Buying the good O'reilly books is or becomes a problem !!

Nottingham.

I visited Nottingham and found a very limited section of computer books available on the shelves. Previous to my visit they had a wide range of computer books on the shelves and some O'Reilly, ones which I have purchased from them before. On the most recent occasion my son chose an O'Reilly book from the very few O'Reilly books left on the shelves. I asked the store assistants why they were cutting back, on computer books, and they stated that not many people buy computer books. 3+ floors in this building and very little computer books.

I noticed although they were cutting back on computer books the Microsoft programming books were in abundance, and when I asked about programming in QT or Kdevelop I was informed "to go buy them from the internet ?". Is there no where I can buy programming books for QT or Kdevelop ??

--??-- Oh we only sell Microsoft books, because nobody ever buys anything else. --??--

Thanks for letting me know the store. This store used to have a very large and comprehensive computer book section and I called on this account selling in O'Reilly books for many years. In recent years Waterstone's has made big cuts to the size of their computing book sections including the Nottingham store.
Unfortunately when this happens subjects like Qt, which are not big sellers, are no longer represented in the stores. However I do know that Waterstone's don't look to stock Microsoft programming titles above other programming books.

I'm going to forward your recent comment to the Waterstone's buyer at Head Office, he's very interested in the issue that you've raised. He's keen to improve the profile of computing titles in all of the Waterstone's stores as we are at O'Reilly. I'll let you know his comments.

To be fair, I didn't know when I replyed to your online form that this information was going to be public, or as an online webpage, but don't mind. After re-reading my first post I noticed I said I was informed that they no longer stock O'reilly books, but must say from my recollection the actual sales assistant said, we are cutting back on programming books, and then after I pointed out that there were many programming titles written by microsoft on the shelves, the sales assistant seemed to indicated that this was possiable because Waterstone's favored to stock Microsoft titles. I personally took this to mean that are they no longer stock O'reilly books, as while Waterstones had shelves of them at one time, thay have cut back considrable on O'reilly books.

I am no great fan of waterstones, but used to visit regular as they did stock a large selection and wide array of titles, (such as qt) and not just the usual bestseller list.

If you know of any other bookstore that stock wide array of books, I would like to know. There is nothing like looking through and buying good books by getting a feel of what the book is like before you buy it. With buying through amazon and the like its a bit hit and miss. With computing books this can be an expensive affair if the book is of no use.

Thanks for listening if you know of a good bookstore, let me know.