Quote:
Originally Posted by Liviu_5
Not to be annoying, but you have to consider that once the Kindle expires - and who knows, 2 years is probably expected to last, maybe up to 5, but for more you have to be really lucky - you have to buy another one to read your ebooks unless you dedrm them.
Or Amazon allows you to change formats if they do a newer Kindle-thingy with a different drm. It may happen, but the history of drm is not optimistic on that and since for now each e-book format is a different book in the eyes of the publishers, I would not bet on that.
And regarding samples, well it's really easy to get them either online or browse in the store. I've bought 70+ books e or p this year, and I sampled most of them before easily, even when I ordered them from the UK not being available here, and you can almost always find excerpts online, sometimes a chapter, sometimes much more...
So for me the argument that Kindle or Sony or any other e-book device saves money is not that convincing, at least if you buy e-books. But while 770 is my main reading device, I started using the Sony more now that is summer and I do some reading outside, and if Kindle would have a promotion like Sony had and come down to 50$, or even 100$, maybe when Kindle 2 is prepared, I would buy one too the way I did the 500.
|
I'm quite happy to dedrm my books for personal use. I rarely reread books so I'm not terribly concerned, though. My husband is considering getting one now, too, and he often rereads so it will be important to us if he does.
As for samples, I have never read an entire chapter of a book standing around in the bookstore. I read a page or two. I estimate 10-20% of the books I bought before did not get finished. Either I didn't end up liking them enough as I read further or my fancy for them passed before I got to them. The latter happened a lot since I tended to buy enough books to last a month and I have the attention span of a ferret. I did a little look back on my spending since writing that last post to see if I was just imagining the savings. I've gone from spending roughly $50-$100 (average ~$80) per month on books to $30-$40. It may not save money for you but it has most definitely for me given my previous (arguably quite wasteful) habits. If I were intensely concerned about finances right now I would be reading a lot more free classics and hitting the library. Luckily, I have a Prius so I'm still buying books.