Book Store Experience

[javacodeman]

So after the good advice I received here, I went to Barnes & Noble to see what they had. I found the military section (they had rearranged since I was last there) thinking that there firearms section would be close by. I looked but didn't see any gun books. So I walked around looking through all the shelves. I couldn't find it. So I went up the the customer service counter and asked if they had books on firearms. The clerk said. "Yes, one moment." He went off to his computer a few feet away for a minute or two. Came back and said that they had 1 firearms book up in the bargain bin that would be difficult to locate and one in the military section that would also be difficult to locate. I said, "So you don't have a section of firearms books?" He looked at me like I was crazy and said no. (I should said, "You know, like this firearm here <shows concealed weapon>" )

So I said okay, and went to the Books-A-Million across the street in the mall. Yep they had them, a whole section with gun, reloading, and knife books. Guess I know where I'll be steering my business.

Any similar encounters out there?

java

 

[Manedwolf]

B&N has plenty on their website. It might be an economic decision, as they tend to only have in the store the books that "move", and gun books sometimes don't for a while...especially dependent on market and region.

They certainly have all the gun magazines.

 

[longwatch]

Been a while since I went to a B & K

But last time I went to one they had about a dozen books or so. The Borders I have been to have a lot more books and magazines too.

 

[harvester of sorrow]

The gun books at Barnes and Noble are in the Sports book section. They tend towards hunting titles and Gun Digest type books, but you will find interesting books every now and then.

 

[12GA00buck]

Amazon!!!

You can find any book Barnes and Noble has on Amazon, for about 1/4 of the cost. They have just about every book that was ever in print. Now and then you can even find out print stuff like Jack O' Connor. Even with overnight shipping, you'll save allot of money over any retail store. Their selection and price kicks the crap out of any other store.
Good Luck

 

[Wes Janson]

At Borders, Books a Million, and Barnes & Noble, all the firearm-related books are in or around either the hunting, sports, or collectibles section (depending). Not so much military.

 

[moewadle]

My Barnes and Noble

also has the Gun publications with the Sports Books as mentioned above. There was a reasonable selection of titles one would expect in a general book store selling only new books.

 

[Kali Endgame]

I had a similar problem at the public library. A small handful of books about reloading most were in storage and the three they had listed on the catalog were not on the shelves. Plenty of gun history books, but no reloading books.

 

[moewadle]

Regardless of population

served by the library I am pretty sure that most public libraries rely a great deal on what the demand is for any given subject as the guideline for stocking books. If your library has little or no requests for reloading books there will be almost none on the shelves. I would guess that, in the scheme of things, virtually all libraries such as this, in the USA will have almost no reloading books. Like every other institution their budget is finite and they have to serve a wide array of interests. Reloading is really a specialized subject in this particular scheme.

 

[lee n. field]

Dunno about Barnes & Noble, but the Borders I go to keeps a fair number of gun books in the sports section. Decent stuff too (I wouldn't have expected them to have Cartridges of the World, but I have seen it there.).

 

[javacodeman]

Maybe the clerk was new and didn't know where to look and searched for the wrong thing in the computer. I'll go back and hunt down the sports section and see if they have a large selection than they seemed to last night.

java

 

[RNB65]

I live near two B&N's and both have a decent selection of gun books in the sports section.

 

[LkWinnipesaukee]

I love Half.com

New books are so much cheaper. And used out-of-print books (Unintended Consequences Edition 1???) are for sale there too.

 

[bthest86]

I bought two gun books one time at mall in Winston-Salem.

The book covers were of course covered in different types of assault rifles and pistols.

The female clerk who rung me up looked at one of them and said "Cool. I wonder if this has someting about that famous crappy WWI French gun in it?" The male clerk said "I wouldn't know. I hate guns."

Then told her about the gun she was talking about and why it was so crappy and showed her a picture of it in the book. Then she said "Geez. Why do you even need these books?!"

 

[SoCalShooter]

Borders at the mall has an ice stock of magazines and books. I always pick up my soldier of fortune there. Freaks people out.

 

[akodo]

i got my copy of cartridges of the world at barnes and nobles

 

[Deanimator]

Here in NE Ohio, Borders is a better place for serious gun books that Barnes & Noble. Out at Crocker Park, there are a Borders and a B&N a five minute walk apart. I used to have to go to both of them because Borders had the NY Review of Books, but not Smallarms Review, and vice versa. Both of them keep their gun books in the "sports" section.

Recently however, Liberty Books has opened up in Rocky River. Their selection of magazines is better than Borders and B&N combined. Not only do they have NY Review of Books AND Smallarms Review, they also have Gunweek, the only store in this part of Ohio that does, to the best of my knowledge. The icing on the cake is that they're all of a five minute drive from my house!

For REALLY serious gun books, it's always gunshows for me. That's the only place where you're going to find the Collector's Grade books on the BAR, FN FAL, etc. I refuse to buy a $75 book sight unseen.

 

[Outlaws]

Yep, book stores are for everything not "guns". If it doesn't sell they are not gonna waste the shelves. I buy online mostly now because someone somewhere has what I want instock. To be fair though, I did get my copy of The Global War on Your Guns at Bookmaster or Bookstar or whatever that store is called. I think they are owned by B&N because that is who told me to go there for it.

 

[SnWnMe]

One time I was buying a gun rag at the local Navy Exchange and the clerk wasn't sure that our 15% magazines/periodicals discount applied to gun magazines as well.

It does apply to Hustler and Penthouse BTW.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

What Sells

While on the one hand, I agree that book stores tend to stock what moves well, a comprehensive walk through a couple (or dozen) of bookstores over the past few years has led me to believe that they also tend to stock in the direction(s) for which management has the most affinity.

Without enumerating every weird kind of book in every nook and cranny, I have to say there is an effort to "promote by presentation" certain kinds of material which, if it had to compete on sales alone, would die of starvation.

I knew a gentleman in Las Vegas who ran a used book store. He was very forthcoming about his stocking profiles. On the one hand, he dealt in stuff that moved well: this keeps the doors open. On the other hand, he stocked and cultivated certain other material to promote traffic with a specific range of clientele. The topic came up because I noticed he carried certain kinds of dictionary and encyclopedia that had largely been expunged from schools and libraries. You'll be shocked to know that he was somewhat conservative.

So, yes, in my own experience, it would seem that the stuff on the shelves does indeed reflect the inclinations and prejudices of the ownership and management.

 

[telomerase]

So, yes, in my own experience, it would seem that the stuff on the shelves does indeed reflect the inclinations and prejudices of the ownership and management.

Oh yeah, two B&Ns in this town. One carries Reason, Liberty, other politically pro-gun mags and has a good selection of shooting magazines, the other doesn't. Exact same clientele, just different management.