The book-mongering ways of a bibliophile - Systematic Book Purchase

I have this habit of walking into Crosswords(the book store) , the moment the yellow signboard catches my eyes. I just cant seem to resist. The soft amber light that emanates from within, the silent music from between the pages, the smell of new paper and prints, the illustrious flood of colors that surrounds me when I walk between the shelves, the smooth feel of a new paperback and the weight of the credit cards in my wallet, that establish in me a capacity to own almost whatever title I want, (ignoring the bills that will follow later) all hypnotize me beyond the realms of my will and suck me into that shop of well-woven tales.

I agree that the books out here are pretty expensive. Initially, I never thought twice before purchasing a book from here. But lately, I have developed a systematic method of getting to my books. Read on for some subjectively worthful gyan on Bibliophilegiri.

Step 1: Decide what book you want to read
The first step is deciding what book to buy. Rather than impulsively picking up books from the shelf after judging it buy its cover (something I still occasionally indulge in), I prefer to research and close in on books that are worth reading. I try to search for books across genres, rather than sticking to one popular genre. You obviously will find lists made up by people on blogs and elsewhere on the net, suggesting the top 10/100/1000/ etc. books one must read. I prefer avoiding following such lists, though I don't avoid glancing through them. If I see a book popping up time and again on multiple lists, I give heed to it. First, I research it on Wikipedia etc., read about the book, (not the Plot), about the author, about other books the author has written, reviews, so on and so forth. And in the process, I learn about similar/related authors, with similar/related books, and then I research them and enter a never ending cycle of literary information. While i am reading through all this stuff, I pick up books that I would want to read. And then its time to move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Get price quotes
Getting price quotes can sometimes be tricky, if you aren't using the right sources. I have a specific process that I follow to get my prices. If you know of someplace where I could get my books cheaper, please comment. Anyway, I start out with getting a quote from Indiaplaza.in. Next I get a quote from Landmarkonthenet.com. Usually, the prices in both of these sites are matched evenly, the difference not being much. But landmark is slightly more expensive, when it comes to shipping. The clubbing-of-multiple-orders feature kinda sucks on this site. But you have a wider range to choose from on Landmark. Landmark is a site that specializes only in books. Indiaplaza is a general shopping site, with a strong section on books.

I usually know how much to expect a book to be priced (developed from years of buying). So I know whether the book is overpriced on any/both of the sites. I say this because some of the books out there are priced right through the roof. For eg. a book that costing for Rs.400 in crossword, may cost Rs.700 online. Now why, I don't know. But this is something I have experienced in the past. If I find the online cost cheap (dfyob -{go figure}) , i buy right away, else I visit crossword. At crossword, if I find the book, I mostly find it costlier than it was online. But there are times when the books may turn out cheaper (Plus you get to indulge in on-the-spot-random-buying) .

If I find the book expensive at crossword too, its time to hop to the Lamour Library. Well, Lamour is a Library (as already mentioned before) that doubles up as a second-hand book store. So if I find a book too expensive to purchase from my primary sources, this is where I go.
The downside is that I may not get the book immediately or may not get it at all. This library will usually have all the popular books, but not the rarer ones, that you may find considerably easily online or in crossword. The upside is, you will get books almost as good as new at sometimes rip-away prices and othertimes quite decent prices.


Step 3: Buy the book
This is the kinda easier step for me :) . Credit/debit card, zindabaad. (Dont take me for a rich brat who can lavishly spend on his reading addictions. This is hard earned money we are talking about here.)

Step 4: Read the book
The most exciting part! The best part! Read it! This part can get tough sometimes, considering the rate of arrival being greater than the rate of reading. But I take it as a challenge to finish reading all the books I can read.

For those who want to read, but don't want to spend:
For those who have a reading budget of a church mouse, and dont have a desire to own a library themselves, join a library and ignore this post.

I guess this post makes it cockclear that I belong to the 'other' group of individuals.