Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for October 13, 2011

Yeo dude – Use the ToiletFinder-App :D

So you came to the bookstore to tell them you don’t like the bookstore?

Forget the bookstore! Go online first!

maybe you have the “made in Asia” copy for half price….and by the way…can I get a JOB here?

..yeah… a lot of us are like the goatee guy…

He can go online using the free Wifi the bookstore provides people too cheap to subscribe at home.

In these tough times, we’ve all got to get by with a little less.Try getting by with a little less because you were willing to pay a little more for products & service from a local employee & the tough times will get shorter quicker.

Put your money back into your local economy. I’m always will to pay a little more knowing that it will help those locally. :) Support your local businesses. They care about you because they need and want you.

As a matter of fact, if you are shopping on-line, you will find (a) coffee (fresh, not stale) in the kitchen, (b) newspapers (current, not stale) all over the internet, © muffins or any other treat in the kitchen, (d) a clean bathroom, and (e) no vagrants hanging out and stinking in the immediate area.Plus, buying books on-line means you don’t have to put up with the unpleasant attitudes of unwilling store clerks.

Plus friendly service, don’t forget that!

When I can get the cash loose I like to buy at the local used bookstore. If I could get my wife to find a perfume that smells like used books I would be a happy man.

I don’t know that I find buying books on line cheaper all the time. Current books run about the same price as in the store and if they’re older while being somewaht less expensive by the time the shipping cost are added I’ve paid as much as going to the book store in the first place.

Laura – don’t push your luck.

Leaving the house last night to catch a bus across town for the evening, I realized that I only had about 20 pages left on the book I was working on. That wouldn’t even last me the trip out, let alone the trip home. I didn’t have my next book lined up, so I made a detour to my local bookstore.

I didn’t have anything specific in mind to look for, so I went to the display of new and/or noteworthy paperback fiction. A number of the books had little “Our Staff Recommends…” write-ups, which I turned my first attention to, but what ultimately caught me eye was something else, something that I had never heard of before and would never have searched for online. I brought it to the register, and the sales clerk congratulated me on my choice; “That’s a great book”, he said, and we passed a few moments chatting about that and other books.

I paid for the book in cash, and continued on my way, with a shiny new book in hand, half an hour after deciding that I wanted one.

Can’t do that online.

A recent book on Kindle is about half the publisher’s price. Some older books are much cheaper and may be free if in the public domain. They are delivered instantaneously. But I still like a real book, magazine or newspaper that I can search and reread more easily.

Yes, but with an e-book you can’t pass it along to a friend afterwards. And if you’re reading an e-book and are compelled to throw it across the room after 20 pages, it quickly becomes cost-prohibitive.

I love the feel of “real” books, but have finally admitted that I need an e-reader because of sight problems. I have a favourite bookstore that I’ve bought books in for years and will continue to shop there for my friends and relatives. Getting old sucks!

“Yes you can. Except it’s easier, of course. Get an ebook reader or an iPad. You can buy a book from anywhere with wi-fi. (Which is everywhere, including bookstores.)”

No, you can’t. Browsing is best done with the actual books in front of me. Recommendations are better from an actual person speaking to me. And, of course, an e-reader is not a book. It is the content of a book, displayed on a screen. Perhaps some day the technology will advance to the point where readers can effectively display illustrations, and tables, and footnotes, but my understanding is that they are sadly lacking in those areas so far.

I mentioned a while back that there are times when I order from Amazon, if it’s something specific that would be hard to get (even as a special order) from a bookstore, but I don’t see myself getting an e-reader anytime soon…