Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[Katsunami]

Am I the only one stacking up entire series of 3-10 books, waiting for a good code/offer/chance and then buying them all at once?

I rarely buy one book, even back in my paper days.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've just bought another book. (New book, favourite author, not a silly base price, and 50% off. Who could resist?)

And while the Sept50 code runs out in a few days, there's another multiple use 50% off code that doesn't expire until 15th October!

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Am I the only one stacking up entire series of 3-10 books, waiting for a good code/offer/chance and then buying them all at once?

I rarely buy one book, even back in my paper days.

Me either.


I am definitely in trouble now.

Apache

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Am I the only one stacking up entire series of 3-10 books, waiting for a good code/offer/chance and then buying them all at once?

I'll only do that after I've read at least the first, and preferably a couple of the books in the series.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'll only do that after I've read at least the first, and preferably a couple of the books in the series.

Hm, OK. Sometimes I "need" (want) a series because it's referenced from another series, something which happens often in the shared universes such as Dungeons and Dragons.

As all that stuff is in the same vein (you either like it, or not), I often take a chance and just buy the entire referenced series at once. It's often not even possible to read only one book in the middle, or only the first, because you either won't understand, or you'll be left with an incomplete story.

Even worse, reading the first book in the series and deciding based on the quality of this is often impossible also, because it happens quite a lot that one series is written by 2-6 authors.

It's like this: "We're going to create $event in $world, and to make that canon, we are going to put out $series1, $series2 and $series3, a total of 10 books. They'll all be published in 2013 and 2014, and will be written by 6 different authors."

This is one of the reasons why I started e-reading. This stuff can become A LOT of books. Such a paperback will cost me €8.99 in The Netherlands. The e-book costs €4.49-€6.49 depending on the seller, and with a coupon such as this, it drops to €2.50. Huge savings, in both money and space.

And to be honest, I *don't* want to spend €8.99 for books like that anymore. In the 80's, there weren't so many authors writing in these shared worlds. Now, companies such as Wizards of the Coast think stuff up, and the authors write the novels to make it canon. Back then, it was the other way around: authors wrote stuff, and then the rulebooks and such would be expanded.

These books are fun to read, but being just "production fantasy" (compare with the 100 bazillion romance novels), roughly 250 pages a piece, €8.99 is expensive. I think €4.50 is a MUCH better price for these books. Apart from some epic exceptions (The first 6 Drizzt novels, for example), they're just not worth more.

Yeah, I hit a snag sometimes. For example, "Elminster 4 - Elminster in Hell" is very, very bad. (I have it in paper.) If I buy the series as e-book to replace the paper versions, I'll still buy it to keep the series complete.

[Jdschi]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'll only do that after I've read at least the first, and preferably a couple of the books in the series.

Yeah that's how one should do it. Alas, I think this is the rule I break most often. I think "what if I love the first book so much and then have to get the 5 others but then they're back to full price again?!" (of course this is also a violation of "there will always be another sale" rule, meh).
But reading the first book doesn't necessarily mean that the follow up books will be any good. Just recently I discovered that a book I had loved to pieces as a teen (read 3-4 times or so?) was actually only the first book of a series. Having loved the first book so much I bought all of the series (5 books) all at once. I reread the first book and I still loved it sooo much - however, the second book was ABYSMALLY BAD. Seriously. The other 3 books now sit in my shelf, unread. I should make me read them (it can't get any worse) but... sigh. Fortunately I bought them all used for 3€ a piece, so it wasn't too bad.
Still, if one doesn't even like the first book one would most likely dislike the rest of the series too, so the aforementioned rule is sound advice and I really should adhere to it.

Yeah sure.

[pdurrant]

If I was being really strict, I'd suggest only buying series one at a time. But if there's a good offer on, it's very hard to resist buying the lot.

I've just picked up the latest (until next month) No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I probably shoudl have waited until it had dropped in price a bit more, but I did have a 55% code....

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

If I was being really strict, I'd suggest only buying series one at a time. But if there's a good offer on, it's very hard to resist buying the lot.

If it is a series, I buy the first one read it and if I do not like it I will not buy any more. I personally prefer a series that can be read without worrying about reading previous books.

[CRussel]

Sigh, these Kobo codes are going to do some serious damage here! I just bought yet another from Alexander McCall Smith -- the latest Isabel Dalhousie.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Sigh, these Kobo codes are going to do some serious damage here! I just bought yet another from Alexander McCall Smith -- the latest Isabel Dalhousie.

I haven't read any of that series. And i'm not going to until my TBR is a lot lower than it is now!

[CRussel]

I rather enjoy them. A very different Edinburgh from that of Ian Rankin's Rebus! Very light, but soothing, if you know what I mean. I read most of them in pBook form, as library books, but now switching to eBook form. But not at the list price!

[Katsunami]

Since that 50% coupon became known, I've bought 16 books at Kobo. The average price per book is €2.67.

Some books were not available at Kobo US, and Luzme.com said they were at Kobo UK. I "relocated" to the UK to purchase them. Sometimes the prices are ridiculous.

Price when "located" in the Netherlands: €7.99
Price when "located" in the UK: £3.99 (€4.75)
Price when "located" in the UK + Coupon: £1.99 (€2.45)

Price difference is 3.26x.

I already had The Belgariad and Malloreon series by David Eddings in e-book for some time (but not read yet), and now I've completed them by buying Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress, and The Rivan Codex; all for about €8.75. These are quite big books too. In paperback, Belgarath is 840 pages, Polgara comes in at 805, and The Rivan Codex, while smaller, still has 465 pages.

Back in the day, I paid €9.95 per book on paper.

Now these paper books can go make someone else happy, as I have e-books to re-read

edit: Oh, yes. HarperCollins e-books. Generic cover, and an first-line indent 30% of the width of the page. Thank god for Alf and Sigil. (Without Alf, I wouldn't even be e-reading bought books, actually.)

===

I have doubted if I should replace my paper version of The Dreamers, also by Eddings, before I give them away. I didn't really like those books. It is about a foe that tries to take over a continent that is devided into lands. Each land is ruled by a young and an old god. The protagonist and his helpers basically rush around the continent, fighting a battle on each. I felt like reading the same book four times, as the tactics and strategies in each battle where exactly the same, and each young/old god goes through the same "change-over", where the other starts his ruling period, and the other goes to sleep.

It is the one series in my life I have ever seriously contemplated to quit reading halfway through the third book, so I think I'll pass on this one forever, as an e-book.

[bookaho!ic]

i have bought 11 books from kobo re this code, all by kelley armstrong and jodi picoult just could not resist need to stop buying for a while

[pdurrant]

23 books is my total, for £50.28. That's an average of just under £2.19 per book. Very good, but it's blown my book buying budget for a while. I shall have to wait until it's nearly expired before buying the November Baen Bundle.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

That's an average of just under £2.19 per book.

€2.67 -> £2.24

DRAT. You beat my average price by £0.05.

Then again, I did have two books in there (Musashi, Taiko) that would have cost $15.99 / £9.99 / €11.99 if I hadn't had a coupon, so they where quite expensive to begin with, but they are huge at +/-1250 pages.

The most expensive book compared to size was "The Master of Go", at $10.99 (without coupon) for a book that's only around 175 pages in paperback, but I really wanted that one.

All in all, I think I did well, jumping around the planet and using that coupon, considering the high starting prices of three of the books I bought.

[Tarana]

That coupon has been awful temptation, but, I've been restricting myself to getting only missing volumes in previously started series. What has helped, I will admit, is that some of what I want isn't eligible for the coupon.

The primary series I have been buying is Georgette Heyer's detective novels and some of the Morland Dynasty. The Dynasty one is primarily for my Mom and she doesn't want anything past book 18 (thank goodness). I haven't started them yet.