Found this article on changes at Barnes and Noble… very interesting…new strategy…
‘Amazon doesn’t care about books’: how Barnes & Noble bounced back | Barnes & Noble | The Guardian.
But made me think… how long has it been since I bought a Paper Book. Amazon has about locked up the market on Ebooks.
The last paper book I recall was a Travel book.
I get Best Sellers from the Library, also in Ebook format.
I remember a time when I made frequent trips to Bookstores.
Who still goes to Bookstores?
I read almost everything online except for a few magazines I subscribe to like Consumer Reports. My wife is a voracious reader, however she gets all her paper books from the library.
Now this is a book store!
The Zhongshuge Bookstore in Dujiangyan, China
[mirrored ceiling doubles the effect]
I do! The town next to mine has an independent bookstore downtown, and I order from them to support them.
Years ago I went more often and purchased more. Now it’s less often, and fewer purchases.
My town is a college town so there is a Barnes & Noble, which is really a college bookstore, but I have shopped there, too.
I also purchase hard copies of books from my local bookstore, NOT Barnes & Noble or any other chain book stores (if there are any others still around…). I have fond memories of my mother taking me here for story time when I was a child. I repay the favor by purchasing my mom books from here for her birthday and for holidays. She reads the books and then passes them on to me, so it’s kind of a win-win for both of us.
I used to go to The Strand bookstore in NYC back when I lived in NJ in the 80’s. Is it still in business? Barnes and Noble I’d buy books in the1990’s from. Eventually between the internet and interlibrary loan, most books I want to read can be found for free from the library or I wait until a Thrift Books type seller on Ebay has something I want.
With failing eyesight, I really like ebooks from the library and I can increase the font size. Wonderful.
In general, I prefer print books, especially if more serious reading. For e-books, I significantly prefer Barnes and Nobles Nook to Amazons Kindle. And both of those over Google Books. I prefer supporting small businesses, so I do shop in a local bookstore reasonably often. But when purchasing gift books that will be shipped, or print books that i cannot find there, i purchase from Barnes and Noble.
Of course, for some of the old classics and many others, there is always ARCHIVE.ORG. It contains many books available in many formats for free. It also now includes e-books, geneology info records, audio books, movies and all sorts of stuff.
I particularly enjoyed the books of Isabella Bird (1831-1904), a British traveler who wrote quite well. For example, her letters to her sister back in England were not copyrighted so they are free. She visited and wrote about many countries:
Books by Isabella Bird
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains
Among the Tibetans
The Englishwoman in America
the Aspects of Religion in the United States of America
Pen and Pencil sketches Among the Outer Hebrides
Notes on Old Edinburgh
The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands
The Two Atlantics
Australia Felix: Impressions of Victoria and Melbourne
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: An Account of Travels on Horseback in the Interior
Sketches in the Malay Peninsula
The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
A Pilgrimage to Sinai
the Yangtze Valley and Beyond: An Account of Journeys in China, Chiefly in the Province of Sze Chuan and Among the Man-tze of the Somo Territory
Korea and her Neighbors: A Narrative of Travel, With an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country
Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan
Chinese Pictures: notes on photographs made in China
Letters to Henrietta
Six Months in the Sandwich Islands
The last one was of particular interest to me as she was here near my house in Hawaii way back. Even Mark Twain refered to her in his writings about the volcano here.
Agree. But there are still some books that are “keepers”. So I’ll purchase them for my bookshelf from the local bookstore.
There is no better way to read than with an actual book. However, I now need reading glasses and brightness of background lighting makes it more difficult to read a book where I cannot enlarge text or increase contrast. (I find it odd that companys put mice-type directions on microwaveable foods commonly cooked by older people).
My neighbor was an author and I helped format and format his books and his three books on Amazon have covers I created. That does not actually make me an illustrator but does give me a bit of bragging rights.
This is why I prefer Ebooks on my computer so I can enhance the print
