead of spine-out.

Moving along to the B's, C's, etc. Spending forever in the S's, because there are so many authors whose names start with S! Going back to that book that grabbed me in the K's to re-read the blurb. Knowing my favorite author is in the T's, wondering if there's a new release but waiting until I get there.

Leaving that section with a book or two, and moving on to another one and doing it all over again.

Is there any website that offers an experience like this? Amazon and the others are great if you know what you're looking for, but they suck for this kind of browsing.

Seriously - have you ever gone to one of them and just tried to browse alphabetically in some genre, no matter how specific? You get page after page of identical-looking displays of identical-looking books, and there are so many

Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 1
Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 2
Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 3
Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 4

that you can spend hours paging through the A's and finding nothing at all!

Yes, I know. Amazon's website is there for Amazon to make money - to sell me stuff. Get me in, get me to what I want, sell it to me, and get me to see related stuff that I will then decide to buy. It's not there for my convenience.

And yet, wasn't the bookstore around the corner there to sell me books? The browsing model worked for them ...

Anyway, sorry to rant. I meant to just come here and ask my question (Are there any truly browsable book sites?) and this soapbox just kind of slid under my feet. So are there? Any truly browsable book sites?

HarryT · 03-27-2018, 09:15 AM

The basic issue is that your corner bookstore didn't have 2 million (or whatever the number is) books on its shelves.

Perhaps browsing the bestseller lists in the categories that interest you might be productive? That probably equates more to the experience of browsing a physical bookstore.

sakura-panda · 03-27-2018, 09:52 AM

That's the main reason I don't prefer to shop online. I like to browse a limited selection and be surprised by something I wasn't even looking for.

Etsy used to have a feature where they could show you a random assortment of items for sale on their site, but I just checked and they don't seem to have that anymore. They are a site for crafters to sell the things they've made, so doesn't really answer your question, but it is the only site I know that tried something like that.

I spend a lot less money on books for myself now that I'm purposely limiting myself to ebooks. However, I am also spending a lot more money on books for my kids, since we have a local independent bookstore that is both within walking distance of the music studio and open when we're in the area for lessons. I admit to having a stack of unread books that I've purchased from there for myself; recently, I checked one of those books out from the library to read on my tablet and I have a feeling that's the only way I'm going to get the rest of them read!

4691mls · 03-27-2018, 10:54 AM

I share the OP's frustration with browsing online. Even if a physical store/library had a lot of books, it would still be fairly quick to walk past and see where one author ends and the next begins.

When scrolling through online store listings alphabetically, I wish that if there are numerous editions of the same book there would be only one title listing and description. Then if you were interested in that book, you could click a link to see all available editions.

I also wish online stores and libraries would have a "sort in series order" option. Overdrive has a "release date" sort option but clicking this does not always result in series order. I suppose "release date" means the date of the the specific edition the library owns, not the date the title was originally published.

My dream list for alphabetical-by-author browsing would be sort of a tree view - you could get an alphabetical list of authors, and beside the author's name there would be a brief description such as "20th century American author of" followed by a list of the types of book the author wrote (general fiction, mystery, sci-fi, whatever). Once you selected the author, you would then get a list of any non-series books and a list of series which would then have their own sub-lists of specific titles, which could be sorted in series order.

ekbell · 03-27-2018, 11:04 AM

The only ebook store where browsing alphabetically is feasible that I can think of offhand would be Baen's and they only sell SF.

My desire to browse and find something I didn't know existed has been satisfied by subscribing to various mailing lists (bookbub, Book Gorilla, various publishers including free month of the month promotions, Amazon, kobo, etc.) looking over mobileread's deals and book recommendation forums (the new leaf book club recommendations have been particularly interesting), and checking out recommended books on Amazon and Kobo.
The only thing I miss from physical book stores is the ability to check the ending.

When I feel like browsing in alphabetical order I just browse through a subset of my calibre library. I started by adding the contents of the Baen Free CD's and then my mother's Public Domain collection so there's always been unfamiliar books as well as familiar to browse through and I've continued this by picking up books that seem interesting from mobileread and faded-book as well as interesting $1.99 deals (one way to browse through a select number of books is to use jungle-search, I like to select a publisher and look for books in a certain price range and I've found that 'Harper*' and $1.99 often gives me nteresting stuff.)

ZodWallop · 03-27-2018, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobFreundlich

Any truly browsable book sites?

Amazon works fine for me there. I'll look up a book and the "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" and "Inspired by your browsing history" sections can lead me down a rabbit hole similar to what I used to experience at a book store.

No, it's not browsing alphabetically. Big whoop. That was possible to do in an old Crown Books store because you could cover the entire Science Fiction section in a half hour or so.

If anything, browsing Amazon has grown my TBR pile rather than shrink it.

4691mls · 03-27-2018, 12:14 PM

Ekbell - occasionally you can find the ending on Google Books (not Google Play) though most often they have just the first chapter it two and maybe some scattered pages through the rest of the book.

Do the book recommendation sites you use have just new books or do they include older books?

GeoffR · 03-27-2018, 12:21 PM

I find browsing is better on the publishers' websites than on the retailers', they are not clogged up with mountains of public-domain and self-published crap, and choosing one that publishes the type of books I like greatly narrows down the selection and makes browsing manageable. Most of them have a way to browse authors alphabetically.

Apart from publisher sites themselves, another one I think is great for browsing is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, as well as author it can also be browsed by theme, and has some good critical articles on the authors..

BookCat · 03-27-2018, 02:49 PM

If, on Amazon, you want to see all the ebooks, or physical books, by a particular author, find one book by that author, hover over the name (in blue underneath the title) which gives you the option of going to Amazon's author page. Here you'll find all the books by the author, in various formats.
I have lots of books recommended to me by Amazon - I just go to the recommendations section. This often sends me browsing.

Pajamaman · 03-27-2018, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I find browsing is better on the publishers' websites than on the retailers', they are not clogged up with mountains of public-domain and self-published crap, and choosing one that publishes the type of books I like greatly narrows down the selection and makes browsing manageable. Most of them have a way to browse authors alphabetically.

Apart from publisher sites themselves, another one I think is great for browsing is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, as well as author it can also be browsed by theme, and has some good critical articles on the authors..

Which publishers sites do you use?

GeoffR · 03-27-2018, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Which publishers sites do you use?

I mainly read SF/Fantasy, there are a some good smaller publishers too, but these are a few of the bigger publisher sites I browse most, mainly via the author A-Z lists:

SF Gateway: http://www.sfgateway.com/
Gollancz: https://www.gollancz.co.uk/ (or use Gollancz authors list at Orion parent site)
Orbit: https://www.orbitbooks.net/
Tor/Forge: http://us.macmillan.com/torforge
Baen: http://www.baen.com/baenebooks
Voyager: http://harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk/
DAW: http://www.penguin.com/publishers/daw/
Hodder & Stoughton: https://www.hodderscape.co.uk/

jhowell · 03-27-2018, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I mainly read SF/Fantasy, there are a some good smaller publishers too, but these are a few of the bigger publisher sites I browse most, mainly via the author A-Z lists: ...

The forthcoming books page from Locus Magaine is a good resource for discovering BPH F/SF books.

DiapDealer · 03-27-2018, 05:36 PM

I hated going to libraries and book stores. I only went because that's where the books were. Now the books are everywhere and I can browse as mainstream/niche/genre/literature as I like; from my armchair, my porch, my bed, the break-room--wherever. I couldn't be happier.

Catlady · 03-27-2018, 07:10 PM

I mostly browse by using Overdrive at my various libraries. I check for new arrivals, and when books look interesting, I'll search for other books by the author, both at the library and at Amazon.

Tarana · 03-27-2018, 07:27 PM

I too miss browsing the library and bookstores, but in my case, I can't read the book anyway - my vision is too damaged. My library always has suggested new material on their website to try out (I can adjust the size so that I can read it). I can also go to their catalog and peruse by genre EVERYTHING they have since it now includes the blurb on the back of the book. That's how I used to select books, so I'm happy to do so again.

03-27-2018, 08:59 AM	#1
RobFreundlich Connoisseur Posts: 74 Karma: 10000010 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: Android Tablet with Calibre Companion and Moon+ Reader Pro	I miss browsing libraries and book stores I miss the experience of going to the book store or library, picking a section ("genre", for those of you who only ever shop online), and just looking around. Starting in the A's, looking at the spines of the books, trailing my fingers along them, seeing and feeling the different sizes, reading the titles until one grabs my attention and I pull it out to read the blurb on the back. Looking at the covers of the books the staff have turned face-out instead of spine-out. Moving along to the B's, C's, etc. Spending forever in the S's, because there are so many authors whose names start with S! Going back to that book that grabbed me in the K's to re-read the blurb. Knowing my favorite author is in the T's, wondering if there's a new release but waiting until I get there. Leaving that section with a book or two, and moving on to another one and doing it all over again. Is there any website that offers an experience like this? Amazon and the others are great if you know what you're looking for, but they suck for this kind of browsing. Seriously - have you ever gone to one of them and just tried to browse alphabetically in some genre, no matter how specific? You get page after page of identical-looking displays of identical-looking books, and there are so many Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 1 Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 2 Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 3 Aaronson, Alan - An Aardvark's Adventures, Book 4 that you can spend hours paging through the A's and finding nothing at all! Yes, I know. Amazon's website is there for Amazon to make money - to sell me stuff. Get me in, get me to what I want, sell it to me, and get me to see related stuff that I will then decide to buy. It's not there for my convenience. And yet, wasn't the bookstore around the corner there to sell me books? The browsing model worked for them ... Anyway, sorry to rant. I meant to just come here and ask my question (Are there any truly browsable book sites?) and this soapbox just kind of slid under my feet. So are there? Any truly browsable book sites?

03-27-2018, 09:52 AM	#3
sakura-panda Guru Posts: 923 Karma: 9558874 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Southeast Michigan, USA Device: 2017 10.5" iPad Pro (Kobo, NOOK, Kindle, Google Play Books & Scribd)	That's the main reason I don't prefer to shop online. I like to browse a limited selection and be surprised by something I wasn't even looking for. Etsy used to have a feature where they could show you a random assortment of items for sale on their site, but I just checked and they don't seem to have that anymore. They are a site for crafters to sell the things they've made, so doesn't really answer your question, but it is the only site I know that tried something like that. I spend a lot less money on books for myself now that I'm purposely limiting myself to ebooks. However, I am also spending a lot more money on books for my kids, since we have a local independent bookstore that is both within walking distance of the music studio and open when we're in the area for lessons. I admit to having a stack of unread books that I've purchased from there for myself; recently, I checked one of those books out from the library to read on my tablet and I have a feeling that's the only way I'm going to get the rest of them read! Last edited by sakura-panda; 03-27-2018 at 09:54 AM.

03-27-2018, 10:54 AM	#4
4691mls Wizard Posts: 2,776 Karma: 30081762 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: US Device: ALL DEVICES ARE STOCK: Kobo Clara, Tolino Shine 2, Sony PRS-T3, T1	I share the OP's frustration with browsing online. Even if a physical store/library had a lot of books, it would still be fairly quick to walk past and see where one author ends and the next begins. When scrolling through online store listings alphabetically, I wish that if there are numerous editions of the same book there would be only one title listing and description. Then if you were interested in that book, you could click a link to see all available editions. I also wish online stores and libraries would have a "sort in series order" option. Overdrive has a "release date" sort option but clicking this does not always result in series order. I suppose "release date" means the date of the the specific edition the library owns, not the date the title was originally published. My dream list for alphabetical-by-author browsing would be sort of a tree view - you could get an alphabetical list of authors, and beside the author's name there would be a brief description such as "20th century American author of" followed by a list of the types of book the author wrote (general fiction, mystery, sci-fi, whatever). Once you selected the author, you would then get a list of any non-series books and a list of series which would then have their own sub-lists of specific titles, which could be sorted in series order. Last edited by 4691mls; 03-27-2018 at 11:13 AM.

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03-27-2018, 09:15 AM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The basic issue is that your corner bookstore didn't have 2 million (or whatever the number is) books on its shelves. Perhaps browsing the bestseller lists in the categories that interest you might be productive? That probably equates more to the experience of browsing a physical bookstore.

03-27-2018, 11:04 AM	#5
ekbell Guru Posts: 603 Karma: 12345678 Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Canada Device: none	The only ebook store where browsing alphabetically is feasible that I can think of offhand would be Baen's and they only sell SF. My desire to browse and find something I didn't know existed has been satisfied by subscribing to various mailing lists (bookbub, Book Gorilla, various publishers including free month of the month promotions, Amazon, kobo, etc.) looking over mobileread's deals and book recommendation forums (the new leaf book club recommendations have been particularly interesting), and checking out recommended books on Amazon and Kobo. The only thing I miss from physical book stores is the ability to check the ending. When I feel like browsing in alphabetical order I just browse through a subset of my calibre library. I started by adding the contents of the Baen Free CD's and then my mother's Public Domain collection so there's always been unfamiliar books as well as familiar to browse through and I've continued this by picking up books that seem interesting from mobileread and faded-book as well as interesting $1.99 deals (one way to browse through a select number of books is to use jungle-search, I like to select a publisher and look for books in a certain price range and I've found that 'Harper*' and $1.99 often gives me nteresting stuff.)

03-27-2018, 12:14 PM	#7
4691mls Wizard Posts: 2,776 Karma: 30081762 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: US Device: ALL DEVICES ARE STOCK: Kobo Clara, Tolino Shine 2, Sony PRS-T3, T1	Ekbell - occasionally you can find the ending on Google Books (not Google Play) though most often they have just the first chapter it two and maybe some scattered pages through the rest of the book. Do the book recommendation sites you use have just new books or do they include older books?

03-27-2018, 12:21 PM	#8
GeoffR Wizard Posts: 3,821 Karma: 19162882 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Te Riu-a-Māui Device: Kobo Glo	I find browsing is better on the publishers' websites than on the retailers', they are not clogged up with mountains of public-domain and self-published crap, and choosing one that publishes the type of books I like greatly narrows down the selection and makes browsing manageable. Most of them have a way to browse authors alphabetically. Apart from publisher sites themselves, another one I think is great for browsing is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, as well as author it can also be browsed by theme, and has some good critical articles on the authors..

03-27-2018, 02:49 PM	#9
BookCat C L J Posts: 2,912 Karma: 21115458 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham UK Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle PW2, Kindle PW3, Kobo Libra2	If, on Amazon, you want to see all the ebooks, or physical books, by a particular author, find one book by that author, hover over the name (in blue underneath the title) which gives you the option of going to Amazon's author page. Here you'll find all the books by the author, in various formats. I have lots of books recommended to me by Amazon - I just go to the recommendations section. This often sends me browsing.

03-27-2018, 05:36 PM	#13
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,547 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	I hated going to libraries and book stores. I only went because that's where the books were. Now the books are everywhere and I can browse as mainstream/niche/genre/literature as I like; from my armchair, my porch, my bed, the break-room--wherever. I couldn't be happier.

03-27-2018, 07:10 PM	#14
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	I mostly browse by using Overdrive at my various libraries. I check for new arrivals, and when books look interesting, I'll search for other books by the author, both at the library and at Amazon.

03-27-2018, 07:27 PM	#15
Tarana Wizard Posts: 3,978 Karma: 38840460 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Minneapolis Device: PWSE, Voyage, K3, HDX, KBasic 7 & 8, Nook Glo3, Echos, Nanos	I too miss browsing the library and bookstores, but in my case, I can't read the book anyway - my vision is too damaged. My library always has suggested new material on their website to try out (I can adjust the size so that I can read it). I can also go to their catalog and peruse by genre EVERYTHING they have since it now includes the blurb on the back of the book. That's how I used to select books, so I'm happy to do so again.

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