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I always end up buying into these deals at first it was because I usually do buy more than one book so seemed like a good deal but a few years down the line I've noticed that I mostly seem to buy books from these tables instead of exploring the rest of the shelves. I also have a huge pile of books that will probably never be read as they weren't books I'd usually buy or like the style of therefore I wont waste my precious reading time on them.
Is anyone else as dumb as me to fall for these deals?
Why can you always find 2 best sellers but struggle on the third?
Does the publishing houses have anything to do what is on the offers and use it to get rid of some rubbish books that need publicised as word of mouth isn't working?
I think I might have to go cold turkey and only buy online for a while.
The publishers usually do a deal with the retailers and they agree on a 3 for 2 on a selection of their books. They might be ones that aren't selling so well or they just know that they'll boost sales, it might be that they over printed. I fall for the 3 for 2 too and always, always only ever find 2 books I want. It's the law of stupid 3 for 2 book offers.
Also: are there any good books out at the moment or is it just me? The shops seem to be full of rubbish biographies by 20-odd year olds or really old codgers that your dad would be vaguely interested in reading about. Or its just a load of gimmicky crappy Christmas novelty books that nobody wants but everyone buys for brothers, brother-in-laws, uncles, cousins, etc. Bah humbug.
"My" bookshop has an excellent Christmas pick list which doesn't slot into either of those categories (NB I didn't choose any of them, I'm just the hired help, so it's not personal vanity, exactly, more a sort of team pride). So there are some good books out there, honest.
My newest falling-foul-of-the-3-for-2 is: I find 2 expensive books in the 3 for 2. Then I can only find one more that I want to read, and it is at least 3 quid cheaper, thus making it cheaper to buy from waterstones.com and denying me the joy of the real physical transaction (late-night aside: is shopping on Amazon like internet porn for biblioholics?).
Still annoying, but I feel that this is at least progress from the '2 good books, one makeweight' scenario.
I always always fall for this and end up running round the shop in a panic trying to find the last book. I have solved my stupidly over the top book habit however (well not solved exactly - more just solved the storage thingy) by buying a Sony Book Reader and I love it love it love it. 160 books all in one place! AND the USA ebook sites are cheaper than the UK ones. It's fab
(NB I didn't choose any of them, I'm just the hired help, so it's not personal vanity, exactly, more a sort of team pride). So there are some good books out there, honest.
