In My Indie Bookstore Reusable Canvas Tote Bag Meme...

We add books to our home library on a pretty much ongoing basis. I buy from our library's used bookstore, the monthly library sales, eBay, used bookstores, garage sales, Powells.com and probably other places I'm forgetting. My favorite place to buy books, however, is at the local independent bookstore, The Book Beat.

I was there today and I bought a beautiful hardcover copy of one of my all-time faves, Robert C. O'Brien's MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH. My boys love it as much as I do and our paperback copy is falling apart. As I see many rereads in its future, I figured it was time to invest in a hardcover.

I also bought a hardcover of THE CROW-GIRL by Brodil Bredsdorff. I borrowed THE CROW-GIRL and its sequel, EIDI: THE CHILDREN OF CROW COVE, from the library last year and was mesmerized; I decided I loved THE CROW-GIRL enough that I needed to own it. 

I also bought Kate Messner's newest book, MARTY McGUIRE, in paperback. BLESS YOU, oh publisher, for making this book simultaneously available in hardcover and paperback. Are publishers finally understanding that they will sell more books if they do this? I rarely shell out money for a hardcover I haven't already read and know that I love. This often means that instead of buying a book that has just been released, I patiently wait my turn at the library. If I end up loving the book, I'll buy a copy to keep and will often then buy more copies to give as gifts. (I pretty much only give books as presents.) If, however, a new book I've been eagerly anticipating is immediately available in paperback, I WILL BUY IT IMMEDIATELY instead of checking it out at the library. More money for you, publisher! 

While at The Book Beat, I also helped the bookseller fill several boxes full of books that will end up in my children's school's new library, via the Grandparents Day book sale. I put a hardcover of MARTY McGUIRE in one of the boxes because, of course, hardcovers last much longer than paperbacks when they are shared and loved by many children. I'm just so glad that both the hardcover AND the paperback were available.