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Confession: I receive several book catalogs and I look at every one, but mostly I pick up interesting titles and put them on my list for a future trip to the library. The poor booksellers....

Anybody else similarly guilty?

chicagojcb 7 Feb 15
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I tend to buy second hand books from charity shops and then take them back to be resold I live in a very small town and the library is somewhat pitiful. whereas we are coming down charity shops.

That's a reasonable alternative. I am lucky to live in a US state with a connected public library system -- if my relatively small local library doesn't have something I want, chances are one of the other 70 or so libraries in the state does and I can ask for it and have it show up at my local. It's so awesome.

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First, a confession. I followed alt.ebooks many 20+ years ago and read quite a few pirated books on my PDA. Anyone remember PDAs?

Our brick and mortar bookstore rule now is that for any two titles we see at the store and then either get from the library or buy for kindle, we buy one physical book.

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That just makes you smart. I buy books and sometimes don't even finish them.

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At least you're reading, and it keeps the library buying books, so it contributes to the book industry, even if it isn't a full purchase.

I'll sometimes download an episode of a show I missed. I don't really feel bad about it if it was something they were streaming and I just got behind on my viewing. If it's a show that I can't easily get elsewhere without having a subscription to HBO or something, I feel a little bad but not enough to warrant not downloading it. I figure they're making it super expensive to watch one show, so t'hell with 'em. Most of the time, though, I try to watch shows through official channels.

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All my life, until lately, I used to be a voracious reader, reading anywhere from 3-8 books a weeks. Since I'm not well off financially, I always went to the library and checked out a bagful at a time, or I went to a used bookstore and bought them for 25 cents each.

marga Level 7 Feb 15, 2018

Do you remember Paperback Exchange?

@andygee no, I don't recognize the name

Unless your local library is very small and not part of a library system, it is very likely that they have the digital reading checkout system such as libraryOnTheGo.com. After I check out an e-book, I just read it in my browser on my laptop so that I can adjust the print and not have to scroll quite as often.

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My ex wife was a book collector. I would text #unaccompanied if she said she was at the library alone. 10 at a time, why not. There’s no guilt there. Do you read more than one at a time?

Sometimes. If I'm reading something hard for me (like biology, archeology, or physics above my grade level), I might also have something like a biography going at the same time so I can decide what to read based on my perceived level of brain cells.

@chicagojcb I do exactly the same thing. Mine are e-books (see my comment below). Right now, I am reading Origins, by Dan Brown, and also reading a book titled Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal, by Bryan Sykes. The author is a DNA analytical scientist, and his purpose is to track down and test samples. It gets pretty technical in parts, so I just read a little at a time and then switch right back to whichever novel I am currently reading.

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Yes, always look at the local library first.

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