I used to be a bookstore/library browser, but I don’t do that anymore. I read primarily nonfiction. Now days, I’ll read an article, hear a lecture, or see a TV show about a subject, and when it sparks my interest, I go to Wikipedia to find what books are used to support the article. Once I locate a title or titles, I go to Amazon to read the customer reviews on the selected book(s). If I don’t want to add the book to my personal library, I go on-line to see if it’s available at the local library. Usually, however, I’ll purchase the book.

The second method I use involves picking a book from the footnotes and bibliography of the book I am reading. For those, I skip Wikipedia and go directly to the reviews. If I think I’d like the book, I go ahead and order it: usually a used copy from an independent bookseller at AbeBooks. For example, a few years ago I determined I wanted to learn more about the Second World War in the China-Burma-India Theater. I bought Burma: The Longest War 1941-45 (1984) by Louis Allen. It sat on my shelf for about ten or fifteen years, but I started reading it at the end of this past December. As I was reading it, I became curious about three other books Allen cited as primary sources. I bought all three of them. I finished the third one last night. I received it from England last Monday. It was published in 1946, and it’s not available in my local library.

One area Allen didn’t cover well was China’s role in the war in Burma. So, by the first process I described above, I found and selected China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China 1937-1952 by Hans van de Ven. I started it today.

One last thing. A couple of years ago I came across a title in a bibliography I was interested in. When I researched it, I found that it was out-of-print, and no one was selling new or used copies. On that occasion, I luckily WAS able to check it out of the local library.