I’m always fascinated by the criteria people use to decide how to obtain a book. (Buy or borrow? If buying, then new or used? Locally or online? From chains or indies?)
Scot McKnight, an American Christian author associated with the Emerging church movement, posts about this question on his blog, Jesus Creed. He buys most of his books new, both locally and online, but has no compunctions about buying used online (other than not buying advance reading copies).
His readers offer some interesting commentary:
- buying used is resource-conscious
- one reader buys Christian authors new, non-Christian and anti-Christian authors used
- another experiments with used books, buys books from known authors new
- authors may receive some royalties on remaindered books
They also debate the ethics of proofs and ARCs, suggesting that stamping “not for sale” on a book is counter to the right of first sale and analogous to software DRM, while discussing the role of the collectors’ market.
[Now reading The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M. G. Vassanji]
Posted by Anirvan
