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Nate the great · 08-13-2009, 06:12 PM

Recently I had the freak occurrence of needing new reference books while at the same time actually having the money to buy them. I dug through the pile of borrowed books and noticed that several were published by Apress. (Yes, John, you can have them back now.)

I prefer to buy ebooks instead of paper copies, so naturally I checked the publishers website to see if they were available. I noticed a number of details. Apress is a pretty big technical publisher; if you're a SWE or in a related field look among your tech manuals for a black and yellow cover; it's their trademark.

The good news is that Apress publishes most if not all of their titles as ebooks. The not quite so good news is that the ebooks come in only 2 formats: password protected PDF and Kindle Topaz.

I, for one, don't buy PDFs. I've heard too many horror stories about PDFs mysteriously expiring and leaving the owner with no recourse except to buy the PDF again. I do not think Apress would do that; it's just why I avoid the format entirely.

Like many others, I don't ebooks in Amazon's Topaz format. Due to Amazon's ongoing mismanagement of the Kindle ebooks, I currently trust Amazon about as far as I can throw Jeff Bezos. It's good that the books are available on the Kindle; to be honest I'd like to see how they look on the DX. But I won't spend my money because I can't protect my purchases from Amazon (the DRM can't be removed).

I still bought the books, though, and I got them on Amazon for less than the ebook price. I just wish I could have them as ebooks.

UPDATE: A member pointed me at Apress's Deal of the Day. Each day a differnet title is offered for $9.99. Thanks Gary.

http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal

08-13-2009, 06:12 PM	#1
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Apress Books Recently I had the freak occurrence of needing new reference books while at the same time actually having the money to buy them. I dug through the pile of borrowed books and noticed that several were published by Apress. (Yes, John, you can have them back now.) I prefer to buy ebooks instead of paper copies, so naturally I checked the publishers website to see if they were available. I noticed a number of details. Apress is a pretty big technical publisher; if you're a SWE or in a related field look among your tech manuals for a black and yellow cover; it's their trademark. The good news is that Apress publishes most if not all of their titles as ebooks. The not quite so good news is that the ebooks come in only 2 formats: password protected PDF and Kindle Topaz. I, for one, don't buy PDFs. I've heard too many horror stories about PDFs mysteriously expiring and leaving the owner with no recourse except to buy the PDF again. I do not think Apress would do that; it's just why I avoid the format entirely. Like many others, I don't ebooks in Amazon's Topaz format. Due to Amazon's ongoing mismanagement of the Kindle ebooks, I currently trust Amazon about as far as I can throw Jeff Bezos. It's good that the books are available on the Kindle; to be honest I'd like to see how they look on the DX. But I won't spend my money because I can't protect my purchases from Amazon (the DRM can't be removed). I still bought the books, though, and I got them on Amazon for less than the ebook price. I just wish I could have them as ebooks. UPDATE: A member pointed me at Apress's Deal of the Day. Each day a differnet title is offered for $9.99. Thanks Gary. http://www.apress.com/info/dailydeal Last edited by Nate the great; 08-20-2009 at 12:05 PM.