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Buying Books
March 06th, 2022
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A fedi post from @[email protected] I just read said:
"I've started to abuse Amazon for browsing articles, getting
inspirations, reading (hopefully non-fake) reviews and finding out
what a solid price for an article is. Then I buy my stuff
somewhere else."
For years I would go to big booksellers like Barnes & Noble or
Borders (before it shut down) to browse books and discover
interesting things only to then purchase them online from Amazon
where it was much cheaper. Sometimes I'd even purchase while I was
still there browsing. I felt so clever.
My battle then was against the big bookseller who came in and
killed so many beloved tiny bookshops. Amazon was the scrappy
alternative in my mind, and a means of revenge.
These days I will browse Amazon for things, read reviews, gather
intel, and then purchase else where, just like the fedi user
above. I wish I could say that it was an act of will power and
ethical justice at work, but it's mostly because ordering from
Amazon to Iceland is prohibitively expensive.
I take solace in the world of coffee, though. When Starbucks swept
in and killed many of my beloved local coffee shops I did not bow
down, but fought back by supporting those who remained or
abstaining completely. When the third wave of coffee brought back
the renaissance of local shops I was ready to dive right in.
But books... sadly, my options are less stellar. For one thing
I try not to gather too many physical books. I can't move them
easily or cheaply and I end up giving them away. So I favor ebooks
or library books. Those I could still get cheaply from Amazon,
I suppose. The general mentality that "Amazon isn't affordable"
I've developed here seems to have clouded that issue in my head.
I'm more likely to seek a 3rd party site, direct-from-author
purchase, or grab from the library. For older works, out-of-print
stuff, or obscure things I dust off my tor browser and visit
z-library.
Anyway, not sure where I was going with this, but there ya go.
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