Do you buy rent or borrow? Or do you have a subscription of some kind? Do you read physical books or do you read ebooks?
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I pirate shamelessly. Z-lib is my to-go.
I just realized, boy is it refreshing to actually talk about sites like z-lib without being censored. Library Genesis and Anna’s Archive are also nifty.
yeah if i’m even remotely ambiguous on whether i’d want a book, piracy. i can’t buy everything and i can’t go to a library every day. but i definitely try to buy books from the authors i know i like—i heard great things about NK Jemisin and Kim Stanley Robinson for example, read one of their books, and then that made me go out and buy large parts of both’s output. i think i have physical copies of like a third of KSR’s major novels, lol.
Exactly. I always read a pirated epub first, then, I always go out and buy that book in hardcover. But many of the authors I enjoy are long dead, and many of their prints are in public domain. So piracy doesn’t matter there. That’s where Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks are incredible!
I didn’t know about Anna’s Archive, thank you. :)
Never heard of this! Thank you!!
Book Depository closed the other month, I don’t know if Amazon understood how important it is for people outside US and EU, but the closure really pushed everyone I know to casually switch back to piracy.
Mostly borrow ebooks from the public library. There is a small new-and-used bookstore near me, one of those classic “open 3 hours a day, more if we feel like it” ones. Very fun to go wander the shelves when I want a physical book.
I usually check them out from my library through Libby or on my Kobo reader. I just read e-books these days because my library is a bit far away and not open very often. When I lived in a bigger city, I liked to wander around the library and pick out things that caught my eye on the shelves.
Yeah I also check books out (or rent audiobooks) from the local library, unless it’s something I desperately want to have on my shelf.
libgen, anna’s archive, scihub if I’m feeling academicky. 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 make poor financial decisions haha. I used to live not far from a library though and that was handy for finding books I wouldn’t have read otherwise.
i rarely buy physical books as i like reading during breaks or when im waiting on something and its not always feasible to have a book with me i buy books when they are available for a price that will not bankrupt me as a book thats 10 dollars is around 50 ron wich in my opinion is far too much especially as i need money for other things otherwise i simply pirate them
I’m a pirate, I download almost everything that I’m going to read. Honestly, I don’t even remember when was the last last time when I bought a book.
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.
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.
Edit: I’ve started to favour print books most of the time, at least for poetry and non-fiction. I’ve started to write more again and I find physical books much easier to refer back to.
I prefer nonfiction to be printed books as well. For some reason I don’t seem to take it as seriously as an ebook, maybe it feels too insubstantial for my brain to take it seriously.
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.
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.
There’s https://bookwyrm.social/ for fediverse goodreads alternative. For Finnish e-books, try https://ekirjasto.kirjastot.fi/ . It redirects to overdrive/ellibs in the end. In a year or two all of Finland should be served by one huge e-library instead of every library having their own e-library. Let’s hope that improves the situation.
Thanks I might take a look at bookwyrm.
Then let’s hope the book situation gets better soon!
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 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.
I mainly read ebooks checked out from my local library on my kindle.
I buy books only when I really love the edition. Otherwise, I’ll buy some on kindle and rent others through my local library, or Libby. I only buy physical copies of books I am happy to re-read.
