Book Buying in the Time of Coronavirus.

How do you get your fix of bound words in these challenging times?

I have been ordering online, and the postal tracking for the books sometimes reveals interesting journeys as they weave their way towards me. A recent purchase originated in Sydney, arrived in Melbourne (home), then somewhat puzzlingly was sent on to Adelaide, from whence it came back to Melbourne! Almost as much entertainment value in the books journey as the book itself!

Oh ...and please don't say you have resorted to downloading e-books! (bah humbug!)

Australia Post are absolute rubbish when it comes to getting from A-B in the most direct way.

All I've noticed is that Book Depository takes longer than it used to :(

Oh, and I clicked on one that was due to be published within a day as a pre-order. Suddenly it turned into a further 280 days to go.

Otherwise I keep ordering from my wishlist each payday and the books dribble in over time. There are sufficient bookshops in Canberra with sufficient floorspace and policies that I could buy the odd book off the rack, and when Beyond Q closed I made two forays to aquire a bagload or two.

There will never be an ebook in my possession as long as I draw breath :)

Cheers

Not in my experience.

"There will never be an ebook in my possession as long as I draw breath :)"

Why not?

>1 Bushwhacked: I’ve ordered a few books that have done some sightseeing around the country as well - similar to yours by stopping off briefly in their destination state first, but then going walkabout for a few weeks before making it back. Very annoying and I’m not quite sure why covid would be responsible for that... Otherwise, I still order from book depository (although naturally they are really delayed deliveries) and I’ve had to resort to Amazon (who have been by far the fastest option)...

>1 Bushwhacked:,>3 Macbeth: Echoing >5 dajashby:, what's the problem with ebooks? They're convenient for travelling, available from the library when printed books are not, usually less expensive to buy, have led to the republishing of many justly and unjustly forgotten books, and are available for free when copyright has lapsed. But the most important advantage for me is that the print size can be adjusted. As I get older, I find that the print gets smaller! Popular Penguins are probably the worst.

>7 pamelad:, >5 dajashby:

Selfish and Personal reasons

I like to look at my large collection in its shelves and maybe pull a book out at random. It is a foible of mine to want to overlook my collections (books, wargame armies) en masse and visible.

My book never runs out of batteries, unlike an e-reader

If I leave a book on a train I've lost one book (approx. $30) but if I leave the e-reader on the train I may have lost the entire collection until I shell out the greater $$ amount for a new reader. (I've only ever done this once - and was more annoyed with the lack of response from NSW State Rail Lost property than with the loss of the book).

The publishers of my collection have never come to my house and taken books off my shelves, or edited them while I wasn't looking. It may be an unverified story but I remember reading that Amazon, with no appreciation of the irony, removed 1984 from the kindles at some point.

Small, selfish and personal reasons - but mine nonetheless

Cheers

>8 Macbeth: Your second last paragraph is the reason I wouldn't buy an ebook of anything that I wanted to keep. I'm OK with ebooks for ephemeral books.

It’s great when a book depository order that you have forgotten about eventually turns up - surprise!

In the meantime I have been using the Stage 3 lockdown here to unpack my books out of the dozens of book boxes they have been living in since our move last summer.

I am reacquainting myself with my own books and treating them as my new local bookshop.

All I need are some shelves, sigh, since the books are currently stacked in piles on the floor. So perhaps not so much like a bookshop...

Take care everyone!

ps Yes, books, books in any format, e-, non-e- , library (borrowed), you name it. The reading’s the thing. I am also bingeing on mere e-book samples.

>10 Renabur: Oh I've been in plenty of bookshops where the books are stacked on the floor.

Before Melbourne went into stage 4 lockdown Dymocks in the CBD remained open to the very end during stage 3, so I went in and bought enough for a month or so... I haven't used Book Depository since March as I was concerned about delays with orders coming from overseas... I have used Booktopia during Coronavirus - though if the order is coming from interstate Auspost's ability to deliver remains an adventure to be tracked. For second hand books non fiction books within Victoria TIME booksellers down on the Peninsula has been really good.

>12 Bushwhacked: I haven't found the delays by book depository to be too bad, though there is the odd exception (as mentioned in >3 Macbeth: above ). By and large things have settled down and the turnaround time is roughly 2 weeks from when the order is sent (the processing time can vary I'll admit).

I have started to catalogue some of my older books - the shelf full of Osprey men at arms books is daring me to check just how many are yet to be listed on LT.

Cheers

>13 Macbeth: Macbeth: That's good to hear about Book Depository... may have to give it another whirl and see what happens...

I used to have a huge collection (I'm talking 100's) of Osprey's bought during my younger days, mainly sourced from the now defunct Hyland's Bookshop in Melbourne... I think I bought one per fortnight for years... crazily I gave nearly all of them away... something on reflection I regret a lot. Good value and I learned a lot from them.

Lesson of the day - NEVER de-accession!

>14 Bushwhacked: Never!

BookDepository seems to be fine now (as do European bookseller services like booklooker.de), although I ordered a couple of books from America via AbeBooks months ago and haven't seen them yet. So I'd order from pretty much anywhere except the US, which is a nightmare right now.

I've currently got an order coming from Booktopia, originating NSW for delivery inner suburban Melbourne. It was slower out of the warehouse at Booktopia than things usually are, then went from Sydney to Melbourne overnight, only to now be languishing in an AustPost distribution centre somewhere in Melbourne with expected delivery still eight days away.

I've just received 2 books from Booktopia ordered at the same time, one said available and shipping in 2-3 days, the second said shipping in 10 days. I received notification from AustPost the next day that the second of the 2 books was on its way and it arrived fairly quickly. I then got notification from AustPost that the first book was being processed and to expect it from next Wed. to the following Mon. but it arrived about 12 hours after the email. I fail to see why this is all so hard.

Mind you, I'm not complaining that I received my books quicker than expected, I'm just intrigued why the times are so badly out.

Delivery times still seem to be all over the shop. I purchased John Kinsella's latest collection of poetry and asked the University of WA Press to deliver it to the Centre for Stories as a donation. I watched the tracking information for three weeks - 'Awaiting pickup' by the couriers. Apparently all the couriers were isolating with Covid-19. I eventually suggested UWAP give up on their couriers and just use Australia Post and bill me any extra costs. It was delivered in three days which was pretty good. And UWAP didn't bill me for the postage.

On the other hand, I ordered a rare book through Berkelouw Books via ABE a month ago, again an intended donation to a local military museum ('Service' in LibraryThing). The book hadn't turned up after four weeks, but I'd had previous experience in very long delays with interstate parcels. I contacted Berkelouw who gave me some tracking details, and discovered that the book had been delivered about four days after I purchased it. Unfortunately to a place where I hadn't lived for 11 years - over 800km from where I am now. I checked the delivery address I'd specified in ABE, and although nobody can explain what happened I can only speculate that I'd last ordered something from Burkelouw around 11 years ago and that old address had found its way onto the parcel they despatched. Berkelouw gave me an immediate refund, so absolutely no complaints there. The sad part though is that I'd been waiting for about nine years for that book (The Story of J Force by Dandie) to turn up somewhere.

One thing I didn't realize until Covid-19 is that it is possible to purchase electronic 'stamps' from Australia Post via their online portal. I donate a lot of books to libraries, acquaintances and - when they make a call out - disaster victims. With my partner's cancer and my touch-and-go health I'm no longer comfortable heading out to the Post Office once a week to send off my parcels. As long as I keep my parcel sizes 'down' so that they fit in a PO box in the street I can now do the entire operation without the need to queue in the Post Office. Meanwhile I'm keeping an eye on LT members in NSW and Qld to see if any are posting about book losses.