Bookstore - I don't get it...

[Mish19]

I like to browse the titles on the shelves, maybe flip through some pages to make sure I really want the book. What I don't get is the bookstore policy that lets people pull up a chair and start to read a book without buying it. If I'm going to buy that same book later I want it to be somewhat fresh and unused. Are there rules at bookstores for this? I don't mean to offend but I've been wondering this for quite a while now.

 

[fireplug]

I know not all people do this but DW will make her selections to buy and then sit and read through one of them while I finish shopping. I am very slow in bookstores. She does not read one and then return it to a shelf.

Steve

 

[Planogirl]

I don't actually read even though someone may see me looking at a book for an extended period of time. I leaf through books that interest me by looking at chapter headings and pictures if there are any. If it's a travel book, I'll read bits and pieces to see if the book appears logical.

I guess that I like to sample a book, particularly the expensive ones, before I spend money. I don't do this with paperbacks just reference type books.

 

[SplshMtn99]

....and some bookstores sell coffee. That just encourages you to hang around a while.

Is this a bookstore or a library?

 

[Mom2Em]

I kid you not...
I was at Barnes and Noble one night and there were these teen girls taking notes out of books... one actually had the audacity to ask the employee there if they had a copier so she could copy a map... He looked at her and said, "You are kidding, right?"

 

[abaldacci]

I get a bunch of books and compare them and the best one goes home with me. I do not read them in the store.

 

[Mish19]

The browsing is fine! I just see people in Barnes and Noble in those comfy chairs sipping some coffee...hey wait, maybe it's all the bookstores fault! LOL It looks like they're engrossed in the book but maybe they are just browsing, I guess I could always ask the person. I'll make sure to ask a cute guy, maybe I'll get a date out of it

Wow Mom2Em! See, that's the stuff that I think people do. I know not all people read the book rather than browse. That reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where George takes a book into the bathroom and he gets caught, then he is forced to buy this huge art book. He later tries to return it and it's marked as a "bathroom book". Now that's a scary thing to think about!

 

[Beanie]

I love Barnes and Noble and I could live at that store, but I am not one to pull up a chair and sit there and read a book all day long! I spend so much time in that store just reading the back covers of everything! I love books and read them all the time...I think I am always thirsting for more to read, but I am not one of those coffee drinking people who will pull out a book and sit and read it for hours and then put it back...If I am going to do that, I would buy it first!