Where Do Books Come From?

Okay, I 'm not going to launch into some existential rant about the inside an writers mind or some long winded description of the printing process. My title's kind of deceptive like that. What it should say is Where do YOUR books come from?

I was at the library recently after moving back to Michigan. I was short on cash and wanted some books. It's not that I'm not a fan of libraries, just that my local one seems to specialize in romance novels and books for the under twelves and neither is really my cup of tea. Needless to say my trip was kind of disappointing. I couldn't find any of the books I was looking for and this got me thinking: where else do I usually get books? I know, I wasn't exactly musing about the meaning of life, but still.

The Library: When I lived in Chicago I was always at the library. CPL was good to me, and always had an abundance of books. It was the first time I actively used the a library as a means of getting books. As I mentioned above I am not a fan of my hometown library. Also when I was younger I loved to dog-ear pages. The librarians frowned on this.

Garage Sales/Rummage Sales/Thrift Stores: I've always found sales like this to be a fantastic place to find cheap books. You can't really count on there being any specific titles, or that there won't be coffee stains over the one book you're interesting in but for 50 cents it's worth it.

Bookstores - Indie, Used, Chain - Varying prices, varying stocks and varying conditions but you'll always be around bookish people, which is a plus in my book. Since high school  I've always thought of Barnes & Noble as one of my favorite hang outs. I'm also a huge fan of walking through bookshelves and browsing. I've found some of my favorite books that way.

The Internet - While I'm an impulsive buying at bookstores and cheap sales I am very focused with my online shopping. I'm personally a big fan of half.com (part of ebay) for the dirt cheap books. I actually order books online rarely. I'm into browsing amazon for possible good books, though, and then promptly heading over to goodreads to get legit reviews. Oh, and I guess ARC's count as internet books, too, don't they?

That's my list! What about you? Where do you get most of your books from?

The Shadow of the Wind - Zafon

The Shadow of the Wind

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The night 10 year old Daniel Sempere can't remember his mothers face his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books where he will make a discovery that will change his life - The Shadow of the Wind. Armed with nothing more then the authors name - Julian Carax - and a desire for another enchanting novel Daniel finds himself knee deep in the tragic, and misunderstood life of Julian.

There are many ways to categorize The Shadow of the Wind, it is at once part love story, a mystery, historical fiction with a dash of horror mixed in. Amongst all of these genre's the thing that stands out is that Safon wrote a book for book lovers. Of course, a book for book lovers must come with an engrossing and powerful story, and  this is where The Shadow of the Wind really shines. This isn't a typical A leads to B leads to C story, and for me the characters read more real then I had expected upon opening the book. Both Daniel's life and the live's he discovers while searching for Julian are fleshed out.

My only issue with Shadow of the Wind is it's length. It reads like all of it's 487 pages are present. Though I have noticed this in quite a few books about books. The Thirteenth Tale, People of the Book and  The Forgotten Garden are all slightly more lengthy then a less book oriented story.  I'm not saying Shadow of the Wind was to long, or was slow, it just didn't read as quickly as I would have liked.

Overall I loved The Shadow of the Wind. This is going to be a story that will stay with me for a while.  I'm looking forward to making Zafon's prequel, The Angel's Game one of my first gift-card purchases of the new year.