I pirate shamelessly. Z-lib is my to-go.
Literature
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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.
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.
What? The website looks the same to me?
Where are you looking
It feels so good to finally say this outright. Arrr!
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.
I buy my books from either ebooks or Amazon, then load them on my kindle which I carry everywhere. It's an old paper white that usually fits into the pocket of whatever jacket I'm wearing.
I like physical books too but I really don't have the space to be stacking up. I also read a lot in public and don't like for people to always know what I'm reading lol. Nothing sketch, I'm just a private person.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks in my car, which got me back into the reading-for-pleasure habit after a dry spell during and after grad school. I have a subscription to libro.fm, the source of most of my audiobooks.
When not in my car I borrow a lot of ebooks from libby, or hoopla if the book’s not on libby. I also sometimes borrow audiobooks. I haven’t borrowed a physical book from the library since COVID.
Less often, I buy books from Powells, but my physical book collection is so big, I usually only buy older books that aren’t available from other sources.
I have a wealth of sources for book recommendations to find new books. Powells, who have staff recommendations every month, New York Times, librarything, a gazillion places on the web…
I use the Libby app and check out ebooks from my local library usually. I have a bunch of physical books as well, but I am out of room to put them now. I also find ebooks to be more convenient. I can read whenever I want because I have all the books I'm reading on my phone.
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.
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.