4 ms·

I love libraries but they don't usually have the latest books. I get my book recommendations from Tyler Cowen's blog and most of the books featured there take

by wenc 6y ago

I love libraries but they don't usually have the latest books. I get my book recommendations from Tyler Cowen's blog and most of the books featured there take a while to show up in library collections or if ever at all. (I know I can put in requests, but they take weeks and I'd have lost interest by that time) I get more of a thrill from bookstore displays because they give me a sense of the current literary zeitgeist, especially if the owner is a reader and has curated the display carefully. Bookstores have more of an incentive to push new stuff.

flatline 6y ago
If you want to read best sellers from five years ago they are great. If you are willing to work the queue you can get new stuff, just not on your time table. If you are into anything the least bit esoteric and/or aren’t organized with your returns or the waitlist they are frustrating. I have always had a love/hate relationship with libraries.
- jeffreyrogers 6y ago
  I have unusual reading interests and don't normally read best sellers, so I use inter-library loan a lot. I can normally get what I want through that, although sometimes I have to wait a couple of weeks for them to find/ship the book to my library.
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  ILL (or regional equivalents) are useful. Though LibGen + Gutenberg + Archive.org are increasingly preferable, especially for obscure interests.
- kens 6y ago
  If you are looking for esoteric library books and in California, try Link+. It lets you get books from many libraries, including university libraries. My tastes are very, very obscure but Link+ often finds the 1953 computer book that I'm looking for. (Other areas may have similar inter-library loan services.) https://csul.iii.com/ https://csul.iii.com/
CrazyStat 6y ago
Only tangentially related, but my favorite place to browse during undergrad was the sorting shelves at the university library (which were publicly accessible, though not advertised). When books were returned they were sorted there before being sent out to be reshelved across the library[1], so it was a daily snapshot of what books the university community thought were worth reading. I picked up a number of books there that I never would have seen otherwise. Unfortunately when I went to graduate school the sorting shelves were hidden behind the circulation desk. [1] Unless there was a hold on the book, in which case it would be kept at the circulation desk--so the most popular books never made it to the sorting shelves.
- rmrfstar 6y ago
  The original "engagement" optimizing algorithm.
- jasperry 6y ago
  My public library has a "recently returned" section for this very purpose. I love it.
- LeonB 6y ago
  I've done the same. And unsorted returns have a "customers who liked this also liked" aspect.
Retric 6y ago
I think bookstores suffer from the current literary zeitgeist. Consider of the best 10,000 books ever printed, what percentage where printed in the last 3 years? Stores need novelty to sell books which seriously compromises quality.
ravenstine 6y ago
If more people donated newer books to their libraries, this might not be as big an issue.
Koshkin 6y ago
But bookstores often do not have all the latest books, nor do they always have the best of older ones. There's just no alternative to the web anymore, especially when it comes to user reviews. (Not to mention the universal trend to move away from paper books.)
dredmorbius 6y ago
Vitually any library will take recommendations, and a source such as Cowen (or Gates, or other notable academics/authors) will tend to be well-received. Few of the best books are recent, as Schopenhauer noted.
SubiculumCode 6y ago
Having the latest books does not interest me overly much. Unless I am interested in something relevant to current events, or want the last book of a long series that I started, I find the backlog of good books to be sufficiently gargantuan. The main feeling I get when I go to a library looking for some fiction is the immense number of novels sitting on the shelves that probably have not been checked out from the library in a decade.....and it makes me want to try that dusty tomb with the boring but sturdy hardcover sitting on the bottom shelf.
- dingaling 6y ago
  > when I go to a library looking for some fiction That's my problem with libraries, other than university ones: they're massively biased towards fiction. Basically printed Netflix. I don't consider my local library if I need to learn something or research science or history. It doesn't even have the shelf of encyclopedias that it did when I worked there as a student 30 years ago.
  - SubiculumCode 6y ago
    That is a fair assessment. For my scholarly activities, I do not go to a public library, but a University library or the internet. I wouldn't denigrate the whole literary genre of fiction as just 'Printed Netflix' though.
  - dorchadas 6y ago
    This is exactly why I miss my university library. Even though the main branch of my local public library is probably slightly biased towards non-fiction, in terms of total works (though it's drowned out when you add the other branches in), the level of stuff just isn't academic, and it's often almost impossible to find good academic stuff. The local university library sadly isn't much better. I never realized how much I was spoiled by a good university library until I didn't have access to it anymore.
catalogia 6y ago
I've noticed that my enjoyment of a book doesn't seem to be related to the age of the book, provided it's not so old that I can't understand the dialect of English it was written in (English Renaissance drama is enjoyable but challenging.)

by wenc 6y ago

flatline 6y ago

If you want to read best sellers from five years ago they are great. If you are willing to work the queue you can get new stuff, just not on your time table. If you are into anything the least bit esoteric and/or aren’t organized with your returns or the waitlist they are frustrating. I have always had a love/hate relationship with libraries.

jeffreyrogers 6y ago
I have unusual reading interests and don't normally read best sellers, so I use inter-library loan a lot. I can normally get what I want through that, although sometimes I have to wait a couple of weeks for them to find/ship the book to my library.
dredmorbius 6y ago
ILL (or regional equivalents) are useful. Though LibGen + Gutenberg + Archive.org are increasingly preferable, especially for obscure interests.
kens 6y ago
If you are looking for esoteric library books and in California, try Link+. It lets you get books from many libraries, including university libraries. My tastes are very, very obscure but Link+ often finds the 1953 computer book that I'm looking for. (Other areas may have similar inter-library loan services.) https://csul.iii.com/ https://csul.iii.com/

CrazyStat 6y ago

Only tangentially related, but my favorite place to browse during undergrad was the sorting shelves at the university library (which were publicly accessible, though not advertised). When books were returned they were sorted there before being sent out to be reshelved across the library[1], so it was a daily snapshot of what books the university community thought were worth reading. I picked up a number of books there that I never would have seen otherwise. Unfortunately when I went to graduate school the sorting shelves were hidden behind the circulation desk. [1] Unless there was a hold on the book, in which case it would be kept at the circulation desk--so the most popular books never made it to the sorting shelves.

rmrfstar 6y ago
The original "engagement" optimizing algorithm.
jasperry 6y ago
My public library has a "recently returned" section for this very purpose. I love it.
LeonB 6y ago
I've done the same. And unsorted returns have a "customers who liked this also liked" aspect.

Retric 6y ago

I think bookstores suffer from the current literary zeitgeist. Consider of the best 10,000 books ever printed, what percentage where printed in the last 3 years? Stores need novelty to sell books which seriously compromises quality.

ravenstine 6y ago

If more people donated newer books to their libraries, this might not be as big an issue.

Koshkin 6y ago

But bookstores often do not have all the latest books, nor do they always have the best of older ones. There's just no alternative to the web anymore, especially when it comes to user reviews. (Not to mention the universal trend to move away from paper books.)

dredmorbius 6y ago

Vitually any library will take recommendations, and a source such as Cowen (or Gates, or other notable academics/authors) will tend to be well-received. Few of the best books are recent, as Schopenhauer noted.

SubiculumCode 6y ago

Having the latest books does not interest me overly much. Unless I am interested in something relevant to current events, or want the last book of a long series that I started, I find the backlog of good books to be sufficiently gargantuan. The main feeling I get when I go to a library looking for some fiction is the immense number of novels sitting on the shelves that probably have not been checked out from the library in a decade.....and it makes me want to try that dusty tomb with the boring but sturdy hardcover sitting on the bottom shelf.

dingaling 6y ago
> when I go to a library looking for some fiction That's my problem with libraries, other than university ones: they're massively biased towards fiction. Basically printed Netflix. I don't consider my local library if I need to learn something or research science or history. It doesn't even have the shelf of encyclopedias that it did when I worked there as a student 30 years ago.
- SubiculumCode 6y ago
  That is a fair assessment. For my scholarly activities, I do not go to a public library, but a University library or the internet. I wouldn't denigrate the whole literary genre of fiction as just 'Printed Netflix' though.
- dorchadas 6y ago
  This is exactly why I miss my university library. Even though the main branch of my local public library is probably slightly biased towards non-fiction, in terms of total works (though it's drowned out when you add the other branches in), the level of stuff just isn't academic, and it's often almost impossible to find good academic stuff. The local university library sadly isn't much better. I never realized how much I was spoiled by a good university library until I didn't have access to it anymore.

catalogia 6y ago

I've noticed that my enjoyment of a book doesn't seem to be related to the age of the book, provided it's not so old that I can't understand the dialect of English it was written in (English Renaissance drama is enjoyable but challenging.)