WEDNESDAY BLOGGING CHALLENGE | NEW OR USED BOOKS?

Well, this is easy: both. All of the above. But to go into more detail, it depends. I love new books, particularly now that I have respiratory issues so I don’t want books that are moldy or smell of cigarette smoke or are full of animal fur or even dust. So these days, if I’m buying a physical book it’s usually a new one. That said, if I’m really being honest, most of the books I buy these days aren’t print books at all. The majority of books I buy are audiobooks, and if I start reading and feel like there’s too much information to keep track of, or I need to be able to refer back to previous chapters, or there are a ton of passages I want to mark, then I’ll get a physical copy. For books I can’t find as audiobooks, my next choice would be digital most of the time. I use my library as my first port of call, so my Libby is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for books I’m reading and listening to. I also just re-joined Netgalley, which again is audio and digital books.

That said, I do buy some books new – if it’s an author I love and collect, if it’s an author I really want to show support for, or if it’s a book I know I’ll want to have on my shelves as part of showing my tastes and sharing them with my kid one day. I will also buy used books if I’m looking for hard to find books – I recently ordered a couple of Trixie Belden books used because I don’t think they’re even in print anymore. So it really depends. If a book is impossible to find new or if it’s too expensive, then I’ll roll the dice on a used book.

Basically, I’ll get whatever format is the most convenient for me, or, failing that, whichever I can find. What about you guys? Do you have a preference for new or used books? Any other audio and digital readers out there?

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