Where Do You Get Your Books?

No matter if you've got an e-reader or are one of those determined to not get one and continually purchase physical books, there are so many outlets to purchase literature of all varieties.  Where do you get your books?


One of my main sources of books has been the different book/themed groups that I am part of on Goodreads.com, that offer the option for read and review. These read and review programs have provided me with some fantastic stories and some that I've not found among my favorites. It has also introduced me to some fantastic authors that I want to read more of. I've made ever lasting friends on this site as well.

I also on more than one occasion raid the Top 100 free books on Amazon.com, and it is usually met with the comment from my roommate's husband "Which one of you is flooding my email account now?" because the Amazon account is under his name and thus he gets all the purchase alerts. Some of these have been fantastic reads and some of these have been epic failures that I won't read again, and am thankful that I didn't pay a penny for.

Occasionally I do have the extra cash to wander into a store like Barnes and Nobles and purchase a book or two, but I honestly at this point in time can't remember the last time that I had the extra money to do that. Though, thanks to FloridaSNM I will be purchasing a Karen Chance novel and with the goodies she got me, turning that into a signed copy.

When I was going to college in St. Augustine I used to frequent a second hand book store and that was where I got the bulk of the copies of The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon, which I was turned on to when I was sixteen and my aunt sent me a copy of book four in the series. I now have currently read all but books number six and seven of this series and am only missing book two in my current collection, but have some how managed to have two copies of book number five (one hardback and one paperback).

So, I've used a variety of outlets to feed my desire for fantastic works of literature and have met some duds along the way. I also use services such as netgalley, which as far as I've used, kindle format and Adobe Digital Editions, to obtain galley copies of different and as of yet unpublished novels, and a site called Smashwords to purchase free books and I've gotten coupon codes from different authors for books to review.

My question is, where do you get your books? Do you have a favorite source that you constantly go to to get your e-books? Have you used different services to get a book? Would you be willing to use a different source aside from your usual source to obtain an e-book? Would you participate in a book trade with your physical library?