For a time I went into a freebie click frenzy. I got my first kindle in 2008, and at that time freebies were fantastic books. I am talking books that ended up being close to $10 again later. Those were mostly publishers. Then there was a time, I think around 2010 or so where suddenly freebies were everywhere. I got caught up in the shiny.
I stopped doing that in 2011-2012 or so and now only get free books that are equally vetted from those I pay money for. Sometimes they end up being books I was about to pay money for.
I deleted about 900 books a few months back, which were mostly from that early kindle period.
I do note in calibre what I paid for a book, that is mostly to keep track of my budget over time. But on my kindle, they all go in a collection called unread and in the genre and subgenre collections. Since I been buying books and getting free books since 2008, there are many times I can't even remember if I paid for a book or not.
So at this point I treat them all the same since I vetted them the same. Many of my freebies now I have to say are back list titles that were at one point put out by big publishers.
So for me, I don't read a book first just because I paid this or that for it. Only time I do that is if I am in a series and have been waiting for the new one and I have to read it right away. But in general, it doesn't matter to me. Maybe that is because of the type of freebies I get.
In the end, if I did my vetting right, its all about the book. I buy more with money though than I get free books. I am just selective on that.
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