no country for old titles.....A mini rant...okay maybe a hissy fit.

[RickV]

I've made up my mind and am going to get the kindle (unless someone can talk me out of it).

To that end, I've found several sources from which I can buy books from, but my initial frustration at finding older titles has no ended.

I'm a guy who likes to read older books when I am just passing time and can put down the book when I get busy without doing the "one more chapter" bit.

My "older" reading list is basically the following:

The Belgariad series by David Eddings
The Myth Series by Robert Asprin
The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg
Several Tom Clancy Novels

It's akin to what I have stored on my TIVO:

"El Dorado"
"The Quiet Man"
"Support Your Local Sheriff"
"My Fair Lady" (i'm not gay, but I enjoy musicals and some romantic comedies. so shut up! )


I watch these when I'm about ready to go to sleep and turn them off when I do without guilt (usually).

is it so wrong to enjoy older books and enjoy them in a newer format?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickV

My "older" reading list is basically the following:

The Belgariad series by David Eddings

I note you don't include The Malloreon.

The Myth Series by Robert Asprin
The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg
Several Tom Clancy Novels

It's akin to what I have stored on my TIVO:

"El Dorado"
"The Quiet Man"
"Support Your Local Sheriff"
"My Fair Lady" (i'm not gay, but I enjoy musicals and some romantic comedies. so shut up! )

Since when is liking musicals and romantic comedies an indicator of homosexuality? If you know people who think that, it's time to find new friends...

is it so wrong to enjoy older books and enjoy them in a newer format?

Not at all. I have a number of older works in both formats. The issue is whether anyone has put the older work into electronic format.
______
Dennis

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RickV

I've made up my mind and am going to get the kindle (unless someone can talk me out of it).

To that end, I've found several sources from which I can buy books from, but my initial frustration at finding older titles has no ended.

I'm a guy who likes to read older books when I am just passing time and can put down the book when I get busy without doing the "one more chapter" bit.

My "older" reading list is basically the following:

The Belgariad series by David Eddings
The Myth Series by Robert Asprin
The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg
Several Tom Clancy Novels

It's akin to what I have stored on my TIVO:

"El Dorado"
"The Quiet Man"
"Support Your Local Sheriff"
"My Fair Lady" (i'm not gay, but I enjoy musicals and some romantic comedies. so shut up! )


I watch these when I'm about ready to go to sleep and turn them off when I do without guilt (usually).

is it so wrong to enjoy older books and enjoy them in a newer format?

Of course not. Since some of your favorite authors books already appear on the Kindle bookstore, hopefully eventually they all will. When I first got my Kindle, In early June, there was maybe 3 Stephen King books listed........now, almost all of them are. It will just take a little time, but take heart.....Now, I believe you won't be seeing Tom Clancy on any ebook reader, legally, because he doesn't believe in that format, along with JK Rowling.

Someone correct me if I"m wrong.

[RickV]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I note you don't include The Malloreon.

Dennis

I got frustrated by the spelling, so I gave up. I'm lazy that way.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Since when is liking musicals and romantic comedies an indicator of homosexuality? If you know people who think that, it's time to find new friends...
Dennis

Well, some of my friends tease me about it from time to time. Being single with no steady ladyfriend isn't helping.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Not at all. I have a number of older works in both formats. The issue is whether anyone has put the older work into electronic format.
______
Dennis

That's true, but these aren't (to my knowledge) huge sellers, so I don't have much hope that it will be done anytime soon.

So Clancy and Rowlings has issues with ebooks overall?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickV

I got frustrated by the spelling, so I gave up. I'm lazy that way.

I read and enjoyed the Belgariad. I plowed rather grimly through the Malloreon. People back then raved about the Belgariad, and made comments wishing it would go on forever. By the time I finished the Malloreon, I felt like it had.

Eddings was too determined to drag his characters to every part of their world, the authorial strings being pulled were too obvious, and things that were slight irritations, easily ignorable in the Belgariad, blossomed into full scale "pitch you out of the story" annoyances in the Malloreon. The whole thing wound up feeling like paint by numbers fantasy.

Subsequent Eddings works were no balm, as it became obvious he had one story to tell with one cast of characters, and the new series was the old series with the names changed and the serial numbers filed off.

That's true, but these aren't (to my knowledge) huge sellers, so I don't have much hope that it will be done anytime soon.

The Eddings did quite well back when, as did the Clancy. I think the Asprin stuff did as well, though I was never a fan of the "Myth" or Phule" books.

The issue is whether the publishers involved see an ebook market, and are willing to create electronic editions. (They may no longer have the electronic files for the books, and would need to create them from scratch.

So Clancy and Rowlings has issues with ebooks overall?

Rowling has refused to license electronic editions, for reasons I'm not clear on. I think it has to do with thinking her market is kids, and kids won't have readers. I don't think she realizes how many of her devoted readers are grownups.

Clancy may have as well, but I haven't seen anything on it. (I haven't looked, so I may well have missed it.)
______
Dennis

[RickV]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I read and enjoyed the Belgariad. I plowed rather grimly through the Malloreon. People back then raved about the Belgariad, and made comments wishing it would go on forever. By the time I finished the Malloreon, I felt like it had.

Eddings was too determined to drag his characters to every part of their world, the authorial strings being pulled were too obvious, and things that were slight irritations, easily ignorable in the Belgariad, blossomed into full scale "pitch you out of the story" annoyances in the Malloreon. The whole thing wound up feeling like paint by numbers fantasy.

Subsequent Eddings works were no balm, as it became obvious he had one story to tell with one cast of characters, and the new series was the old series with the names changed and the serial numbers filed off.
Dennis

I SO totally agree with you on Mallorean and his other series. I think I read the Rose queen or whatever and decided this was simply a rehash of Belgariad and haven't read any of his other works since (except for Polgara and the Belgarath books). The thing with me is that the Mallorean was a bit too long, I thought 3 books would have sufficed it (granted, they would be THICK books...) for the story to come together. But they brought out my favorite character (whom I closely resemble in many ways), Beldin.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The Eddings did quite well back when, as did the Clancy. I think the Asprin stuff did as well, though I was never a fan of the "Myth" or Phule" books.

The issue is whether the publishers involved see an ebook market, and are willing to create electronic editions. (They may no longer have the electronic files for the books, and would need to create them from scratch.


Rowling has refused to license electronic editions, for reasons I'm not clear on. I think it has to do with thinking her market is kids, and kids won't have readers. I don't think she realizes how many of her devoted readers are grownups.

Clancy may have as well, but I haven't seen anything on it. (I haven't looked, so I may well have missed it.)
______
Dennis

Well, there are a couple of his books that are out on Ebook form, but they are his collaboration crap that he puts out.

Rowlings I think is in more of a bubble than she realizes. That happens quite a bit with new money.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I read and enjoyed the Belgariad. I plowed rather grimly through the Malloreon. People back then raved about the Belgariad, and made comments wishing it would go on forever. By the time I finished the Malloreon, I felt like it had.

Me too. I found the series when the first couple books were in paperback. I started buying all the books in first release hard cover because I loved them and I knew I would reread them many times. By the time I finished I was back to purchasing paperback and I already felt like I had reread the books many times. I haven't had the desire to read them again. All the characters became interchangeable. I would still recommend the Belgariad though.

I think that all the publishers need to do is hire someone that worked in a used bookstore for a year. They could tell them pretty quickly which old series are always in demand and would be worth creating e-book editions.

[RickV]

I still reread the TWO series by Eddings, but I won't buy his others.

Another I still reread the Riftwar saga books by Raymond E. Feist. I haven't read his other stuff, because I was disappointed by one of his other titles.

up until recently I haven't purchased new books because I felt there wasn't anything out there that interested me.

[basschick]

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure that the only place you can buy ebooks for kindle is amazon.

btw, i have my paperback versions of the belgariad and even the elenium - even though it isn't as good

Originally Posted by RickV

I've made up my mind and am going to get the kindle (unless someone can talk me out of it).

To that end, I've found several sources from which I can buy books from, but my initial frustration at finding older titles has no ended.

[RickV]

Originally Posted by basschick

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure that the only place you can buy ebooks for kindle is amazon.

btw, i have my paperback versions of the belgariad and even the elenium - even though it isn't as good

ELENIUM! that is the one I was disappointed in. Basically had the cast of The Belgariad change clothes and accents and plopped them in a book.

Anyway, reading as many threads on here, I thought there were other sites you could get books from, they just wouldn't be delivered by whispernet.

I'm still going through amazon seeing if any of my standards available.

[zelda_pinwheel]

whenever i discover that a book / author i want to read is not available in ebooks, i write to the publisher to ask whether they have any plans to move in that direction, and let them know i am eagerly waiting. sometimes i get a reply, sometimes not, often the reply is negative or inconclusive... but at least they know that someone wants ebooks. i think it's important for them to realise that.

i read somewhere that for each person who writes, they consider there are 7 (70 ? 700 ? 68% of statistics are made up on the spot anyway, let's just say "a significant number") *more* people who feel the same way but are too lazy to write. so one letter can have quite a bit of weight.

i encourage you to write to the publishers and request they digitise their back catalogue as well. i'm with you, there are a lot of older books i would love to see as ebooks.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by basschick

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure that the only place you can buy ebooks for kindle is amazon.

btw, i have my paperback versions of the belgariad and even the elenium - even though it isn't as good

The kindle will read non DRM'd mobi/prc books too.

[bbusybookworm]

Of eddings work, the one I seem to most often reread is The redemption of Althus. It is a tightly (compared to his other works) written work and I enjoyed it enormously.

And I have to agree, the latest series was Horrible, and one which I refused to buy until an editor actually goes over it. and this coming from a guy that owns every other book he has published, including the Riven Codex, and many in hard cover says a lot about the quality.

Its as if no editor even looked at it, with so much repetition, and loose ends.

[RickV]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

whenever i discover that a book / author i want to read is not available in ebooks, i write to the publisher to ask whether they have any plans to move in that direction, and let them know i am eagerly waiting. sometimes i get a reply, sometimes not, often the reply is negative or inconclusive... but at least they know that someone wants ebooks. i think it's important for them to realise that.

i read somewhere that for each person who writes, they consider there are 7 (70 ? 700 ? 68% of statistics are made up on the spot anyway, let's just say "a significant number") *more* people who feel the same way but are too lazy to write. so one letter can have quite a bit of weight.

i encourage you to write to the publishers and request they digitise their back catalogue as well. i'm with you, there are a lot of older books i would love to see as ebooks.

Aw man! This means I have to do actually WORK and GOOGLE the email addresses? Man, I guess I better get off the couch and move over to the LazyBoy....

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickV

Aw man! This means I have to do actually WORK and GOOGLE the email addresses? Man, I guess I better get off the couch and move over to the LazyBoy....

heh... that's right, you have to *earn* your ebooks.

seriously though, most publishers have a website now, and you can usually find a contact address or even a contact form there. it's not SO much work. in fact, if you look around this site long enough, you'll probably find some examples of mails other people have written, that you can lazily plagiarise with their blessing.