The Joy of Amazon
There's nothing quite like the joy of getting a new book from Amazon. The package appears in the mailbox and you know there is a whole wealth of new information just waiting to be read. I received a new book I am looking forward to reading today: Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline. I don't know when I'll find time, but it seemed like a better place to start on Barth than the volumous Church Dogmatics.
Presently I only have second hand knowledge of Barth, and I hope this book will give me a better understanding of this theologian's views. He seems to have some good ideas, we'll see how it all fits together.
In other book news, I received Sigmund Freud's Future of Illusion in the mail last Thursday. I haven't had time to start it yet, but need to do so rather snappily, since that one is not reading for pleasure but rather assignment. While I know I will disagree with Freud, it will still be nice to finally have read a primary Freudian text instead of (again) depending on second hand knowledge.
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Re: The Joy of Amazon
So, out of curiousity, do you always buy your books new, or do you sometimes acquired them used?
Hmn… article # 666 …
Re: The Joy of Amazon
David, whoops, I missed the article number. I was going to quote from Revelation when I hit that number. Oh well.
Regarding books, I usually buy them new, for a few reasons. (1) I rarely have time to go to the kind of bookstore that sells books used, so Amazon is the best way for me to go. (2) I’m uncomfortable buying used books online, since I can’t inspect them — perhaps they are already filled with notes, etc., that might get in the way. I did buy a used CD online simply because I couldn’t find it new, and I’d do the same for books — there are a few rare, older books I’m trying to track down which I would be willing (by necessity) to buy used. (3) Often times I’m buying books too obscure or too new to get them used. I do buy used books when I’m at the library and see a good deal though.
As it stands, I bought two nice books for just over $20, which seems like a decent value. A lot of books are so poorly made these days, it’s probably worth a few extra bucks to get ones where the binding will stay together, if nothing else. My copy of Mere Christianity, which I bought new a few years back, is already falling apart on my second pass through the book.