Booking Through Thursday: Doomsday

A scary scenario from today’s Booking Through Thursday:

What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable?

Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop … what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit?

I know we’re all supposed to be mad at Amazon these days, but it’s still my main source of books. My local bookstore’s good for popular and/or new books, but it’s Amazon that I use to slake my thirst for research books and out-of-print books. So it would be quite a jolt for me if Amazon disappeared. I can’t remember how I got along before it, actually.

In the absence of Amazon, I’d probably manage OK on Abebooks and eBay, where I also buy a lot of books. But it just wouldn’t be the same.

I don’t think I’m going to sleep well tonight!

9 thoughts on “Booking Through Thursday: Doomsday”

  1. For me here in Boston, it’s the Brattle Bookshop! The bargain carts outside are an endless source of great books (including a weird abundance of fairly erudite titles), and over half are only $1!

    And surely you’re not ranking Amazon OVER the great, the mighty Alibris???

  2. ooops – forgot common civilities! First-time poster to your blog, which, by the way, is LUMINOUSLY fantastic!

  3. Lynn Irwin Stewart

    I use Amazon a lot (why are we supposed to be mad at it?!, also half.com. I like to physically touch books when I can — so I’m most often in Borders, simply because it’s the closest bookstore to me.

  4. You might want to try BookFinder.com. It’s a search engine that queries the catalogs of multiple book sites. It returns the matching titles with prices that include shipping. I have often found out-of-print books for less than Amazon, Alibris and AbeBooks.

  5. Alibris is my online favorite. Borders website is quite sad since they dropped Amazon. I use Amazon sometimes too.

    My main source of books at the moment are Advance Readers or books given to me to review from authors and publishers. If I didn’t receive these books there are many I would probably not pick out and buy on my own.

    The little used book store down the road never has my favorite authors, but I buy a lot of kids books for my daughter.

  6. Susan Higginbotham

    Thanks, Steve! I’ve used Alibris before. It was a pleasant experience, as I recall–I just always tend to think about Amazon first, then Abebooks (probably because the latter’s good for stuff in the UK that’s too obscure for Amazon).

    Susan, I’ve never tried borders.com. Should one of these days.

    Thanks, Jane, for the Bookfinder reminder!

    Arleigh, I miss the days of buyng kids’ books! Now I’m pathetically grateful when my daughter decides she wants to buy a book. I still have a lot of the Sandra Boyton board books memorized.

  7. I guess I would have to go to Borders.com or Books a Million. I really love Amazon and would be upset to no end without this source. :(…

  8. No Amazon… no Waterstones… no Borders…

    Are you trying to give me nightmares???? 😉

    And another thought… my definition of Hell: A place without books!

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