I read a lot of books. Not as many as I did when times were simpler and Internet access spottier, but still.

In my ongoing quest to (a) point all y'all toward the good stuff and (b) make some goddamn money, it occurred to me that I might neatly combine those two things with a page of links to reviews in all the various places I write them, along with affiliate links so that if you want to support me and my crazy habit of taking stuff in and writing about it, you could. Hence, this "Books! Books! Books!" page.

So we're clear, I buy a lot of books second-hand or check them out from the library. I also buy new at indie booksellers where I can, to support, and I hope you will, too. I <3 Powell's in Portland, Elliott Bay Booksellers (Seattle), and Vroman's, Chevalier's and Small World here in Los Angeles). I used to love Barbara's in Chicago, Scribner's in NYC...well, sadly, I could go on and on. QED, right?

But sometimes, it's easier to buy through Amazon: for gifts, for people in remote towns without good bookstores, for the 3 am shoppies. Also, for making me a few bucks (via affiliate links) which I then pump back into the economy. (Here's a direct link to my Amazon store, if you're a rural, gift-shopping, insomniac. Or also want to shop for SCD supplies.)

Short answer: buy when you can, where you can, as you can, to support authors. If you can support your local economy, too, awesome. But if you can only afford the library, there's no shame in that. Read away. It's what most writers probably want, when you get right down to it.

xxx
c

Book links on communicatrix-dot-com

Quick links to critical pages referenced in this post

Image by Jon Feinstein via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.