Recently went to my local Books A Million store and boy was it a bit eye-opening! Take a look and see why!
Tag: buying books
Video: Why does Barnes and Noble do this!?
I know I disappeared for a bit. I had shoulder surgery in April. Then my home repairs took nearly a month to complete. But that’s in the past.
Today’s video is about Barnes and Noble and their attempt to dissuade shoppers from buying books there. You probably read that and thought it was a typo, but no! Watch and you’ll see.
How do I decide which books to buy?
I was wandering my local Barnes and Noble on Sunday when I was asked this question. I thought about it. Then thought some more and realized I have no idea.
That’s only partially true. If I’m reading a series I’m enjoying, then I just continue. There’s the Amazon list of 100 books everyone should read. Sometimes there’s a ton of hype surrounding a book. Some are heavily recommended. And most rarely I’ll just find myself in the bookstore waiting for something to catch my eye. All this to say I have no set way of deciding which books to buy. This likely explains why I have so many books I haven’t yet read. I buy them in a moment of interest and then once the moment passes, so does my willingness to read them.
How do you decide which books to buy?
Half Price Books Mini Haul #2
My second mini haul recently. I may need to stop spending all my money at the bookstore. 😳 Which books have you bought recently?
Books are back?
Most of 2020 was clouded with bad news, but maybe there’s a flicker of good news mixed in. Across the board all genres of books saw sales gains from the previous year. According to Nielsen Bookscan the total number of books sold was 751 million. This was the best year for book sales since 2010!
Just writing that is amazing. The top selling book of the year was former President Obama’s A Promised Land. Unsurprisingly. There are several factors at play here and who really knows what will happen in the coming years, but people are buying and reading books, and there’s not a single negative when that happens.
The bestselling books of 2020:
A Promised Land – Barack Obama
Midnight Sun – Stephenie Meyer
Dog Man: Grime and Punishment – Dav Pilkey
Too Much and Never Enough – Mary Trump
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Untamed – Glennon Doyle
The Deep End – Jeff Kinney
White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy
Did you read any of these last year?
Book Buying Tip: STOP Going to Barnes and Noble!
On my birthday last month I ventured into my local BN store for the first time. This was the first time I’d been into any BN store in nearly 4 years. Suffice it to say I was not impressed. Watch and tell me your thoughts!
Is This the Best Way to Buy a Book?
I’ve known about bookshop.org since its launch, though I hardly gave it any thought. It’s an online bookstore that aims to help and preserve independent bookstores in the US.
I’ve written over and over about how much I love Half Price Books. It’s really the only bookstore I regularly shop at. HPB may be a chain, but it’s still family owned. They fall somewhere in the middle of Barnes and Noble on the top of the stack and the local mom and pop bookstore with a single location.
But bookshop.org tries to level the playing field. The site gives away most of its profits to local bookstores and has an affiliate program that pays out 10% commission and matches that with 10% to local bookstores.
When checking their website there’s a lot to like about it. But there’s one flaw. The site is its own bookstore. Though you can find affiliated stores on the site, when buying books you’re buying from the site. What I think would make the site ideal is if the books listed are actually bought from those local affiliate bookstores. The site would act as a marketplace. I’m not sure if this is possible, but it’s a thought. Do you have a favorite bookstore you prefer over others?
A New Possibility
Maybe you know, maybe you don’t, but for about a year from 2015-2016 I worked at Half Price Books. I’m sorry if you’re not in the US or live in a state without one. They’re really great places.
It was during this period I realized how silly I’d been for so long. Prior to that I’d almost exclusively bought my books through Amazon. Several years ago my favorite was actually Borders because they had the best coupons, but then they closed. At another point I had a Barnes and Noble membership. But the savings were never worth it.
As you can see, over the years I’ve constantly tried to get the most bang for my buck when buying books. Then I found HPB and my world forever changed. Now that vaccinations are starting my hope is that HPB is able to bring back their biggest sales in 2021. 4 times a year they have 20% off everything for a four day weekend. 4 other times a year they have a coupon for every day of the week, culminating with 50% off the final day.
I’ve written over and over about HPB on here. I honestly love the place. But lately it’s been difficult to find some of the books I’ve been looking for. And I’ve been looking for months. I partially attribute this to the pandemic. There’s definitely lots more shelf space than normal. I recently found another used bookstore just down the street from where I live. This is something of a gem, as it’s only one location. But it’s been around for decades. I haven’t gone yet, but I intend to. Who knows? Maybe this will be my new go-to store?
The Downside of Half Price Books
Since I worked at Half Price from 2015-2016 I’ve almost exclusively bought my books there. Why? Most of the books in store are in really good condition and I get to save money, which means more money for MORE books.
But of course there’s a downside to this. I never buy books online from because I’ve bought used books online before and the condition was atrocious when I finally got them. So I’m limited to what’s available in my local store.
That’s okay. It isn’t the worst thing ever. But I have three books I want to buy and have looked for multiple times and haven’t found them. Ugh. But I shall wait! Because I’m not spending 2x or more on a book I can get at Half Price. And don’t recommend I look at the library, I KNOW. But I need my own copies.
Broken Promise, But Not Really
I haven’t made a goal of not buying any new books in 2019. Which means I’m almost certainly going to buy some. I have a disease. 😂
Besides my favorite authors and series, whenever I enjoy an adaptation before reading the book I always want to go back and read it. Every single time. I know I’m not the only one, and don’t yell at me for not reading the book first to begin with. Sometimes we don’t even know there’s a book until afterward.
Recently I’ve watched two adaptations I really enjoyed. One was a movie and one was a series. Now I want both books. But I’m stingy. I never pay regular price and prefer to have Half Price coupons when I go. They only come out four times a year. Hmm.
Do you always read the book first when there’s an adaptation out or on the way?
Johnny Reads 