Where do you buy your religious books?

[Reepicheep]

I buy from Veritas, which is a local Catholic bookstore operated as a nonprofit enterprise.

 

[Catholig]

Tan Books is pretty good from what I have seen. Most of their books are in line with the Church’s teachings. They also offer steep discounts when ordering certain things in quantity. Does anyone have objections to Tan Books? If so, let me know, because I am interested in whether to support them or not.

Tan is a catholic publishing house, so I don’t think anyone’ll find anything wrong with them.

tanbooks.com/index.php

Catholig

 

[James_Carson]

There are to religous book stores in my area a catholic and a “christian” I go to both depending on what im getting. Like I buy music from the christian one and books from the Catholic one.

 

[jman507]

There are to religous book stores in my area a catholic and a “christian” I go to both depending on what im getting. Like I buy music from the christian one and books from the Catholic one.

If there is one thing I enjoy about the Catholic bookstore compared to the “Christian” book store, is the richness of the selection of books at the Catholic stores.

Oh oh and if you feel bad about buying from the Catholic bookstore and not Catholic Answeres, talk about Catholic Answers early and often at the Catholic bookstore!

 

[athanasiusrc]

You could always support a Catholic family of going on nine and shop at aquinasandmore.com. We have the largest online selection of Catholic stuff on the web. But, as for some, if price is the sole motivation for a place to shop, we can’t compete with Amazon.

 

[Zooey]

Yes, I forgot about that. Akins links to Amazon. Hmmmm…what to make of that little twist?

Rosary Army has this same system in place, so yes, this does help support the blog. I can’t tell you the amount offhand, but anyhow it is a small percentage of each order…It may not sound like much, but it can add up quite a bit over time.
This sort of thing can, IMO, be a nice compromise…

 

[bluerose]

This is a message from my in-laws…

If there is a Catholic bookstore or gift shop in your area PLEASE patronize them! I’m sorry if the books cost more than they do at Amazon, but Amazon isn’t counting on just Catholic books, statues and crucifixes to pay the rent (and electricity and taxes and salaries, etc.)

Remember, if you don’t support your local merchants, you have no one to blame but yourselves when the place goes out of business and you start to lament “there are no Catholic shops in our area!”

I know Waco’s quite a distance from us, but we get people from Sweetwater who vacation in Ruidoso, NM every year and they love visiting Mom and Dad’s shop! Yes, it’s a big risk, but you have to think of it as a ministry as well as a business (because you won’t get rich running a Catholic book store, believe me!)

 

[kell0618]

Where do I buy my religious materials? At one of the local brick and mortar Catholic stores. There are three in our area, though two are over 45 minutes away. If I can’t find a book there, I will have them order it and it usually comes in very quickly. They also give me a discount of 10% off when I order something to be used for our RCIA program. Not something Amazon would ever do, and with the online Catholic stores, you have to order a HUGE volume in order to get any discount. Plus the shipping and handling are often steep!

Long live the Catholic stores and may they be fruitful and multiply!

Kelly

 

[lizaanne]

Saint Michael’s Media has a good online bookstore, but the real one located at the studio in Ferndale, MI, has a HUGE selection of excellent Catholic books. We just don’t have everything online just yet.

See this link: catholictelevision.org/ and click on “Shop”



~Liza

 

[athanasiusrc]

The latest issue of Christian Retailing talks about how non-Catholic stores have started carrying Catholic stuff. Two of the stores interviewed said they started because the local (and only) Catholic store in their area went out of business.

It’s a sad testimony to our zeal for the Faith that the Baptists can run a half-billion dollar religious goods business (Lifeway) while we Catholics who outnumber Baptists in this country by about 20 million can’t even keep our sickly industry of mom-and-pop stores open let alone growing.

 

[Larry1700]

Okay, you’ve all made me feel guilty about purchasing from Amazon. (Insert self-flagellation icon here.)

I’ll do all my purchasing via Catholic-specific businesses from now on, to support them. For those of you who provided information about your own book stores – thank you. I’ll keep you on my list for future purchases.

Thanks to all of you for your comments!

 

[Sr_Sally]

We buy so many books, that we can spread the wealth around! LOL

I regularly buy from the local Catholic bookshop in town, to keep that small business in business. I can also get cards and gift items there. I do buy religious books at regular bookstores also–if we are there and they have a book I want. Often they don’t. I don’t buy too much through the internet since I do have local bookshop and I can save on shipping that way.

I didn’t know where to post this. When I purchase a religious book, I always face a dilemma:

If I purchase from a place such as catholic.com, newadvent.org, or EWTN, I’m supporting excellent ministries.

If I purchase from a place such as Amazon.com, I’m kind of “voting” for that book. Amazon will see that religious books sell, and it will help in their Amazon ranking (how many of each book they sold) for religious books. On the other hand, I’m giving money to Amazon, who also sells very bad books and media.

What’s your opinion?