Litwit Lounge discussion

Just a few questions to start:

1. Do you ever use your local library? how often?

2. Where do you get most of the books you read?

3. Do you ever loan books out? do you mark them first with some kind of identification?

1. Yes. I probably average a weekly visit.

2. Library or read online.

3. Sometimes. No. Probably should.

1. weekly and know the librarians well! My two favs are now gone..sigh! They are very friendly and helpful here.

2. Borders, library, second hand book stores, Amazon.com and alibris in about that order. My husband and I love second hand book stores. We can spend hours looking!

3. Rarely. I only loan tellng myself I will never see it again as 90% of the time that is true. My name is in every book I own and also often the date I first read it. Then the date the second time I read it and so on.....

1. Yes --but not so much the public libraries. I work in a college library, so it's more practical to use that one, and I check out books from there quite often.

2. The library --either something from our collection, or borrowed by interlibrary loan. Books that I own usually come from the local flea market or yard sales, though I'm planning to join Bookmooch, and that will open up another avenue.

3. Rarely, but I have done it. If I do, I mark the book with my name, or an adhesive nameplate, if I happen to have one.

I visit my library at least once a week, often more as it's on the way to my daughter's school and has a park behind it that has great paths for walking. I miss the librarians from the small town library I used to visit when we still lived back east. In fact, one was a very close friend of mine. I imagine working in a library is something like being a kid in a candy store, LOL, at least the books are free and don't rot your teeth. ;)

Most of the books I read do come from the library. I notice recently that the ones I buy usually sit on the shelf for years before I get around to them, as if I'm just collecting them or something... I buy the deeply discounted books from Barnes & Noble, used bookstores, thrift store and, of course, the little store within the library.

I don't usually loan out books. I know so few people who are interested in what I'm reading. Oh well. If I ever get into the habit, I may have to buy some of those adhesive nameplates. I noticed some people even invest in stampers to mark the books.

I returned to visiting the library last year as part of a resolution to spend less money on books. It's worked out OK. I have to put a lot of my requests on hold and it takes some time but then that's part of every year's resolution - patience.

HAPPY READING!

I rarely use the library to check out books because I always forget to return them. I prefer to buy them online or the local bookstore. Since I'm a slow reader this is much more efficient.

As a librarian at the college where I work, I have faculty status, which gives me a six-week loan period on books. So for me, slow reading isn't too much of a problem; and I don't forget to return a book, because I'm always champing at the bit to start the next one!

I wish I was you Werner. I am a slow reader. I'm lucky to read 20 books this year.

Actually, Don, it usually takes me quite awhile to read a book, too --I probably don't even average 20 a year. (I can read rapidly enough, when I have time to read; I just don't have nearly enough time for it in a typical day!) When I said slow reading wasn't much of a problem for me, I meant that the long loan period keeps it from being a problem. Even if I can only read about half an hour a day, I'm usually still able to read most books within a six-week loan period! :-)

It takes me a long time (for various reasons) to get through a book these days, too. Thank goodness for the library's online renewal system which I can do several times as long as no one else has requested the book. I just spend way too much time online, and end up mostly reading at bedtime which translates into not many pages. ;)

Good to have you posting with us, Don! :)

Well thanks for the feedback. I guess I'm normal!! My wife reads a book a week and makes me feel quite silly as a reader.

A book a week sounds like a great goal, one I'd like to achieve this year. I just have to stop picking out such fat books. :p

I renewed my library card last year but have used it only once since. I know I should use the library more often, but I like having my very own copy of a book and no deadline hanging over my head for reading it.

I buy most of the books I read, either from local bookstores or online (mostly Amazon or Alibris).

Right now, there's really only one friend I loan books to, because we read similar things and she loans me things as well. I must admit I wait until I know a person fairly well before I offer to loan a book, in order to see how the person treats books. I know it's not the end of the world for a paperback to be destroyed, but I've been appalled when someone returns my book in much worse condition than it was in when I loaned it. I'd offer to replace someone's book if it got damaged in my care.
If it's a book I plan to donate or sell after the loan, I don't mark it. If it's a book I plan to keep, I do put a bookplate in it.

How fast I read depends on what's going on in my life and what kind of book it is. Sometimes I can zip through a book within a week, others take a month or more.

1. Public library? rarely ours is fairly tiny, not open long past normal work hours, and while very kind and well intentioned (they don't even charge fines!) just has your typical very small public library issue (I so miss the public library back home...)

But like Werner I work in an academic library - so lots of library time for me, lol... I check out a lot more books than actually ever get read though - I get distracted easily anymore.

2. Barnes and Nobles or Books a Million. We have recently found a really good used bookstore though so that soon will probably be a pick.

3. There's about two at the moment whom I regularly do - because I know i will get the books back in wonderful shape and in a timely manner (they both got through The Graveyard Book in the same week, even with having to get it back from one and get it to the other).

Otherwise the answer is absolutely not. I still have a grudge against a girl I went to school with for borrowing a paperback of mine and bending the cover all the way back in front of me. (And THEN she didn't offer to pay to replace it! After I CAUGHT her!)

I don't typically mark - I just like to keep things as new as possible and tend to fear I will mess it up or change my mind about how to do it - so I leave it. I very rarely write in books either.

If I don't get distracted by other things I can read a couple of books a week... in middle school they timed how fast we read (with reading comprhension built in) and I read something like 400+ words a minute. I find I can't read nearly so fast or with such blinders to the rest of the world anymore though... but obviously still a fairly fast reader, when I do actually get down to it.

:) I totally understand that grudge, Ally!

Joining the library is on my list of things to do. Will get round to it.

I get books where ever i see them. Spent an hour in a second hand book shop today and loved it!!

I used to loan books but loaned a hardback to a friend who loaned it to someone else who broke the spine. Took years to get over that. When I did I loaned two books I desperately need for when my course starts to a different friend who now claims she never borrowed them. There is now only one person I will loan a book to. She treata my books with respect.

I recently got a new library card, because I have an impulsive addiction to buying books on the spot, when I see them....

The library is nice, but the hours are LAME.I wish I could spend more time there, but it doesn't seem possible.

Basically, this has been my habit, B&N, Amazon, borrow from friends, and check them out at the library. But I am rearranging that since I am a college student who needs to save money.

I have loaned many books away, and never gotten them back. So I got in the habit of buying a replacement book which is costly. I'll no longer loan them, except to parents and close friends.

1. Do you ever use your local library? how often?

♥ Not very often anymore, I find I forget to return so often that it is more cost effective to purchase online or or buy from a local bookstore.

2. Where do you get most of the books you read?

♥ From Libraries Without Walls, Epub Books or Tanners Books (local bookstore and blissfully sits across the road from a starbucks) and Chapters or Indigo and since I own a Kobo Kobo Books

3. Do you ever loan books out? do you mark them first with some kind of identification?

♥ Not anymore, I never seem to get them back, or if I do get them back they are far more abused than what I put books through.

1. Do you ever use your local library? how often?

Not much anymore because I can't drive because of the meds I take. It's just easier to buy/download books. Thankfully I had accumulated quite a few so I have a lot to draw from.

2. Where do you get most of the books you read?

Amazon, authors & publishers who want reviews.

3. Do you ever loan books out? do you mark them first with some kind of identification?

All the books I've read go into my database so I don't buy more copies. I then put a sticker on it so I know I've entered it. It isn't for loaning it out - but I suppose it may help remind people. I still have had people "permanently borrow" items. :o(