Quote:
Originally Posted by Teddman
The Kindle is so much more expensive than the Sony, you'd have to buy a lot of books to make up the difference. I guess it depends on how often you buy e-books.
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For me the decision came mostly down to features but, as I said above, where I save money is by having free sample chapters. It's not about the money I save per book purchase. I avoid buying books I don't end up reading. When I try to plan ahead buying books, I often end up buying things I don't like or things I don't get around to reading because my interest moved on. Since I get large samples from Amazon and don't have to concern myself if I'll be near a computer when I'm done reading them, I don't end up buying a book until I'm sure it's what I want to read right now. I have a lot of paper books I never finished. I don't have that issue with the Kindle. I'd estimate about 20% of the paper books I had were things I bought and didn't like enough to finish or never even started.
So let's say you read one purchased book a week and I'll average the price to $8 figuring you're mixing new and back catalog stuff. That's $416 in books in a year. If you saved about a buck each on these books, you saved $52 in price difference. If you had even 10% clunkers (which means you're doing better than me), that's another $40 or so. If your numbers are anything like that, you've made up the difference in a year without even accounting for the feature set difference. I probably read 80% new releases and in my first year of having a Kindle, I bought about 75 books. With my 20% failure rate, that puts me at $212 savings the first year. I admit that my previous book buying habits were rather wasteful and extravagant. I actually decline more than 20% of my samples but then I sample more freely than I purchased before. I spend a good deal less on books than I used to and I'm reading more. How awesome is that?
Your mileage may vary. If you're the type that finishes every book you start even if you don't like it, then it may not be a money saver. It could be a time and aggravation saver but that's harder to quantify. Also, some people just like buying and collecting books and will buy without sampling anyway. I also know some folks who have gone back and bought a bunch of old favorites just to have them. If this is your habit, then it's really only the per-book cost that you will save. My savings hinges on me NOT buying books. If you plan on getting everything from the library, PD, or the darknets, then none of this makes a difference. It comes down to stuff like features, ergonomics, looks, etc.