Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Hey everyone! Since we are reading books that are a little outside the mainstream, I'm curious to hear where people are getting their books--both for this group and in general. Do you have a favorite local bookstore? Do you shop Amazon? Library? Something else?

I ordered Sweet and Sour Milk from Magers and Quinn (for all you folks outside the Twin Cities, that's a bookstore in Mpls). They didn't have it in the store, so I ordered it from them. I looked into ordering it straight from the publisher, but it was less expensive to get it from the bookstore.

I'm planning to stop by Moon Palace Books (another great mpls bookstore!) on Wednesday to pick up this month's book. For all you Twin Cities people, they are participating in a fundraiser for the Immigrant Law Center of MN where they are donating 20% of all sales on Wednesday.

My mom is a librarian, so growing up my family NEVER bought books--we only checked them out from the library! What about everyone else?

I get everything from the Hennepin County Library system; I don't buy books too often. Those are some new-to-me bookstores though so I'll have to look into them!

I grew up book-buying instead of book-borrowing (bad librarian) - partially because my family has a genetic predisposition to not return things on time and partly because I'm a big re-reader and a big collector.

I try to avoid bookstores because I'll end buying thirty books at a time, but I love Magers & Quinn and Moonpalace, as you know. I've also been meaning to try out Subtext, in St. Paul, and Open Book in Minneapolis. Also did you know that the MN Historical Society has its own press, which you can order from online or pick up there? It's got some cool, unique books for local history - I really enjoyed Days of Rondo which I got from there.

I mostly use bookstores for serendipitous finds though, if I have a specific book in mind I'll buy it on Amazon - either for Kindle or a physical copy - because then I don't come away with more than I need. Also I've been getting really into audiobooks through Audible, especially when I can link them to a Kindle and read or listen as the mood strikes.

Oh I just remembered - I do love Boneshaker Books in Seward. It's been a while since I've been there but they have a lot of off-the-beaten-path stuff that's really fun!

I bought Sweet and Sour Milk from Amazon, both because I was lazy :) and thought it looked like the kind of book I'd want to return to and have on my shelf.

I'm checking out Woman in the Crossfires from the NY Public Library. They had a copy at my branch (Inwood) but I had to put a hold on it. (Just came in today so I'll be picking it up soon!)

My grandparents were librarians so I grew up learning from them -- they would never buy books and always had a pile of interesting age appropriate books checked out for us every time we visited. As I got older, though, I started buying some books to collect. I like to have a good distribution of books on my shelf (preferably five star ones that made a particular impression on me), that I might pick up again on a rainy day. It's comforting, and kind of personal too -- what's on my shelf represents my personality. I also have a Kindle and I often check out ebooks from Overdrive.

I enjoy browsing in bookstores to get ideas (and sometimes purchase if I think it's a book I'll love and return to). The Strand here in NYC is great (though crowded!). I was just visiting Caltech and Vroman's bookstore was a fun place to stop by. In general I enjoy visiting small bookstores and yarn stores when traveling.

I also often buy foreign language books instead of borrowing (e.g. guiltily came back with a big heavy pile from a trip last year to Paris) since they can be harder to find in the library or as an ebook here. My grandfather especially was really into foreign languages, and when we were going through his stuff after he died we found books in 14 (!) different languages. (In fact there's a funny story about my dad having to lug a giant suitcase full of books back from their trip to Russia right after the Soviet Union fell, when books were just a few cents each and he couldn't resist.) So I guess that was an exception even for my borrow-only purist librarian grandparents! Additional funny tidbit: I actually had to learn the cyrillic alphabet to help my grandmother alphabetize his books after he died, true librarian that she is. :)

Having a collection of books in foreign languages is a lifegoal of mine!

I'm working on getting better about using the Hennepin County library system...but sometimes I just hate waiting for a book so I buy it instead.