Do you buy rent or borrow? Or do you have a subscription of some kind? Do you read physical books or do you read ebooks?
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I pirate shamelessly. Z-lib is my to-go.
I just realized, boy is it refreshing to actually talk about sites like z-lib without being censored. Library Genesis and Anna’s Archive are also nifty.
yeah if i’m even remotely ambiguous on whether i’d want a book, piracy. i can’t buy everything and i can’t go to a library every day. but i definitely try to buy books from the authors i know i like—i heard great things about NK Jemisin and Kim Stanley Robinson for example, read one of their books, and then that made me go out and buy large parts of both’s output. i think i have physical copies of like a third of KSR’s major novels, lol.
Exactly. I always read a pirated epub first, then, I always go out and buy that book in hardcover. But many of the authors I enjoy are long dead, and many of their prints are in public domain. So piracy doesn’t matter there. That’s where Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks are incredible!
It feels so good to finally say this outright. Arrr!
Book Depository closed the other month, I don’t know if Amazon understood how important it is for people outside US and EU, but the closure really pushed everyone I know to casually switch back to piracy.
What? The website looks the same to me?
Where are you looking
I’m not sure what Book Depository is, but if it’s related to Amazon i would have avoided it anyway, even if it was free. I actively boycott Amazon.
I just use my local library now. I don’t usually read a book twice, so I don’t see any point in purchasing books anymore.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks in my car, which got me back into the reading-for-pleasure habit after a dry spell during and after grad school. I have a subscription to libro.fm, the source of most of my audiobooks.
When not in my car I borrow a lot of ebooks from libby, or hoopla if the book’s not on libby. I also sometimes borrow audiobooks. I haven’t borrowed a physical book from the library since COVID.
Less often, I buy books from Powells, but my physical book collection is so big, I usually only buy older books that aren’t available from other sources.
I have a wealth of sources for book recommendations to find new books. Powells, who have staff recommendations every month, New York Times, librarything, a gazillion places on the web…
Yes to all of that :) I just realised exactly how eclectic my reading habits are - lately I’ve been visiting the local library once or twice a week, plus I have a kobo subscription that has introduced me to a heap of indie authors I never would have discovered otherwise, plus I have a wall of books which are mostly used/secondhand except for a handful of absolute favourites.
I buy my books from either ebooks or Amazon, then load them on my kindle which I carry everywhere. It’s an old paper white that usually fits into the pocket of whatever jacket I’m wearing.
I like physical books too but I really don’t have the space to be stacking up. I also read a lot in public and don’t like for people to always know what I’m reading lol. Nothing sketch, I’m just a private person.
I buy books only when I really love the edition. Otherwise, I’ll buy some on kindle and rent others through my local library, or Libby. I only buy physical copies of books I am happy to re-read.
Mostly borrow ebooks from the public library. There is a small new-and-used bookstore near me, one of those classic “open 3 hours a day, more if we feel like it” ones. Very fun to go wander the shelves when I want a physical book.
I use the Libby app and check out ebooks from my local library usually. I have a bunch of physical books as well, but I am out of room to put them now. I also find ebooks to be more convenient. I can read whenever I want because I have all the books I’m reading on my phone.
Combination of my local second-hand bookstore (which has a wildly good selection given that I live in a small country town), my two favourite “regular” bookstores, Libby, and the Kobo ebook store.
If I can’t find something particularly niche or out of print, I’ll use Abe Books but I try to avoid that since it’s owned by Amazon.
Edit: I’ve started to favour print books most of the time, at least for poetry and non-fiction. I’ve started to write more again and I find physical books much easier to refer back to.
I prefer nonfiction to be printed books as well. For some reason I don’t seem to take it as seriously as an ebook, maybe it feels too insubstantial for my brain to take it seriously.
