When I was a lad, mom went grocery shopping every Saturday. Older sister drove. I tagged along because they would drop me off at a nearby bookstore while they shopped. So every week I had at least an hour of pure happiness, browsing the racks of paperbacks, always buying one. I was probably 11 or 12 years old.
Outside of the SDMB that would likely be considered very strange behavior for a kid.
mmm
As a child: school libraries and my parents’ books. I often received books as gifts. My Mom used to let me go wild at the Scholastic Book Fairs. Lord it was like Christmas. I remember getting to high school and being crushed to discover there were no more book fairs.
In college was the era of Borders, where I would come home with sacks full of books. I liked new books better than used. Not that a used book store wouldn’t do in a pinch. I never read half the books I bought.
In my late twenties I discovered Kindle e-readers and never went back. I buy most of my books on Amazon. I recently bought the whole collection of Agatha Christie Ms. Marple stories. Not disappointed so far.
I once had to buy from an online used bookstore Thriftbooks.com to find a book a writing instructor recommended to me as having “one of the greatest action scenes of all time” - Heat by a 1970s author who escapes me. It was a sexist and racist piece of garbage and not written all that well, which I shouldn’t hold against the seller. I also had to buy CJ Cherryh books used - no Kindle format.
I recently found a book store near me called Bring Your Old Books which is fun to visit occasionally. I got the first Jack Reacher novel from there dirt cheap.
And now my husband brings me library books sometimes. I am trying to get into borrowing on Libby, but they never have anything I want to read in Kindle format.
I still buy paper books.
From the nineties till now, most of my physical book purchases were at Barnes & Noble or Borders. When I worked in Manhattan (up through 1998) there were some independents that I went to occasionally (Shakespeare & Co, and one that I can’t remember the name of on West 57th); but the chains were all over the place and so convenient. The Borders at World Trade Center was probably where I bought most since it was on my commute.
After starting to work in northern New Jersey there were no independent book stores that I could easily get to so it was pretty much always the chains.
Whenever I travel, however, I make it a point to shop at independent book stores… Vromans and Duttons in LA; Northshire in Manchester, VT and Bartelby’s in Wilmington VT were common visits. And many others in places I only visited once.
Now, I’d say two thirds of what I read is electronic. I don’t patronize Amazon whenever possible, so for me those purchases are all on Apple Books. If I have to order a physical book, it’s from Barnes & Noble usually. And I still patronize bookstores (both B&N and independent) especially when I travel.
You’ve just described the owners of more than half of the used bookstores I’ve visited.
We’re lucky enough in Albuquerque to have Page One Books, a wonderful independent bookstore that’s been around for over 40 years. It’s gone through better and worse times, but it’s still hanging on, and that’s where I go first for physical books. We also have another great independent store, Bookworks, which has been around for 30 years, and if they don’t have something, there are still two Barnes and Noble stores here. The owner (kind of surly when you went in) of my favorite used book store is retiring and closing up shop this fall, but there’s another longstanding used store (ditto on the owner, but the staff is mostly helpful) nearby.
Of course, I’m not being particularly helpful for keeping them all open nowadays, because I’m trying not to buy so many books. I mostly get library books now, and I almost exclusively check out ebooks and read them on Kindle. I’ve also gotten older ebooks free through Gutenberg or Amazon, but I don’t like buying them because of the DRM and other ownership issues. If I pay money for a book, I expect to own that book, in that edition, and I’m not willing to buy it in a format that makes it possible for Amazon or anyone else to mess with it.
I only buy books that were meaningful to me as a child. I will buy an occasional reference book or a book the library doesn’t have. My sources are betterworldbooks.com for used books and bookshop.org for new.
I switched to electronic books on Kindle for my primary mode of book consumption in the early 2000’s. This was primarily due to me reading mostly when I traveled, and reading electronic books vs. hauling physical books made the most sense. I still consume most of my books on my Kindle, but will occasionally will by a printed book if we are headed to the beach for vacation.
I find the market dynamics for books interesting. 75% of new book sales are still primarily in printed format. I would have expected more people would have switched to electronic books, but most people still prefer holding books and turning the pages. Of all new book sales, Amazon has about 70% market share. So while people still prefer printed books, they are not opposed to ordering them online.
I will still go to Barnes and Nobles to browse books, but I end up taking photos of the books that I may consider buying and then if I decide I want them, I purchase them for my Kindle from Amazon.
When I was in high school I found a place called the Clinton Book Shop. (Called, because it wasn’t on Clinton Ave., but used to be at some point in history.) Had floor to ceiling bookshelves on three walls, shelved double-deep. They were cheap but out of my price range.
Paperbacks were on large trestle tables. Stacked edge to edge, about 40 books high. I finally figured out the algorithm. Move one stack to the floor. Go through the next stack one by one moving them to the empty spot. Repeat for as long as one had time. I looked for my favorite mystery authors, who had been authorizing reprint editions for a quarter century from a variety of publishers. Every find was serendipitous.
The store was also the only place that carried the Ace Science Fiction Specials line, the best line of science fiction ever. I sometimes spent 75 cents on them!
Probably all my book buying habits were set there. I do very occasionally buy new books. Most of the rest of the time I went to used book stores or library book sales. I’ve almost stopped buying books now, except to fill in a collection, but I try to buy something from every used book store I visit, just in solidarity.
I remember buying paperbacks from the grocery store back in the 1970s. I was always amused by how many of them featured swastikas on the cover. If you wanted the complete works of Jack Higgins or Robert Ludlum you never had to set foot in an actual bookstore.
On a related note, I miss buying packs of comics at the gas station.
Ah Page One. Loved it (lived for 2 years in Alb) and back when I used to do an annual run down to get a food and fun fix in Albuquerque (need me my green chili cheeseburgers and good New Mexican food) it was always on the “must-visit” list.
In terms of other favorites, I -still- visit COAS Bookstore every year or so when I visit my folks in Las Cruces NM. It’s where I shopped from Junior High until I went to college. What was best was I’d get out of class, take the local bus (not great, but would eventually get you there) nearby, spend 2 hours soaking in the books and then walk to my step-mother’s place of business to snag a ride home.
Got most of my Alaska books on eBay, especially the rarer ones. Otherwise, the usual places. My wife bought a lot of art books at museums.
Until about 2010, I bought most of my books at a local chain whose name I cannot quite dredge up. I don’t know if they are still in business. Since then I have a kobo reader and have bought nearly everything from them, even though they have made it hard to buy from them. You have to go through a captcha, although I have a different way to go. I cannot imagine why a company would do that.
I used to love buying books at my locale Encore. Browsing books is like reading a newspaper in that you will be interested in topics that you never thought about before.
I also used to get a mail order catalog that was pretty well organised. Cant remember their name.
Had some kids, and learned to use the library for years, til I switched to using the library for my Kindle books.
Still a B&N not too far away, but I only seem to shop there for the holidays
I was thinking that was so sad. Then I read your other comments… heartbreaking.
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Y’all need to move to a college town.
Here’s an article on some of the ones in Madison, WI.
We have many used bookstores, some run by the (now old) folks who opened them in the fifties… (Oh, look, Paul’s wife is now in her 90s.)
We have so many used shops, a number of new bookstores, some run by former students, a mystery book joint opened by former faculty, and a coffeeshop/bar that has opened with a patio and a bookstore inside!
This is going to be a long one. When I was in high school, 55 years ago, I had two good sources of new books pretty close to me. I ought all the Ace Science Fiction Specials (where The Left Hand of Darkness first appeared in paperback) in the closer one to me, and many in a book store near Queens College I’d walk to every so often. (I still have their bookmark.)
But most of my books was bought in a little used bookstore in the East Village just down the street from McSorley’s Ale House. They had magazines from the '50s ad '60s on a round rack near the door for a quarter each. I could afford that even in high school. I also went to Stephen’s Book Service (Barry Mazberg set a novel there) and some other places.
Now there are still a few good used book stores, one in San Jose and one in Mountain View, but I’m so far behind in my reading that I rarely buy anything any more. I will buy some books from thrift stores. And, while not books, I subscribe to paper copies of the major magazines, including Clarkesworld.
The DErby Square Bookstore in Salem, Masbooks stacked this way. The weight was so great that they had to put bungee cords on the table legs to keep them from collapsing. The whole store was stacked withe cashier was surroounded by a construction of books with just enough of a “window” to let him was just waiting for the day the whole thing collapsed like a stack of dominos, but it never did.
They eventu, and the new owners cleared out all the booksratch with a modest collection of new and used boos. It’s still there. But them a LOcal Author. Grrr
What’s heartbreaking is that Boston/Cambridge, not far from where I live, is a college town. Arguably one of the college towns. They used to be packed with bookstores and used bookstores.
Boston actually has come back a little from what it was a couple of years ago – ignoring college bookstores, religious bookstores, children’s and rare bookstores, I could only name three back then. Now there are at least nine. But it’s a far cry from what it was pre-2000.
Page One and COAS are rare gems, works of love by individuals like Patrick Beckett. Years ago we had the Dana Book Store in Socorro, but it closed when Gladys Dana retired.
This is the weakness of all great independent bookstores - hell, all great independent ventures of any kind - they’re typically the result of one person’s vision and dedication, and when that person becomes unable to run them anymore, if they can’t find someone similarly dedicated and driven to take over, the institution retires with the founder. I’m always delighted when a place has a backup plan.
In the olden days most of my books would come from the chain seller in my local mall. I even worked there for about 6 months while in college. I held out for years after ebooks became mainstream because I liked the feel and smell of books. Then I started traveling frequently for work, 3 weeks a month, and finally bought a Kindle. Now it’s Kindle reader on my phone and Reddit/HFY on the computer.