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Comment by daft_pink | Hacker News Reader

The problem is you go to an independent bookstore do they have lots of Isaac Asimov? Nope. They just have some very niche books, some virtue signaling books and the top best sellers and lack any sort of deep collection of classics. They also generally lack the important computer science publishers as well like Manning and No Starch Press. Just doesn’t compare when you used to be able to go to Barnes & Noble or Borders and scope out books in person and they would have a strong collection. Online is currently the way to go currently.

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If there is one kind of book you can count on finding at local used book stores, it's mass market paperback sci-fi and fantasy. You really cannot have picked a worse example than Asimov. 90% of the Asimov I ever read (which is quite a lot) was from local bookstores, both new and used.

The trouble these days isn't finding paperback sci-fi in used bookstores, but finding used bookstores at all in the first place. They stills exist but not in the numbers they used to. If you just look up bookstores on Google maps, many of the results are coffee shops that have a single bookshelf just for the aesthetics of nominally being a bookstore. You know a real bookstore because the shelves are cheap and mismatched, with as many crammed into the space as they can manage. That's what happens if they're trying to make ends meet by buying and selling books, rather than printing money selling coffee and ambience to laptop workers.

I've bought a ton of used scifi from thrift stores. But after the pandemic, that all just dried up. I wonder what happened?

I've noticed that a lot of the used book sellers on Amazon are Goodwill affiliates so maybe they all shifted to ecommerce or are bulk selling books to ecommerce companies.

Go to a library. It's like people have forgotten they exist. They certainly have Asimov and European classics. If they don't have something physically in print they can usually get it for you electronically.

The worst library is still better than the best corporate bookstore.

> The worst library is still better than the best corporate bookstore.

We are talking about book stores, meaning there is a desire to own the book being read. You don't get to own the books in a library. As someone who heavily annotates my books—except fiction—I will need to own a physical copy (or a digital edition). I haven't been to a book store in a while, but I recall the last two times being quite disappointing. Meanwhile, on Amazon, or other online providers, I can find what I need more often than not.

Most libraries will let you buy any book. Just don't return it and they'll bill you and it's yours. Easy peasy.

FYI, Home Depot will sell you a box truck for about $44k; which I think is a pretty good deal.

The trouble is although you get billed for the book, the library does not replace it. I've had things on hold get cancelled with a note about "no longer available".

I've bought a lot of books from the thrift store that had library stamps in them.

It's very possible they don't replace them, but many libraries also have legitimate sells to clear books from inventory to make room. Usually over like a week or three day weekend once or twice a year, the last day having bags of books for $5. All of them have stamps/card holders/stickers designating the library. So those don't necessarily mean they were borrowed and never returned.

You may be right, but I wonder why they would remainder a book that was on hold.

Depends heavily on your topic: There are many situations where all bookstores, even Amazon, will come up short. Studying history, for instance, it's amazing how often the main branch of my local library has books even third party sellers in Amazon won't offer, or where they'll demand outrageous prices.

Still, for availability, the real winner is the not-necessarily-legal archives where you can find, say, OOP foreign books that I'd have to cross an ocean to find in a library.

Or just by from the place that is both the cheapest and has the best selection ... ?

I love libraries and use them for most of my reading, but around 30% of the books I want they just don't have in the system (I read some more obscure/older titles so it's not surprising). So I'm happy Amazon exists for those.

Oh trust me, not all.

"They certainly have Asimov and European classics."

I live in a top 5 city in Poland. My local library *has only school readings and harlequins". Interlibrary loan or anything else? Nope, they don't offer that.

This is why Amazon started as a bookstore. Jeff Bezos didn't just happen to like books. It was meant to sell everything from the start. Rather, he started out with books because he identified it as an area where an online marketplace solves a problem that a physical store cannot.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rWRbTnE1PEM&pp=ygUWQmV6b3MgZWF...

Yeah, the irony is that there was a competing online bookstore at the URL books.com, which was later bought by Barnes & Noble.

When I bought my copy of Peter Karow's _Digital Typefaces_ the proprietor asked if I was in a hurry to receive it, and if not, if it would be okay if he reviewed it first to see if it was something he would want to purchase.

Local bookstores by me are definitely lacking on textbooks and such, but Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, and new SF writers are pretty well represented (there's definitely plenty of romantasy too)

Really depends where you live. Obviously if you live in tech hub cities you'll do better than other non hub cities.

Some recommendations: Seattle has Ada technical books. Portland has Powells. Strand in NYC has some technical books. and in Boston MIT Press Bookshop is gold. There are others.

Also depends on your definition of and reaction to "virtue signaling books".

And a desire for a deep collection of classics. It’s really not just a whistle at that point, is it?

MIBGA

ZNGTS

And the miracle of websites is that you can have the selection of Portland or Boston without going there.

That can't be provided by every local book store.

Powells shut down their technical bookstore a while back

Ah that's sad, haven't been in several years that's unfortunate.

> when you used to be able to go to Barnes & Noble

I recently went to a relatively new Barnes & Noble in a growing flyover state city, and was very surprised at the way this location felt like Borders or B&N 20+ years ago.

No substantial sign of the bookstore -> big giftshop with books trend I felt like I'd seen everywhere over the last decade. Very substantial selection of books, pretty sure I saw an Asimov title and some Manning.

This was in an area with a lot of growth (and tech expansion specifically), but chances are slim you've even heard of the city unless you've lived in this state (one not even in the top half of populous states in the US).

It's especially interesting considering that B&N owns their stores (no franchisee/indie optimism in play here).

Not sure if it's a trend, but it was a good experience!

James Daunt took over: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/15/barnes-and-nob...

I live in one of these cities and the local B&N is frozen in time - in a good way - and it is always packed with people.

It has just as much space devoted to books as it did when it first opened over 30 years ago. Lego took over a few aisles, but the original Software Etc. section is now all books - a net zero change.

Other than that, it hasn't changed one bit. Frozen in the early 1990s. Original wallpaper and everything. It even smells the same.

When our friends and family visit, they all demand to visit this holy site - and they always leave with bags full of books.

My local bookstore has several -- https://www.portersquarebooks.com/search/author/%22Asimov%2C...

I think citing the bookstores of Camberville might be cheating in this case. Off the top of my head I can think of at least half a dozen that are well-stocked with Asimov titles. Not sure the same could be said for elsewhere.

There are no bookstores in Camberville, because Camberville is Trina’s and only Trina’s, everything else is Cambridge or Somerville.

Not sure where you are but the libraries where I am are pretty good about having the stuff you seem to be looking for.

B&N are still around and doing good now. Focusing more on unique stores specific to their community ans hosting local events, etc. Also trying to stay out of markets already served by other bookstores.

Never been to Powell's, then? If B&N or Borders had been run like that, I might have liked them.

https://www.powells.com

Well... Powell's in Portland is the largest independent bookstore in the world. I don't think any bookstore can be compared to them.

And even Powell's doesn't have everything (say Tyler Cowen's reading list). I know because I've asked at that little desk on the 1st floor that gives out slips, and they couldn't help me out.

How do you know Powell’s is the largest independent bookstore in the world?

(It’s great, regardless, having been there myself.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell%27s_Books

McNally Jackson in NYC is also great.

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