Before April, I had purchased exclusively from eReader.com and Fictionwise, 8 books a month, costing me $50-60 depending on the Reward/MicroPay. They no longer carry the Big 5, which is about 85-90% of the authors I read, so my reading strategy has changed dramatically.
Since April 1, I have:
- read 4 pbooks from the library
- read 3 paper books from my TBR pile (gifts)
- read 1 classic from FeedBooks
- read 3 ebooks from eNYPL
- spent countless hours on MR and blogs learning about DRM removal
- performed eReader DRM-removal until I can do it in my sleep (95 files still left)
- downloaded 2 freebies from Sony to practice DRM removal on
- learned how to strip Adobe ePub DRM
- downloaded 8 freebies from Amazon to practice DRM removal on
- purchased 1 Random House title from B&N (I was hoping it was ePub so I could practice on theirs)
- researched and downloaded iPhone reading apps
- learned how to load books onto my iPhone via Calibre's Content Server
I still need to practice on Adobe PDF and Mobi/Amazon, which are on my agenda this week. Once that is done, even with DRM removal, I'll have lots of time to read 3-5 books a week, for free.
I was willing to spend $4-5 to test an author, but not $8-12. So I'm left buying 3 favorite authors and I'll get the rest of my trial reading from the library.
8 books a month --> ~2 books a year.
So thanks to the Big 5, I'm saving a ton of money!
Maybe I'll save that money for an iPad, and then I'll have even less reason to spend money on books, since I'll probably use it to read blogs/forums, and watch video.
