Where do you get all your books from?

[avoidingwork]

Amazon
Bookshops
Free Libraries
Charity Shops....

Where do you get yours from?

(secretly hoping for a miracle tip for bargain books)

Library
Take a Book/Leave a Book shelves at stations
Car Boot Sales
Charity shops
The Works
supermarkets
Waterstones
Foyles
Forbidden Planet
WHSmith
Secondhand Book shop

I have never bought a book from Amazon.

I live in London and my library doesn’t charge either. They’ll get any book from any other London library free of charge too.
I watched the whole of Game of Thrones for £2 or £1 per series box set recently too.
I’m shocked at £1.80 per reservation. You can buy a lot of used books from amazon or eBay for around that price.

Charity shops
Car boot sales
Jumble sales
Hotel swaps
Library (free to order in this area)
Amazon but only v. rarely.

I love books but only buy full price if I really, really want to read it. Hardly ever pay more than 50p for a second hand book.

My library charges £1 for reservations, but my rationale is that most charity shops charge at least that and cheap kindle books are usually the same (well, 99p!) so I don’t mind paying especially for books that are only just out so won’t be cheap on kindle for ages.

Library, then World of Books.
I can never find anything I like in charity shops.
The Kindle free samples are handy. I try books I like the sound of then find them at the above.

You can buy a lot of used books from amazon or eBay for around that price

But not once postage is taken into account. Even the Amazon penny books are nearly £3 each once you've paid for postage.

so I don’t mind paying especially for books that are only just out so won’t be cheap on kindle for ages

You'd be surprised. Many of the 99p books I buy have only been out 3-6 months.

Our library used to charge £1 per reservation but is now free. It's not very efficient though, it can take weeks for books to come available, more if a new popular one.

I get mine from all sorts of places - a lot from a second hand bookshop about half an hour away at Shugborough Hall.

I have just read an amazing book though, about becoming a mother figure and the struggles - I got it from Amazon. It made me cry - it's so well written. I'm not sure if anyone else has read it? It's called Standards and Duty. I can imagine it'd appeal to most of us mums in here.

It is reassuring to see many of you use your local library... so many are under threat of closure. Many have free reservation if you make them yourself, access to ebooks and audiobooks, also dvd. Help us keep our jobs 🙂

Can I ask you all how much your library fines are?
At mine, our books are issued for two weeks although you can renew them once.
If they’re late, it’s a dollar (about 50c) a week per book. Books at the charity shop cost a dollar or less, sometimes $2 for a hardback.
My fines add up very quickly as I live in a village 50 miles from the town and don’t go in every day. If I forget to take them back it soon mounts up.

Our libraries have just taken the decision to abolish late fines for everyone, in an attempt to encourage more people to use the library. I think it's a brilliant decision!

Our overdue fines are 35p a day up to a maximum of £15 a book. But you can renew twenty times and you get an email reminder. You can renew online so I rarely pay fines

Cherrypi- I think that’s very high!!

NannyR - another town in this region has a library that has no fines and it definitely works! I used to go there on Saturdays but now I work two hours in the opposite direction to that one. I thought it was marvellous!
I suggested it to my current library and the lady said something about budgets and funding. But it really makes me not want to use the library.

Our library tried no fines but all the shelves started dwindling. People didn’t bother to bring the books back!
It’s back to fines now but it’s quite easy to renew online.

Yes, I renew online so very rarely have fines.

I admitted previously on this thread that I rarely buy new books. I felt a bit guilty about not supporting independent bookshops, so yesterday I bought a full-price new hardback from an independent retailer. Twenty quid. I'm still feeling a bit faint.

Overdue fines at my library are 22p a day. Can’t remember what the maximum fine is but IIRC it’s less than the price of a new paperback book (at the RRP).

You can renew books up to 10 times, and you can set up email reminders when you’re coming up to the end of the loan period, so I rarely forget to renew books.

Reservations are 40p a book, but that’s cheaper than buying a book almost anywhere else would be. The cheap used books on Amazon, eBay etc, would cost me more than 40p once postage and packaging is added on. And I can reserve books from any library in the county for that 40p.

Bit of each.

I love history and find that I can get some great books in charity shops that aren't for sale anymore.

My go to place is Waterstones though.

Library here as well - I can renew online and also see if a book is reserved or not (so I can't renew) which focuses the mind a bit if I need to read that one next.

I do buy as well - mainly from Amazon and Wordery.

@bibliomania

I also feel a bit guilty sometimes about not buying more books from independent bookshops, but I just couldn’t afford my reading habit if I had to pay full price for all my books. (Which is why I use the library lots!)

I’ve only bought 6 books this year from our nearest independent bookshop, and 2 of those were for the DC.

Amazon Kindle

Mostly charity shops if I'm not fussed about what I'm reading, as our local one is 6 for £1! It's ridiculous! So I go in and get 6, they last me a couple of months, then I take them back and get 6 more. Like a library really except I pay £1 each time!

I would use an actual library (and did in the past) but our local closed a while ago and I don't want to drive for half an hour just for books when I could go to the charity shop.

If there's anything new I really really want I will buy from Amazon but that's very rare that I do that for myself. I usually ask for new books for birthdays/Christmases from my family.

then I take them back and get 6 more. Like a library really except I pay £1 each time!
Yes, me too!
Luckily, I’m not very high-brow so I can usually find something.

I know what you mean, Stitches. If I'd paid full price, it would easily be £1000 this year alone.

I usually buy from Waterstones and use their loyalty card. You can usually get a discount if you click and collect on line which is useful if only buying a book that is not included in their buy one get one half price sale. I buy from them as I don’t want a world with no good book shops. Also I can, at the moment, afford it but there have been times when I couldn’t so lived at the library. Other than that I swop books with a friend. I also have books on my iPad but as I have sleep problems I have avoided the screen at night but have often got books on there that are out of print or only available in very small print (such as the classics).

My local library as they have tonnes of books. Can also reserve non-fiction for free there. Also buy some books from The Works. In the past I’ve bought books from charity shops but my collection is rather huge now so don’t do that as much now

love reading on my kindle so mainly get kindle deal of the days on Amazon
Like paperbacks as well but easy to read kindle at night
Charity shops
Supermarkets
Keep saying no more books but doesnt actually work!!!