Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[Rev. Bob]

I'm doomed for August; I already have a dozen backlist books on my contest-code list. I had a tonsillectomy yesterday, and for some reason I became obsessed with rebuying Steven Brust's CD, which I got from him at a convention about three moves back and have since misplaced. I contacted him on Twitter, found that Amazon has it in their MP3 store, and an epic purchase battle ensued. (Don't ask; it involved reward points, gift cards, and a one-in-a-million computer glitch that took two hours to unravel...BUT I DID IT, because I like the album that much.)

Anyway, that reminded me how much I liked To Reign In Hell, Brust's fantasy treatment of The War Of Heaven, and that reminded me of John DeChancie's Castle Perilous books, all eight of 'em, which have been e-published by Open Road and are thus couponable, and that reminded me...

Yeah, I'm doomed. But I'm on good pain meds and have hit my out-of-pocket max on my health insurance, so I don't care.

[CRussel]

Well, that just shot my resolution for the whole month. I was just heading to bed last night, and made the mistake of logging on to the Kindle store on my Fire HD. And the Kindle One Day Sale books were a bunch (maybe all?) of books by L.E. Modisett, Jr., all for $2.99. I'm afraid I might have gotten a bit carried away, since I just started reading his Recluce series. And all of them had Whispersync versions as well, so...

Sigh.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Well, that just shot my resolution for the whole month. I was just heading to bed last night, and made the mistake of logging on to the Kindle store on my Fire HD. And the Kindle One Day Sale books were a bunch (maybe all?) of books by L.E. Modisett, Jr., all for $2.99. I'm afraid I might have gotten a bit carried away, since I just started reading his Recluce series. And all of them had Whispersync versions as well, so...

Sigh.

Whoops. OTOH, a new author you like for $2.99 and cheap audio versions?

I have one freebie by L E Modisett, that I haven't yet read, so I was able to resist the sale quite easily.

Hey - it's the 4th and I've not bought anything except my subscriptions so far this month. Only another 27 days to go!

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I have one freebie by L E Modisett, that I haven't yet read, so I was able to resist the sale quite easily.

I met him at a con a few years ago - 2009, maybe - but I only know his SF and don't care much for sprawling epic fantasy series...which is what was on sale. So, against the odds, it was also easy for me to resist.

[PurpleStar]

I resisted the Modisett books as well. I'm getting good at resisting!

[DrNefario]

I bought five of the Imager series. I already had the first two on the Kindle, having only read the book one, and I have all the Recluce books in a mixture of paper and ebooks. (I did consider replacing my paper Recluce books, but luckily too late to do anything about it.)

Sometimes working on my TBR seems a bit Sisyphean.

[CRussel]

Modesitt is a funny author for me. Some times he just annoys the heck out of me, and the Imager series I have to skim right over whole sections where he goes on and on about The Unnamer. But I find I quite enjoy them as audio books. Those I already had all of. But then I started reading the Recluce books, and found the Audible versions of them even more annoying, but liked the story overall, so have been mostly reading them in eBook format. But having the chance to pick up both, for quite reasonable prices? I grabbed a solid half dozen and am kicking myself for not getting the rest. But it shoots my planned purchases this month to all to heck.

[Tarana]

I resisted only because my library actually has that series.

[pdurrant]

I'm reading a books of recommendations by Jo Walton: What Makes This Book So Great. I think my wishlist might gain a few more entries.

[Yapyap]

Damn, it's only the eighth of August and I've already bought four books this month - one pre-order, one on-sale in a series I'm reading, and two impulse buys of the "ooh, I've never heard of this book that is on sale before, but it sounds interesting" kind.

Sigh. I'm not bothered by the first two purchases, but I need to become stricter again about the second kind.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

two impulse buys of the "ooh, I've never heard of this book that is on sale before, but it sounds interesting" kind.

[...] I need to become stricter again about the second kind.

Yes, that's exactly the kind of thing I've been trying to resist this year, with varying degrees of success. The thing is, I have several hundred of that kind of book in my TBR pile, so I really don't need any more at the moment!

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The 75% off codes from Kobo combined with a backlist of Baen titles I wanted led me to a July total of 23 books for $43.06. But they are all ones I really wanted, except perhaps for two from the Humble Bundle which were essentially free with the two I definitely wanted.

So a little over budget this month, and still $47.61 over budget for the year so far.

I went with the 100% off deals over at Smashwords last month though I did buy a few that weren't part of the sale. Plus I've bought a few Humble Bundle and Story Bundle collections last month and this month.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I'm doomed for August; I already have a dozen backlist books on my contest-code list. I had a tonsillectomy yesterday, and for some reason I became obsessed with rebuying Steven Brust's CD, which I got from him at a convention about three moves back and have since misplaced. I contacted him on Twitter, found that Amazon has it in their MP3 store, and an epic purchase battle ensued. (Don't ask; it involved reward points, gift cards, and a one-in-a-million computer glitch that took two hours to unravel...BUT I DID IT, because I like the album that much.)

Anyway, that reminded me how much I liked To Reign In Hell, Brust's fantasy treatment of The War Of Heaven, and that reminded me of John DeChancie's Castle Perilous books, all eight of 'em, which have been e-published by Open Road and are thus couponable, and that reminded me...

Yeah, I'm doomed. But I'm on good pain meds and have hit my out-of-pocket max on my health insurance, so I don't care.

Ouch! Hope your recovery from your tonsillectomy is going well Rev. Bob. I've still got mine but I can imagine how sore your throat has been this last week.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by crich70

I went with the 100% off deals over at Smashwords last month though I did buy a few that weren't part of the sale. Plus I've bought a few Humble Bundle and Story Bundle collections last month and this month.

In my accounting, freebies don't count. I have over 2,000 freebies that looked vaguely interesting. Essentially I'll only read one if it comes to my attention some other way, and I find that I already have the book.

Bundles are dangerous. I'm trying to resist bundles unless they contain books I already have on my wish list that are a bargain even ignoring the other books in the bundle.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by crich70

Ouch! Hope your recovery from your tonsillectomy is going well Rev. Bob. I've still got mine but I can imagine how sore your throat has been this last week.

I think I'm past the worst of it. Oddly, the left side of my throat is still sore, and I get some referred pain to both ears...but it's mostly an achy-sore, not a raw-sore. The good news is that yesterday I was able to stop the religious every-four-hour cycle of pain meds, and according to most of the literature I've seen, this weekend should be the last of it. I had fried fish for dinner last night, oddly enough because I knew I'd get home and the breading would be a bit soft and soggy. I'm not planning to get adventuresome for the rest of the weekend, though; I laid in some more chicken noodle soup, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, and apple juice, and I may try some Swedish meatballs around Monday. I don't plan to go back to Real Food until next weekend, a solid two weeks after the surgery, although I may risk making some lightly-carbonated ginger ale sometime this week.

In more topic-relevant news, I just finished Skin Game and am moving on to The Rhesus Chart. Either Seanan McGuire's Sparrow Hill Road or Jennifer Estep's Poison Promise is likely to be next on the list; I'm making an active effort to trim my "now-list" down to size. I used to call that my "5 list," because it was where I'd keep the five books that I wanted on my Kobo home screen, but right now there are 34 entries on it. My "shortlist" is even worse; it's sitting at 456 right now. In all fairness, though, that's where I put every unread book that's either a standalone or the next volume I need to read in a series. In some cases, that's "next electronic volume" - such as when I shift from Ent to electrons mid-series - but generally, it's where I go when none of the now-list appeals at the moment and I want to flip through the stacks for something else.

The other 436 items on the device are either books I've already read (Holt, Heinlein, King) or later-in-series books.