What to do when you’re book shopping:
1. If it is a thick book, rap on the front cover to hear that lovely deep ‘thunk’.
2. Open it up and smell it. New books have their new smell, second hand books have their well-loved scent.
3. Buy the book! Support small businesses! Don’t let them close in the face of online retailers. Don’t be one of those people who browses in stores, then puts a dog-eared book back on a shelf and buys a new copy from Amazon. Amazon is great for obscure or out of print books, but don’t forget your local bookstores!
4. And the same goes for magazines. You don’t get the lovely ‘thunk’ sound as they’re not thick enough to make it, but when I’m on my morning commute, I prefer to have a poetry magazine or a physical copy of a book that I can read. Yes, my ipad is great and I have a ton of books downloaded on it, but call me old-fashioned… I’d still rather root around in my bag for a good old paperback or a nice past contributor copy.
Contributor copies. If I had the means I would subscribe to more small presses, more often. Instead, when I catch a moment I like to read through past contributor copies of favourites… Decanto, Sarasvati and some newer ones like Mistress Quickly’s Bed.
Contributor copies – poetry, fiction and both.
Leilanie Stewart 