"The best texts I look at often come to me from people I know — friends, colleagues, students — or don’t know: the recs at the bookshop or from somebody on a metro who is laughing or crying while reading something."
If you live in Japan, just forget it. The Japanese have a weird sense of privacy. For instance, many will put a photo of their cat or dog or a bunch of flowers on their FB page, anything but their face.
As for reading in public, they hide the book cover under a wraparound sheet of paper provided by the bookstore so other people can't see what they are reading. What's wrong with these people?
Great post, Kathleen! Oh, how I miss our local Blockbusters...my youngest child still has their membership card as they refused to part with their memories of Saturday afternoon visits to the video store. I am also trying to buy books as ethically as possible and will try the bookshop.org you suggest, though I tend to borrow most books from my local community library, the most wonderful of resources. Having just finished an MA at my local university, I have also discovered that they allow alumni to use their libraries for research and hold many great journals, hooray! : )
"The best texts I look at often come to me from people I know — friends, colleagues, students — or don’t know: the recs at the bookshop or from somebody on a metro who is laughing or crying while reading something."
If you live in Japan, just forget it. The Japanese have a weird sense of privacy. For instance, many will put a photo of their cat or dog or a bunch of flowers on their FB page, anything but their face.
As for reading in public, they hide the book cover under a wraparound sheet of paper provided by the bookstore so other people can't see what they are reading. What's wrong with these people?
I wonder if in Hong Kong they do the same.
Great post, Kathleen! Oh, how I miss our local Blockbusters...my youngest child still has their membership card as they refused to part with their memories of Saturday afternoon visits to the video store. I am also trying to buy books as ethically as possible and will try the bookshop.org you suggest, though I tend to borrow most books from my local community library, the most wonderful of resources. Having just finished an MA at my local university, I have also discovered that they allow alumni to use their libraries for research and hold many great journals, hooray! : )