Borders and Noble

[Doug Millison]

At 11:08 AM 8/12/97, Joaquin Stick wrote:
>Let's hear it for second-hand bookstores, the best thing ever to happen to
>small-town librarians, small-town English professors and educated readers
>everywhere! (when you think about it, they're kind of like W.A.S.T.E. in
>this day and age of outlet-bookstores)

It's a dilemma, isn't it? I try to buy from indepedent bookstores when I
can (and we've got several great ones in Berkeley), but it's certainly
tempting to save money and buy from a big chain store, or from Amazon.com
and barnesandnoble.com.  Small press books do seem to be expensive, and
I've bought lots used books  over the years -- but increasingly I stop and
think about the author, and when "practical" (generally a function of how
strongly I feel about that author, plus the status of my bank account) I'll
buy a new copy of a book instead of a used one (and I'll buy that new copy
at an independent bookstore instead of a chain store), so the author will
get his or her royalty. If we all wait to buy books until they show up in a
second-hand store, it seems to me that even fewer authors will be able to
support themselves by writing, and fewer small press publishers will be
able to stay in business.

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