My e-books tend to be:
- Repurchases of my favourite DPBs (the ones I enjoy rereading)
- Purchases of books I've already investigated via the library, usually based on book reviews from newspapers and blogs
- Free classics from Project Gutenberg, this site's e-book upload library, etc.
Sometimes I'll browse the Amazon Kindle store using keyword searches, followed by a sample download if a result looks promising ... but in general I don't do that unless I'm looking for something on a very specific subject. Their search tool is far too blunt an instrument to use for casual browsing. If they ever get to the point where it's possible to execute (and save) detailed boolean searches, I'll probably use it more often.
Sadly, most of my "hunts" on Amazon are semi-futile, Is-It-Available-Yet unicorn quests. I've got a loooong list of books that are (1) not yet available in e-book format at all (e.g. John Crowley's
Little, Big), or (2) not available to people in my corner of the world (e.g. the omnibus editions of P.G. Wodehouse or Douglas Adams [available to Americans], or almost everything by Val McDermid [available to Brits]). Occasionally I get a pleasant surprise, but most of my Desert Island Top 25 are simply not available yet.