Last year, I went a little nuts with the Fictionwise sales and bought a ton of junk I didn't really need to buy. I regret it now. Between magazine subscriptions, quality freebies and the stash books I bought by authors I really want to read, my plate is over-full and I just have too much stuff. Looking over my unrated Fictionwise buys, there are so many entirely forgettable mysteries I bought because the rebate made them $2 or something, and there is meanwhile a stash of equally large classic mysteries I could get for free and could be reading instead. I feel a little obliged to read the things I pay for, and I wish I hadn't bought half this stuff. What was I thinking? If these were physical books I would need a house for them all, but at least I could sell them and not have to look at them anymore
The ebooks will just sit there taunting me with the money I wasted on them.
I think I won't even load them on my new Kindle for now; I'll load up the quality stuff first. And then if I run out of stuff to read, I can go back to these random impulse buys and see if there are any hidden gems in there. But honestly, I wish I never bought them and I have learned my lesson. If I really do want it, it goes on my wishlist until the next sale. If I don't really want it, I won't buy it---no matter how cheap it is. And now that I will have a Kindle, I will take advantage of the free samples to make sure it is quality stuff before I plunk down money.
I have not bought a single ebook in 2010. I will break this rule tonight to buy a French dictionary to use on the Kindle, but other than that, I have more than enough to read right now. And I want to spend my reading time reading better stuff!
Fwiw, here are the ones I decided made my 'quality' cut for the time being. These will be first on the Kindle when I get it home.
Want to Read
CURRENT:
FICTIONWISE
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Oryx and Crake/Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Great Tales from English History by Robery Lacey
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer
The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
Obedience by Will Lavender
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
FREEBIES/OTHER
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Raymond Chandler
Sax Rohmer
Dashiell Hammett
E W Hornung
P G Wodehouse
Dorothy Sayers
Earl Derr Biggers
Ernest Bramah
Raffles Series
Arsene Lupin Series
Wilkie Collins
Anna Katharine Green
Scarlet Pimpernel Series
G.K. Chesterton (Father Brown)
Augusta Groner
Jerome K Jerome