Books, A Thought

I have a pile of new books. 
I love the excitement of a new book; the smell of the paper, the unused spine, the feel of flipping it open. I'm also the kind of person that tends to buy my books in binges, usually a result of whatever new topic I'm interested in. I do, however, have to admit that I buy a lot of my books online. I always try the library first, but when I finally break down and buy a book, it's usually decided by price. I wish that this wasn't the case.
I wish that I could walk into any of the wonderful independent bookstores in this lovely city, peruse all the gorgeous and heavy design books or the crisp new novels or the genius non-fiction, and just buy them. But I can't. Or at least, I feel like I can't. 


The new pile of books that arrived by mail (that's also a bonus of shopping online - I love mail) would have cost me nearly twice as much. And that makes a big difference to me, right now, in life. I got to thinking about all of this because of this fantastic post on Oh Hello There. It talks about how bookstores are a source for research but not for sales for a larger publishing company. And I found it particularly interesting that some of the comments on the post talked about "splitting up their purchases," i.e. getting novels from independent bookstores and larger, research volumes online if they weren't available in-person. 


It's all got me thinking that I should be more thoughtful about my purchases.
I will never NOT read books. I'm sometimes glued to my iPhone or a magazine and can seriously spend hours reading blogs - but I will never give up holding a book in my hand. 
I'm a reader. Always have been. Always will be.
But I'm also a consumer and that deserves some thought too.