3 Reasons Why Visiting Bookstores Is Better Than Online Shopping

I have to admit, I love ordering books online. It’s so convenient. You can browse through a huge selection of books, which your local bookshop might not carry, you can often get them on sale, and then you get all the fun of opening your book mail when the parcel arrives on the front doorstep. And, as an independent author whose books are only available for sale online, I appreciate online bookshops even more. There is a lot to love about shopping for books online. However, good as ordering book on the internet is, I still love visiting physical bookshops the best. There are some things about the book buying experience that not even the best online store has managed to capture yet.

Browsing Is Easier, And Way More Fun

One of my favourite parts about book shopping is browsing through the shelves. Sometimes I know exactly what I want. Other times, far more often, I just want to have a poke around, read the titles, stroke the covers, and search for something that catches my fancy. It’s so difficult to replicate this experience when shopping online. Scrolling down a long list of thumbnail images just isn’t the same, no matter how pretty the covers. If I’m looking for a new book, but I don’t know what I want yet, I need to be able to pick the book up, hold it in my hands, read a few pages from the middle, look around for anything similar, put it down, come back to it, riffle through it, and decide that way if I want it take it home with me. There are few things that can beat walking past shelves of books and having a beautiful cover catch your eye.

You Can Take Your Book Home With You

I have to admit, shopping online is super convenient. You can usually find a copy of almost any book that you’ve ever even considered reading, pop it in your online cart, and it’ll be winging its way to in the next available post. However, apart from being able to access a wider range of books, it’s hard to beat the convenience of finding a book, putting your newfound friend on the counter in your local bookstore, paying for it, and then walking out the door with it tucked under your arm to be enjoyed immediately. The selection might not always be so good, but not having to wait for something to arrive in the post is huge bonus. Plus, living in Australia, it can take up to six weeks or even more for a book to get to me, and that’s a long wait for something I’m super excited about.

Bookshops Have Souls

Online bookstores are doing their best. They carry a great range of titles. They offer good prices. They post things to you as quickly as they can. They might even carry the same range of bookmarks and other bookish paraphernalia you can pick up in physical bookstores. But no matter how hard they try, they can’t capture the soul of a bookshop. There’s another that can beat the experience of stepping through the door, breathing in the smell of crisp new paper, and being surrounded by books as far as the eye can see. Sometimes you can even buy a coffee in store and sit looking at the shelves and shelves of books around you. Even little bookshops have a particular feeling of quiet and peace and anticipation, like at any moment, you might find your next favourite read. It’s impossible to replicate the atmosphere and soul of a bookstore online, no matter how hard you try. 

I love and appreciate being able to shop online for books. I love opening my parcels of books when they arrive on the doorstep. And I appreciate the opportunities to list my own books in online stores and reach out to people around the world. However, despite the convenience and the book mail, I will always love visiting physical bookstores, surrounding myself with shelves and shelves of books, breathing in that new paper smell, browsing new titles I’ve never heard of, and coming away with a new friend tucked under my arm. Bookshops will always hold that special position in my heart.

Looking for a new piece of book mail to wing its way to your front door? Why not give my new book Frost Hands a try? It’s an exciting YA sci-fi, full of action, adventure, teens with  powers, and a mutant uprising brewing. It’s available in Amazon in both print and ebook. (Yes, sadly it’s not in any physical bookshops just yet, but at least we have the convenience of online stores, even if they don’t have quite the same souls.)

Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash

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