Finding Christian books, especially Christian fiction, is a little bit like trying to spot an animal in the wild. They've become more elusive in secular bookstores, and they don't seem to be as readily available, depending on the public library system. Christian non-fiction, on the other hand, is more a matter of discernment where finding biblically faithful books can involve further research and digging if buried between titles by popular but not always theologically sound authors.
Over the years, I've noticed the elimination of a Christian fiction section at Chapters/Indigo (the Canadian equivalent of Barnes and Noble), along with fewer Christian fiction and non-fiction titles being purchased by the library system that I belong to. Long wait times have made it so that for the titles that are part of the library catalogue, I can be waiting several months. Otherwise, I am selecting the "notify me" option on Libby like crazy and hoping that any recommendations I submit will eventually be added.
As a result, I've had to change how I find Christian books, both in-person and online. I don't know if these tips will be helpful but I'll share a few ways I've found books as a Canadian reader. This is mostly because Canadians don't have access to vendors like Baker Book House, Pango Books, and other Christian publishers or stores. Christianbook.com is an option; however, shipping can often equate to the cost of the items being purchased.
My primary goal is to support local Christian bookstores. I'm thankful that I have access to a Christian used bookstore as I've found a few titles this way, though it's more challenging to find recently released books. For these, I usually rely on a Christian bookstore that's a little further away. To keep things more affordable, I use coupons and wait for free shipping days. I also save a bunch of purchases for pickup so that I can make one stop periodically. The bookstore that I frequent can ship across Canada, so it's worth it when there are good sales. I don't know if I'm helping keep any of these stores open longer, but I imagine that every bit counts! We've already had so many Christian bookstores shutter their doors that I aim to do my part 😄
I've also found some success in visiting secular used bookstores as they still generally separate out Christian fiction. This is one of my favourite things to do when travelling as the selection always varies. I haven't had as many fruitful finds at book sales in recent years, so I don't frequent these as often as there is usually an admission price; I like to tell myself that Christian fiction books are so good that people aren't parting with them 😂
For online purchases, I've kept a spreadsheet in Notion of the books I wish to purchase that contains the prices from various vendors. I track these on a regular basis and see which deals I can take advantage of to formulate a shopping cart. It's fairly technical, but it keeps me organized. I keep a wishlist of the books I'm looking for on different websites and check the lists several times a week to see if there are any price reductions. Depending on the vendor, there are often great sales around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so the majority of my book purchases take place near the end of the year. Chapters/Indigo offers a massive discount for birthdays, so I like to save a lot of books for that time period as well.
In terms of ebooks and audiobooks, I don't tend to make as many purchases as I currently subscribe to Kindle Unlimited and Audible. I did end up extending my Audible membership for another year, but only to make it through the books I saved from the Plus Catalogue. I actually never had any subscriptions prior to these two services, so this was definitely in response to the incredibly long wait times on Libby. Time will tell if these subscriptions will be a good use of finances, but I have appreciated the quick availability of titles that I don't necessarily want to own.
I can definitely pass on more specifics if anyone is looking for vendors, etc. but I've kept it pretty generic as this likely applies to readers in other countries as well. You can tell that I think a lot about book acquisitions due to how in-depth I can get with these details; too bad I can't really use this skill outside of finding good book sales 🤣
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