Hi everyone...
Do you prefer online bookstores or physical stores to buy a book? Why if YES and why if NO? Are you truly skeptical about transactions that take place online???

What are the sites that you generally prefer to purchase books online...? Have you ever sold your old used books to any of these site...?

I have started this discussion since i have known some friends of mine who generally don't prefer purchasing books online. They are both reluctant and afraid as they think that browsing books by stepping into a physical bookstore is much more satisfying than these online stores, since you can have a look at the book, feel it, flip through the pages and be satisfied by reading a line or two from its pages....

I agree with them...but what if you have a hectic schedule and are waiting to get your hands on your favourite author’s newly released novel, but don't have time to go into a store after your long office hours... In this case you need not flip through the pages (as you are pretty confident on the writings of your fav author), And why is it that online bookstores have still not gained the credibility and established a genuineness among the readers.... Kindly discuss....and if you do purchase books online, pls mention from where and why!!!

I prefer online for a host of reasons - one being the cost. I just brought to kill a mockingbird online for £4.75 when my husband paid £6.99 for his copy in a store.

Plus online you can read reviews from people which I heavily rely on. I used to wander in the bookstore and buy something that caught my eye and although sometimes I brought good stuff this way, other times I brought complete crap

oh and I never keep my books so I always sell them on again online

Hello, I am new! *waves*

I have sold used books online, I've also used book swapping sites such as bookmooch and I have bought books new and old online. Not so much any more though, I just take them down the charity if I don't want them. I have a slight problem with book hoarding.

I however prefer physical bookshops especially for new books. There's something about browsing through books and picking them up and being able to open them and feel them and smell them. I'm more likely to buy on whim in a physical bookshop and generally use online websites for planned purchases that I cannot get in bookshops.

Unfortunately, bookshops are more inclined to fill their shelves up with thousands of the same old books... usually clebrity books, chicklit and Twilight, none of which I read! So if the bookshop doesn't stock it... I go online. I could order it through them but why bother? if I'm going to go online I'm going to go for the better deal even though I'd rather buy it physically and pay more... if that isn't an option I'm going to look elsewhere. And for many, the books I want when they're first out - don't end up in my local Waterstones which is really frustrating. In some cases they don't turn up until a YEAR later. Ugh! Sickening.

I like used book shops, I manly browse charity shops and the like but where I live... they aren't really that good and it's quite a trek (I do not drive) to go to the good places and in the end it would be cheaper in terms of travel costs etc to buy them online.

I used Amazon though I do not really like Amazon.co.uk for books... I like play.com too as they do not ever charge you for postage. If I'm only buying one of something and not £15 worth of good, I go to Play.

I also really like abebooks.co.uk (or .com if you're from the US) for used books - and new - it is a website for many independent, used and new bookshops around the world and I really like it there. It's a bit harder to navigate and to find the best deal - different people charge you different prices for P&P for example) but I really like it.

Another good thing about shopping online - you can get out of print books or ones that are just quite rarely found. I purchased practically every Diana Wynne Jones book I own because they just don't get shelf space in bookshops (despite them being better then all that other rubbish in the YA shelves) and rarely appear in second hand shops around here. So what choice do I have?

I am not against buying books online at all... not saying I like doing it but when you're between a rock and a hard place what am I going to do?

It depends on if the book's at the store or not... or if I really feel like going to the store.


I love getting packages so sometimes I order books online, but if I want a book right away (we all know that feeling ), I'll buy it at a store.

@ Pinkpaper - yes, you are right... cost is a major reason that attracts people to online bookstores ...besides certain stores list on their sites, a number of publishers that leads to competitive pricing of the books. And yes selling your books once you have read them is a good and wise decision instead of keeping them in your racks for dust to rest on

@ Fiona - its a fact that rare books generally find their presence in the online bookstores rather that on bookshelves of physical stores.... And also with Print on Demand (POD) service provided by many online sites...you just need to place an order of any rarest books you would like to read and they would just publish as many copies as they have received orders....a great service indeed....A1books.com is one site where i recently noticed the POD service....

@ Wilde - ...u said it...it feels nice when a package arrives at your door...and i must say that this is an entirely different insight i got to know from you about why people prefer ordering books online....

But i am still missing the sites you prefer to make your purchases online...except for "fiona" ....

I just got back from a wasted trip to Bookstar, so I think I have something to say about this.

Despite the fact that this store had nothing of what I wanted, I still prefer physical bookstores. There have been a few bookstores where I could go and talk with the proprietors and have them recommend a book to me that I might not otherwise have ever thought about. Vagabond Books in Lawrence, KS was one place like that, and so was the Blue Door Bookstore (now defunct) in San Diego. But as you can tell from the names, these were not large chain stores, just small, independent booksellers whose owners ran them simply for the love of books. Independent booksellers are disappearing, and with them a lot of freedom to choose offbeat and unusual books.

The one problem with chain stores that I've noticed is that they're to the literary landscape what a bulldozer is to the physical landscape: a way of flattening out the terrain. When I was in Bookstar today, I saw the usual collection of established writers in the "literary fiction" genre (DeLillo, McEwan, and so on) and I do not doubt that if I walked into a Bookstar/Barnes and Noble store in Peoria or Tallahassee or Buffalo that I'd see the exact same thing. Almost every book on the shelves came from the Big Six publishers, and the independent books available were extremely sparse. Maybe a few from AK Press, some from Seven Stories, a passel from W.W. Norton & Co., and I remember seeing Percival Everett's I Am Not Sidney Poitier. That's about it.

But even in this rather myopic and limited collection, I was still able to browse through the books on the shelves. I could read dust jackets, I could flip through the pages, and I could assess whether I wanted any of the books on offer. When I go online, there's very little chance for a happy surprise from an author I've never heard of. One of my most recent happy surprises was finding Montserrat Fontes' book Dreams of the Centaur at a used bookstore. I'd never heard of her or her book, but something made me pick it up and I read through it, and soon realized that I wanted to buy and read this book.

I still get most of my books at the library. My library also sells books, a dollar a piece, I seem to always find something every time I visit. In fact, we were discussing, "Empire of Illusion", Chris Hedges here on BT, I was waiting for a coupon to buy it new, when low and behold, I looked down and found it on one of the shelves at my library for $1.00, not too shabby.

I can not bring myself to pay full price for a book. If there is something I know I want, yes, I will use an on line site, one of the sites I use is Albiris. You have to watch out for those pesky shipping and handling charges though. It is people like me who may hasten the switch over from real books to those on Kindle and the likes. Ironic, because I do not like electronic reading devices.

Have bought books on-line when I'm looking for something out of print. Biblio.com has been helpful---they found one in India for me at a very inexpensive price.
Go to major chain because it's close by and I can physically handle the books, flip through,stop read, flip through. Store also has chairs so I can read quite a bit before deciding if I want it.
Amazon is okay if I've gotten reviews from friends whose tastes are like mine, but don't like to go there.
Mostly get books throguh trading with friends.

I would more often than not buy them online. They are cheaper than in the store.

I prefer buying them online IF I don't need them in a hurry. Sometimes the wait for them to be shipped is just too frustrating and I drive to Barnes and Noble and buy them in person. But usually the books I want to buy are not available in the stores. They always offer to order them for me, but by ordering them fro Barnes and Noble I have to #1 pay new book cost and #2 drive back to the store to get the book once it arrives. I'd rather just order used books through Amazon.com for 1/3 the price and have them shipped directly to me.