A Jerky Thing to Do

I read this in the New York Times the other day:

Many Online Book Buyers First Shop Around in Stores

You could argue that Barnes and Noble is overpriced.  (I have the membership and I find that prices with the membership, and some of the coupons they send out, are close enough to Amazon, maybe a buck or two higher but you get that instant gratification of having the book in your hands.)

It's a jerky thing to do to local independent bookshops, for sure.  There are few enough of those, these days, as it is.  Behavior like that described in the article only makes it worse.

I browse in stores and I buy in stores.  I also browse online, though I do that less often.  I find it easy to spiral out of control on Amazon, so I only buy books there rarely, and usually only when I have a gift card.  Or if there is a series I've got books 1-3 of but 4 and 5 are out and not in the store, maybe I'll get those on Amazon.  Because if I'm reading along in a series, I am the type to read everything that's available at once.  So I need the next couple of books.

What I don't do is take a smartphone to the bookstore and look up the price online.  To be fair, I don't have a smartphone.  I have a POS prepaid thing because I don't have any money.  And if I do get money, I'd rather spend it on books than on a phone.

But anyway, if you're lucky enough to have a local independent bookstore, and you're going to browse there, BUY there too.