How do you usually get new books to read?
How do you usually get new books to read?
I have two apps for borrowing books, one for Finnish and one for English books (Ellibs and Libby). Weirdly the Finnish one sucks balls and literally has like 100 fantasy books in total. I don't read a ton but I do take a gander at stuff to borrow on occasion. I can sync the borrowed books with my Kobo e-reader which is nice. Then I also use the Kobo store to buy books, but my god their app is terrible. Bad enough that I groan when I need to browse books in there. I don't really read physical books but it has been tempting to start browsing libraries as I have two within walking distance. Perhaps during summer.
Haven't really found a good place to find new books. It is mostly though reddit. I know people use Goodreads but eh, for some reason it does not appeal to me that much.
Thanks I might take a look at bookwyrm.
Then let's hope the book situation gets better soon!
I love physical books and rely mostly on my local library, on donation boxes, and sometimes on my local bookshop.
I also love ebooks, so if I'm not 100% sure I'll enjoy a book I usually get it on libgen, and then if I've liked it enough that I want to (literally) showcase it and pass it around to my friends, I go to my local bookshop and get the paper version.
Bit of a mix really. I’ll mostly buy them on kindle but I’ve been a bit more mindful of money and just supporting libraries recently so I’ll check to see if it’s available in the local library first.
If it’s a special / meaningful book I’ll buy a physical copy (preferably a signed one!) but I try to keep this limited just due to space! Can get a lot more books on my kindle than I can on the book shelf
I’ve also been into audiobooks recently - as it’s much easier to listen to a book during those late night toddler wakes than it is to read (plus good when I have to drive any long distances) - for audio books I quite like audible (preferably when it supports whisper sync so I can switch between reading on my kindle and listening). I probably need to check to see if my library can provide audio books too!
My library is huge, I don't have enough shelf space for all of my physical books, and on my ebook reader, I have a big kindle, humble bundle and bookfunnel library. I also have an offline ebook library.
I probably don't have enough time in my life to read all the books I want to read.
So I'm now pretty picky on what books I'm going to buy, rent, 'steal' or borrow.
<sub>libgen, anna's archive, scihub if I'm feeling academicky</sub>. So I guess renting eh?
used to have a kindle pw2 but nowadays I just read stuff through koreader or mupdf on a smartphone
I only read ebooks now, because a Kobo is what got me to read again (after a long time of only reading for school).
How do I get the books? Usually torrent (it's the convenience, price, and format that works best for me). Other times it's through the library or if I really want to support an author (like Cory Doctorow) then I buy the ebook.
Anyway that is convenient. Used book stores, new book stores, libraries, Costco, dollar shops, eBay and whatever other webstores, yard sales, online archives, open hard drives, random websites, humble bundle and friends, itch.io...
For ebooks I have a couple of Kindles I load using Calibre, PDFs I use whatever, but they are best on my iPad Pro using Yomu. On Android they all seem to suck, but I haven't tried any outside of F-Droid.
I used to use Scribr, but I found the selection to be severely lacking. I guess it is good if you want a steady stream of best sellers, a meaningless accolade, or junky weird ass titles that no one should waste their time reading. I suppose their magazine access is super nifty, just the articles and no ads. It is relatively cheap, cheaper as a student I believe, and it comes with perks like Pandora premium and Mubi. It is worth it, but in the end their formatting is just the worst. Reading an ebook on a tablet is the worst of both worlds. Still, I think it is a service worth paying for just for the sheer amount of stuff, not to mention the user submitted stuff that is a gold mine.
The best book subsciption I ever had was Safari Books, which I think is now just O'Reilly. When I used to want to be a programmer, it was the best thing in the world. I even scored a pretty good deal at $200 a year. My dumbass didn't renew one year, and now it is stupidly expensive.
When I was still in school, I used to buy physical books and magazines from local bookstores.
Nowadays, I buy e-books, mostly from Humble Bundle.
I usually use Libby for most of my books, unless I'm in the middle of a series and have to have the book now.
I don't read a ton of physical books. I kind of like getting physical books as "collectors items", if I really like a book I'll try to find a nice hard cover copy of it.
Either Library Genesis for ebooks, or thriftbooks.com. Also some local used book stores, like Half Price Books (not sure if they are everywhere?)
Thrift Books is nice because you can choose the edition you want, if they have it available. Also you might get nice surprises occationally. I ordered Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons and ended up getting an autographed copy. You can also earn credits for free books, and it's free shipping on orders over $25(?), so I usually order 4-5 at a time. (Not an ad, I just really like thriftbooks lol)
I'm print disabled, which means I have problems reading printed text, but am not blind. Mainly, I have to be doing something with my hands or it's really hard to focus long enough to read a book. So I get through a lot of audiobooks.
In addition to Audible and Libby, I am also eligible for the National Library Service, which has its own app. If you, or anyone you know might qualify, here's a link to the US NLS. There are similar libraries in most other countries, and there are treaties to make books available to people living abroad in their own language.
I usually buy ebooks from ebooks.com and DeDRM them with calibre and read them on my iPad. Pirated a handful of books but I can’t always find what I’m looking for. :(
I also use my partners Audible account to listen to books at work lol
I have some great used bookstores near me that I can browse on a lunch break and have established a decent relationship with the store owners. I love to have a physical book and the interactions with a store owner that lives and breathes books can't be overrated, they always have a suggestion for me based on current interests.
I do own an e-reader though and will occasionally buy books that I just can't get in print, I've been really into the Warhammer 40k universe lately and while I could find them used on ebay they are generally pretty pricey. I did score two collections at my local thrift store last week though for $3 a piece and was pretty happy about that.
Combination of my local second-hand bookstore (which has a wildly good selection given that I live in a small country town), my two favourite "regular" bookstores, Libby, and the Kobo ebook store.
If I can't find something particularly niche or out of print, I'll use Abe Books but I try to avoid that since it's owned by Amazon.
I read a mix of ebooks and physical books. Usually the choice is determined by the type of book. For example, usually more genre fiction gets an ebook, whereas more so called "literary fiction" gets a physical copy.
For example I've picked up House of Leaves at a local independent bookstore, along with the Molloy books by Beckett and the Norton Annotated Moby Dick. I don't think house of leaves would work at all as an ebook and heavily annotated items I prefer a physical copy.
Alas I am running out of bookshelf space so I have to be much more selective these days. As for finding books, it's usually word of mouth or on storygraph. I also follow the book youtube Leaf by Leaf whom I can thoroughly recommend.
The ebooks I prefer on eink devices, for portability I have a Kobo and for notetaking or needing a bigger screen I have a supernote A5X