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What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

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Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#111

Post by Nav_Panel »

sidpatil wrote: post #35
pradn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Strand is only worth going to as a tourist attraction (if you’re fully aware of its status as such), or if you need big art books (they’re unmatched in that category). In NY, I’d say take a look at Left Bank books (rare, old literature, photography, art books - some are even early editions of classics), Codex (little used shop with a fantastic selection), Mercer St Books and Records (basement hole in the wall), W…

My favorite is East Village Books. I've had luck finding interesting books there.

Agree with all of the above recommendations, and want to add Aeon Bookstore as a relative newcomer that has a great selection.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#112

Post by echan00 »

thundergolfer wrote: post #8

I have come to value 2nd hand bookstores so much in day to day life that I maintain it as an almost 'must have' when assessing living locations. Great coffee shops are a dime a dozen in reasonably affluent areas, but a good 2nd hand bookshop adds so much warmth and charm to an area. I don't have any in walking distance from where I live right now, but I'm moving to NYC soon and will aim to correct that. (Shouldn't be…

Lmao

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#113

Post by Cupertino95014 »

Doing a general query here (I won't call it a "poll" since the numbers don't matter):

Do you ever ask a bookstore staffer for recommendations?

I've always preferred to just browse for myself, and maybe read the first few pages. Either I feel like reading it, or I don't. I don't trust someone else to predict which way I'll go.

However, writers of articles like this invariably mention the "knowledgeable staff." I was in a Tucson bookstore near the University and I tried an experiment: I asked for a fiction recommendation. She asked me what books I liked, we talked for a long time, and she came up with "The Orphan Master's Son."

OK, it's a good book, I'm not going to trash it at all. But I just didn't feel like finishing it.

Maybe if I went there all the time and bought a lot of books and they actually got to know me, it would be different.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#114

Post by shaklee3 »

simion314 wrote: post #56
waspight wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, why is second hand book stores that important? I imagine that everything worth reading is available on Amazon and rated in Goodreads. I am just curious and hopefully I am totally wrong as well.

Just IMO, but with physical books you can open them and inspect the content, this might not be important for literature books but for more technical books you want to see examples. I am not from US and our online book stores do not allow you to electronically browse the books. Review might help, I wanted to buy a programming book for my son (Roblox sutff) and a review told me that the code listings are garbage and th…

On the other hand, you will not find a Roblox programming book in a used bookstore, and almost certainly not a new bookstore either.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#115

Post by dredmorbius »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #109
dredmorbius wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you getting your count of books available on Amazon? I'd be curious how this compares with LibGen / ZLibrary (about 4--5 million titles).

The number of books published annually is somewhere between one million and ten million, depending on how they're counted. Self-published? ebooks? Audiobooks? Etc.

I'm aware:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31604033

Keep in mind that a largish municipal library is on the order of 250-500k items.

The Library of Congress includes ~40 million catalogued books, of which ~360k circulate annually.

Again, the question is what Amazon offers.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#116

Post by dangus »

ryanobjc wrote: post #72
vonnik wrote: post #31

One of the great thing about the physical sites of used-book stores, which I've never seen replicated in an online store, is their ability to surface books you'd never know to look for. It's not just curation, but the accumulation of curation over many years, and the willingness to leave interesting books on the shelves to wait for the right reader. Great second-hand book stores are riddled with wormholes into past c…

It’s really interesting - we’ve seemingly given up on curation and discovery on the internet. There’s just too much spam and scam to really make it work. Take your average recipe website: it includes multiple paragraphs of irrelevant “background story” to delay you seeing the recipe for more ad views. Whereas books and libraries have none of that cruft. If you want to learn something the library (or bookstore) is a m…

I'd just caution being too quick on equating "the Internet" to the sub-section of the Internet consisting of "ad-supported search engines taking you to blog content."

The Internet is much bigger than google.com, and there are a lot of ways to use it outside of that experience.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#117

Post by thundergolfer »

pradn wrote: post #17
thundergolfer wrote: post #8

I have come to value 2nd hand bookstores so much in day to day life that I maintain it as an almost 'must have' when assessing living locations. Great coffee shops are a dime a dozen in reasonably affluent areas, but a good 2nd hand bookshop adds so much warmth and charm to an area. I don't have any in walking distance from where I live right now, but I'm moving to NYC soon and will aim to correct that. (Shouldn't be…

The Strand is only worth going to as a tourist attraction (if you’re fully aware of its status as such), or if you need big art books (they’re unmatched in that category). In NY, I’d say take a look at Left Bank books (rare, old literature, photography, art books - some are even early editions of classics), Codex (little used shop with a fantastic selection), Mercer St Books and Records (basement hole in the wall), W…

Thanks for the recommendations. Unnameable Books looks nearby where I'd like to live.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#118

Post by closedloop129 »

swayvil wrote: post #63

Have you ever thought that this whole "dream evocation and amplification via text-consumption" thing might be a dead end? I mean, 99.999% of the meaning is coming from your own head anyway. And there is this powerful and toxic illusion of "knowing", which ain't good. It's basically solipsism-opium. Might be a bad trade.

I would look at it the other way round: Books teach solipsism. How much is that needed for our civilization and future progress? Without book, you have spoken words. Their meaning is also coming from one's head, but civilizations without books aren't that famous.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#119

Post by thundergolfer »

integrale wrote: post #19
thundergolfer wrote: post #8

I have come to value 2nd hand bookstores so much in day to day life that I maintain it as an almost 'must have' when assessing living locations. Great coffee shops are a dime a dozen in reasonably affluent areas, but a good 2nd hand bookshop adds so much warmth and charm to an area. I don't have any in walking distance from where I live right now, but I'm moving to NYC soon and will aim to correct that. (Shouldn't be…

If you end up in Manhattan: Mercer Street Books, Alabaster Bookshop, and Joanne Hendricks Cookbooks are some of my favorites. The latter two aren’t necessarily cheap but have some really cool stuff.

Thanks for the recommendations. My probable roommate wants to live near Alabaster Bookshop.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#120

Post by bergenty »

waspight wrote: post #29
thundergolfer wrote: post #8

I have come to value 2nd hand bookstores so much in day to day life that I maintain it as an almost 'must have' when assessing living locations. Great coffee shops are a dime a dozen in reasonably affluent areas, but a good 2nd hand bookshop adds so much warmth and charm to an area. I don't have any in walking distance from where I live right now, but I'm moving to NYC soon and will aim to correct that. (Shouldn't be…

Just curious, why is second hand book stores that important? I imagine that everything worth reading is available on Amazon and rated in Goodreads. I am just curious and hopefully I am totally wrong as well.

The books are cheap and it’s satisfying to peruse. You can always have a beer at home but people love going to bars. It’s kind of like that.
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