Reading in bookstores without buying

Nope, I never feel obliged to buy any book from a bookstore even after reading hours on end at such places - buying is all voluntary, there's no need to feel guilt for doing something that is not immoral, unethical, or unlawful. I personally see bookstores as libraries, except you can buy the books and there is more to select from. However, I rarely stay at a bookstore more than two hours, and now I don't even go to such places because I simply look up the summary of a book and I'll buy it if it looks interesting. Also, most books are pieces of junk and have little valuable information, hence I focus on what I wish to learn first and then seek books similar to my desire, this eliminates a lot of wasted time for me.

 

I have never gone into any bookstore and read a full book without purchasing it. I have browsed books, before putting them back onto the shelf and deciding that it wasn't for me. Who has the time to go into a store and read a whole book without getting challenged on what they are doing?? Lol!!! Magazines on the other hand, are a different story. They are usually a lot quicker to breeze through than books are, so I have done it with magazines, and then placed them back onto the shelves.

 

I never read books in a bookstore I browse a lot and spend time looking through, but I don't find stores relaxing and even when I browse there is always someone else in the way. That's the only time I take a handful and sit down to read through them, when space it tight or if there are too many people where I am.

The chairs are there for people to read and browse, not to read a whole book IMHO and when I buy a book I like to be the first person who has read it. The coffee shops they have in the bookstore encourage people to buy the books and relax with a drink which is a good idea if people are waiting for people. Bookstores are not libraries, but shops where you can try out the goods.

 

I've been guilty of this habit in the past. My husband used to work a lot further away from me, and I'd have an hour of waiting for him at the train station to catch the next train home. I'd wander into WH Smith and look through magazines and books to while the time away. Nobody stops you doing it, but I always felt guilty about it because I don't think it's right. Strange, I know! Sometimes I ended up buying them, sometimes not.

 

I've never done this - everyone has looked around and browsed some books and magazines while at the bookstore - but you really shouldn't be in a bookstore and treating it as a library. Libraries are publicly funded entities that don't rely on people to make purchases in order to stay open. However, Barnes and Noble or other retailers rely on people spending money in order to keep the store open. It's really not a fair attitude to have to go in, read a book put it back on the shelf and leave without spending any money. They are a business, they need the money to stay open.

 

Where I come from, I very much doubt that you would be allowed to do this without actually buying something first. If you know that you don't want to buy a book, then why not take it out of the library instead, where everything is second hand? If you read a book from a bookstore, then you might crease the pages and make the book look used, and this is not fair on the person who will actually want to buy it. Local libraries are closing all over my country because not enough people are using it, and independent book stores are also closing because not enough people are buying things from them - so perhaps if everybody used the right building for the right things, we would all have a lot more luck when places will no longer have to close down due to lack of demand!

 

If I want to read a whole novel-length book, I usually either buy it digitally, find it digitally, or sit in the library. BUT sometimes, I'll sit in the book store to read one story in a collection that I'm only interested in the one story. Or if it's an author I haven't read before, I might read a few chapters and then snap a picture of the cover. I never feel obligated to buy books (and fun fact, one bookstore near me allows employees to 'borrow' hardcover books to read and it's a major chain). I simply don't buy physical books new anymore. BUT I usually buy something, usually coffee or merchandise of other types or a gift from the children's section.

 

I basically agree with this. I have read a few books in bookstores in the past, but generally speaking, I do not think it is right, whether or not you occasionally buy from the bookstore. There is a place you can go and read books for free for hours, and that place is called a library. A bookstore is a commercial entity. I think it is perfectly fair to sit down and read a chapter or two in several books to decide if you want to buy them (or even to decide if you want to buy them from somewhere else) but I don't think it's really fair to treat it a a library.

 

I could never be one of those people that go to bookstore, grab a book, sit in a chair and read a good part of the book. I feel bad doing that. What I do is I usually for to bookstores and find a book I am interested in and will read a couple pages just to see how it goes. I also prefer to read it when I am alone in the stillness of my house, so reading at a bookstore is never interesting to me

 

I think it can be totally boring to read a book in the store when you can simply read it in the store. I believe it takes all the fun of the book and I believe that one should just buy it off.

 

I may read at bookstores but I don't really have the luxury of time to do so. I mean, as a contributing member of society and someone with enough money to buy books, I deem it appropriate to just purchase the books I intend to read than leisurely read them at bookstores to the detriment of the authors who worked hard to write their novels. Plus, not all books are taken out of their plastic coverings. More often than not, the books I read can't be read for free like those Archie comics often lying open on the shelves.

 

I often read books at bookstores without buying anything at all. Sometimes I can spend 2 hours reading but I have never finished reading an entire book. Probably because I don't have enough time. But what I do is that I read excerpts or even just a small part of the books. If I like them, then I take note of the authors and the titles, then I download their eBooks. That way, I can read them straight from my tablet.

 

It does make you feel a little guilty when reading for hours in a bookstore and not buying the book, considering that many bookstores are going out of business due to the freely available resources online. However, for new released books that the library does not have, reading in the bookstore can be a good substitute. The stores are a great place to find new genres or authors to read that you would not have given a chance to otherwise. Browsing the books can also be a great idea to find gifts for those who love reading. Provided that you do not damage the books or detract from their brand new condition, there is nothing wrong with reading books in the stores.

 

I think I would feel guilty if I read too much of a book in the shop without subsequently buying it. When you read a book, you're not only consuming the product, but to some extent you're also damaging it by bending the pages back (of course, you could be super careful about this, but I don't want to have do focus on something like that when I'm absorbed in a book!) This is what libraries are for. Bookshops are there to make a profit, and wouldn't exist otherwise, and it also means that the author isn't receiving money for their work.
I'd feel no qualms about having a skim of the first few pages or reading the blurb, though.

 

This. I read mangas in huge bookstores before; as well as comics. I was young and just did not have the money, and it was not massively available on the internet like it now is. I never felt guilty to buy them, because there were not too many people working there that took issue with it -- places like Wal Mart had the occasional clerk telling you to piss off, but huge bookstores had tons of kids reading mangas and they did not see to care much. The bookstores that cared sealed the mangas in some plastic, and then you could not open them before buying them. Makes sense.

I would not read in the places I buy my books, though. Because I usually buy in second hand bookstores and small shops and I just would not want to make the owner feel like I'm just there to parasite the place. Besides, books are very cheap in those places.

 

I might read a few pages incthe bookstore but I wouldn't dare just sit there and read the full book. I'm not convinced this is morally right - after all it's a business. With the rise in popularity of e-books, I think booksellers are having a hard time right now and I would hate to see them disappear fromt he high street. There is a free lending library for those who want to sit and read out of the house and they even have a coffee shop there too, where you can take the books.

 

We have a local bookstore that allows it and sometimes even encourages it so thankfully I don't have to feel that much guilty about it at all but I do do it and I love reading inside the bookstore. I think it's one of the best places to actually read a book although the downsides that sometimes I actually get interested in the book and knowing I can't finish it makes me have to choose whether to continue or just buy the book which I suppose is part of the idea as to why they allow people to read their books in the first place.

 

I used to do this to an extent when we still had a Borders in our area. Never really felt guilty about it either, since I’d buy something from the cafe. But I rarely ever finished a whole book, and if I was seriously interested in whatever I was reading, I’d usually end up buying it.

Truth be told, it was the easiest access I had to books at the time. If I’d had better access to alternatives (the library, used bookstores, etc.) I probably would have taken more advantage of those, the way I do now. But I do still miss having a place like Borders. It was a great hangout.