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cirdaneth
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Post How good/bad is your bookstore?
on: July 03, 2014 12:24
Bookstores closing? Staff ill-informed or uninterested? or does your bookstore go the extra mile for Tolkien? This is the place to have a quick rant or hand out a medal.
NenyaGold
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on: July 03, 2014 05:25
I don't go to bookstores... We are very fortunate -- I get to go to our awesome Library where we can order books/CD's/DVD's/etc. from all around the state if ours doesn't have them. And, they are FREE! Also, it's where I volunteer.

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Gandolorin
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on: July 03, 2014 01:10
Consolidation is taking place, with very good (and at times very large) stores joining chains. But so far it has not damaged quality, I have almost never failed to get books ordered even if they were far away from bestseller-lists. And many of the stores (or at east chains) are also to be found on the internet, so competing in a way with Amazon. Very much a "to be continued" story, I prefer the face-to-face in a real-life store vastly to the Internet alternative.
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Evil~Shieldmaiden
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on: July 05, 2014 06:46
We have a small locally owned bookstore where I live, with a branch in the next town. They carry an excellent quality of books, and have been able to order everything that I have come up with so far. I can go to a Chapters store a few miles away, but I prefer supporting my local book dealer whenever possible.
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Dolwen
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on: July 06, 2014 06:39
I kind of collect books so I find that local bookstores rarely have what I want. I only buy books that I fully intend to read more than once and only in hardcover, preferably first or collector's editions. We had a Books a Million for a couple of years but it closed in the spring this year. I rarely went there as they mostly carry paperbacks, they were far too expensive and you couldn't buy so much as a $2 item without being bombarded with sales pitches at the checkout. We have a nearby used book store that I browse in occasionally and have bought from when I have found what I was looking for but again, mostly paperbacks and genre's I am not interested in. Though I have to hand it to the owner as she is quite friendly,is certainly passionate about books and knows her stuff. I would certainly buy from her more if she carried more of what I was looking for. So, most of my book buying is online (amazon or abebooks) because of the prices and better variety.
Evil~Shieldmaiden
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on: July 07, 2014 02:07
Dolwen said: Though I have to hand it to the owner as she is quite friendly,is certainly passionate about books and knows her stuff. I would certainly buy from her more if she carried more of what I was looking for.


Have you asked if she can order the books you're looking for, especially if you're interested in first edition hardcovers? My own local store can order anything directly from the publishers, or a book warehouse.
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Lindarielwen
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on: July 07, 2014 08:03
Ir was a sad day for me when Borders closed their doors for good. Now, I have Barnes and Noble and Books a Million. Small bookstores are rare where I live but in Hudson, Ohio, there is a wonderful bookstore called Learned Owl.

I find a lot of books at the Salvation Army and even at yard sales.

NenyaGold, I never even thought of asking at the library about ordering books. I will give that a try.
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NenyaGold
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on: July 08, 2014 07:06
Lindarialwen, we have what is called "Link+" (Link Plus), where if our Library's book is either borrowed or we don't have it at all, I can click one button and all the Link+ libraries in the state (about 50 of them) will pop up with all the same info we have on line for our Library. When I request it, the system decides which Library sends it to us (some were from way down south in San Diego) so that the same Library isn't sending theirs out all of the time. They usually arrive within a day or two. I would have had to buy the books otherwise.

We also have e-books that I've borrowed for my Kindle, and I admit I've bought several books from Amazon, my "bookstore". But I usually don't pay more than $5 per book.

When my great aunt died, we donated 80 shopping bags of books to my Library. It really brought home the fact that I didn't need to own every book I wanted to read and that our Library is such a fantastic resource. We really are lucky.

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starofdunedain
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on: July 08, 2014 04:55
The local bookstore here I don't have a very high opinion of. The way they give you credit for used books is screwy and they aren't very upfront and honest about how they do business. I stopped going there. There's either Half-priced Books in the next city or a several hour drive to Powell's. I love Powell's so much,I wish I lived there so I could go everyday. I belong to three different library systems so mostly I only borrow books.
Lindarielwen your local library can order any book for you from a different system. They can use Link + like NenyaGold said but there's also a wonderful site called World Catalog where you can even order from out of country if needed! Although that's only happened to me once. I'm not sure how you're library works but if you have an account with their website you can probably do an InterLibrary Loan (ILL) just by logging into your library account and putting in a request.
Dolwen
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on: July 09, 2014 03:56
Evil~Shieldmaiden said:
Have you asked if she can order the books you're looking for, especially if you're interested in first edition hardcovers? My own local store can order anything directly from the publishers, or a book warehouse.


No, I actually haven't asked her about that. I have heard her talk to others about ordering for them but they seemed to be just regular books that you can get at any bookstore. I have never heard anything about ordering collectible books from her. Perhaps the next time I am in, I will ask. Though having many different conditions to choose from at abebooks is appealing to me.
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on: July 10, 2014 08:59
Great! A rant thread! Unfortunately, I've finished my rant on the Beowulf thread!
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