Intending to move on to the next charity/individual bookshop this afternoon, I felt a rare tug whilst passing by Waterstones and went in. After reading about the closure of Borders stores on various blogs across the water, it got me reflecting on my own book-buying habits. Myself and the bf have always been more comfortable buying our books from charity shops or from independent retailers. The price, overall experience and feeling that you are not merely filling the pockets of some faceless chain-store being just three of the reasons why I buy books in that way. Having said that, I do buy books from Amazon, but I would justify this by saying that I simply can't always find everything I want in the independents and I always, always buy used books from individual retailers who just happen to be selling on Amazon. However, I did do the 3 for 2 today, for the first time in years and I have been wondering what indeed compelled me to do so. Sure, the smell and look of a brand new book is just....well, as sad as I am, mouth-watering (!!) And you also get the lovely, newly designed jackets and all the other fantastic things that come with new books. I suppose the idea of, on occasion, actually paying what the book is worth is also a decent thing to do.
On a grander scale; I live in Manchester, and in these parts I have a variety of bookshops to go to (although let's not get overexcited, it could be better) however, what happens to the vast majority of people who don't live in larger cities and only have the bog-standard high street to choose from? Yes, there is the internet, but it hardly flies the flag for literacy and learning like a good solid bookshop (however chainey) does sitting on your local high street next to Primarni.
Yes, I do blanch at the idea of paying more than five pound for a book, yes, I often only use the likes of Waterstones for drooling and window-shopping, however, as with the libraries, if I do dread the possibility of our own staple high-street book retailer going into administration, shouldn't we cease to be such hypocrites and contribute from time to time?
I bought (rather unimaginatively but what is one to do?):
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro (on the TBR list for far too long, I absolutely loved Remains of the day and, although I have heard it is very different, I hope to love this just as much)
South Riding by Winifred Holtby (this caught my eye as I walked in; I haven't even seen the BBC series but it struck me that it must be worth reading and I should really start building up a decent Virago collection afterall- I bought the version with the nice cover not the rubbish 'televised series' copy)
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