Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[issybird]

I haven't bought any ebooks for two weeks, but I've bought three pbooks which are not available as ebooks. The irony is that if I could have bought them as ebooks, I'd have waited. Always something to trip me up.

As things stand right now (knock wood), while my wishlist has repopulated, I may be able to miss the next Kobo contest. The books I want are all recent nonfiction and have a sticker price of $30 or more. Even if I were lucky enough to get a 75% off coupon, given the size of my TBR I'd only spend $8 and upwards on an ebook I wanted to read right away. I'm further shielded in that the only book on my list that might qualify as a read-now is kepub-only at Kobo ($35 and discountable if I travel) and $30 at B&N/Amazon. I don't do kepubs, so I'm safe.

Can I make it to Labor Day? (probably not)

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

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.

Well I agree that you can find yourself with some books you don't want with bundles, but it's hard to know that before buying them. And one of the bundles included "Encounter with Tiber" which is very good. As for the free ones, normally they aren't free so I saved several hundred bucks by buying them during the sale.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by crich70

As for the free ones, normally they aren't free so I saved several hundred bucks by buying them during the sale.

I'm all for getting any freebies that catch your interest even slightly.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by crich70

As for the free ones, normally they aren't free so I saved several hundred bucks by buying them during the sale.

You'd only have saved any money at all, much less hundreds of dollars, to the extent that you'd have bought the books at some price greater than nothing (which at most is probably below the sticker price).

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm all for getting any freebies that catch your interest even slightly.

Clearly a YMMV situation! My rule of thumb is to ask myself if I'd pay $2 for the freebie. If not, I move on. There are way too many freebies out there and most of them are terrible. Even just clicking buy, downloading, stripping, tagging so I'd have some idea of why I bothered in the first place, is too high a price to pay for me, especially when I have hundreds of books I really do want to read. Or even just letting them sit in the cloud, so I'd have thousands to sift through looking for the elusive nugget.

But that said, it's harmless and would that all my vices came with such a cheap price tag!

I haven't bought any ebooks this month (pbooks are another story, alas), but I came close to cracking this morning on a cheapie in a topic of high interest to me. Just in fomulating the thought preparatory to typing this, however, I acknowledged that I have many other on-topic books in the queue and the likelihood of my getting to it any time soon if ever is close to nil. So deep breath, pass, and thanks for the thread, as I've saved about $1.80 and a little additional eclutter.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by issybird

Clearly a YMMV situation! My rule of thumb is to ask myself if I'd pay $2 for the freebie. If not, I move on. There are way too many freebies out there and most of them are terrible.

That's a good idea.
I have an issue with the freebies I grab. I'll have to try asking myself if I'd be willing to pay for it first.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

That's a good idea.
I have an issue with the freebies I grab. I'll have to try asking myself if I'd be willing to pay for it first.

I think of the Smashwords summer/winter sale as a win/win situation. If I start reading a book and don't like it then I'm not out any $, but if I start it and find that I like the author's work then I have 1 or more books from him/her to enjoy and a new author whose other books I may get round to buying at normal price in time.

[pdurrant]

Over halfway through the month, and I've only bought 6 books and for less than $20. And all but one were all on my 'intend to buy' list (I got one extra one in the Baen bundle).

There's just two more subscriptions to come in (Analog & Asimov's), and my August total should be just 8 books. And I've already finish eight books this month. I might see my TBR get below 760 for the first time this year!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Over halfway through the month, and I've only bought 6 books and for less than $20. And all but one were all on my 'intend to buy' list (I got one extra one in the Baen bundle).

There's just two more subscriptions to come in (Analog & Asimov's), and my August total should be just 8 books. And I've already finish eight books this month. I might see my TBR get below 760 for the first time this year!

Yay, Paul! Good for you.

I've bought three books for a total of $6, but I don't do subscriptions so I don't have any built-in commitments. One of the books was a mistake, but at least it was cheap and I managed to stop after one (I was foolish in starting to skim through the offerings at Kobo India). I'm on track to have my best month of the year if I can keep it going.

I don't grudge it to anyone, but it's good for me not to have a contest.

[Katsunami]

Well, Kobo finally suggested something interesting which I *DIDN'T* already have, the reviews were okay to good(ish), hovering between 3.5 and 4 stars on review sites, so I bought it. It's an omnibus of 5 fantasy books.

So... Price in Dutch store: €24.95 -> Price in US store: $18.95 -> Convert to euro -> €14.15 -> PERKOPOLIS (40% off) ->Pay €8.49

Not bad for 5 books, being €1.70 a piece.
The same books as a paperback cost €15.95 (!!) a piece in The Netherlands.

Now, is anybody still of the opinion that ebooks should become cheaper? They're almost free, compared to paper, if you know where to look.

The only 'problem' is that it looks like as if it's fantasy targeted toward teenage females, but hey... that's why we have e-readers, no? I can read that and, if it happens to be so, actually enjoy it without anyone the wiser.

(Some time ago I also bought a fantasy quintet, the first three being in an omnibus, and the Dune novels as an omnibus, all for around €1.25 a book, also through the Kobo suggestions.)

I'm finally branching out to other authors (and a bit to other genres as well) after 10 years of re-re-re-reading the stuff of the same 30 people or so.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

I don't grudge it to anyone, but it's good for me not to have a contest.

Unfortunately, for me the lack of a contest meant an extra book bought, and spending nearly twice as much.

Perhaps I should have avoided the Baen bundle even so, and just bought the two I really wanted NOW using the perkopolis code. That would have been $12 for two books, instead of $18 for five.

Of course, if I could have been certain that another competition with 75% off codes would come along eventually, I would have waited. My worry was that it would not, and I'd end up spending more than the $18 to get the four books I did want.

I probably shouldn't spend so much time considering buying options!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Unfortunately, for me the lack of a contest meant an extra book bought, and spending nearly twice as much.

If you are really honest, you could ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there a good chance I'll actually read what I buy, within 5 years?
2. Could I get into trouble because of buying these books?

If the answers are 'yes' and 'no', what does it matter how much you buy?

At this time, reading is my primary hobby. If I had been 67 and not working anymore, I'd probably read an entire 300 page book a day. At this point in my life however, I can be happy if I get the time to read about 45 pages, which is ~1,5 hours of reading a day. (This is using my own Count Pages method, not actual paper book pages.)

[Tarana]

If you are really honest, you could ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there a good chance I'll actually read what I buy, within 5 years?

At this time, reading is my primary hobby. If I had been 67 and not working anymore, I'd probably read an entire 300 page book a day.

Here's the problem and why many of us are on this list. It isn't whether you will get a chance to read them in 5 years. Your tastes change in 5 years and maybe these books won't interest you as much in 5 years, when you get to them, as they do today. If you blow it, you don't want to blow it on a book you paid nearly full price for. I'm getting better. If I ignore the books bought during the 90% off coupon frenzy, I've purchased a lot fewer books this year than last, but could buy fewer still. I put my annual goal at 120 books a year because it is a stretch for me to read that many.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Here's the problem and why many of us are on this list. It isn't whether you will get a chance to read them in 5 years. Your tastes change in 5 years...

My tastes haven't changed the last 15 years or so

I still play the same sort of games and read the same sort of books (I even play the actual games and read the actual books from back then...). The only thing that has changed is that i don't have the time to spend I had back then.

To be honest, I have some RPG games sitting in my To Be Played list. I WILL play them, either on the computer I'm typing this on now, on a future one, or in a virtual machine, even if I have to wait until I'm approaching my pension and these games are 30 years old.

The first thing I test on any new operating system is if Baldur's Gate (1998) runs on it and what tweaks are needed, as I must replay that game every two years or so...

My tastes haven't really changed, but they have been extended; I play/read in more different genres than back then, which can be a problem, because there's even more to choose from.

[Tarana]

What is it about Baldur's Gate? My sister, bro and former BIL all had to have that working. But I think you are not the norm. Many people's preferences change. I too have wider interests than I once did, but family members no longer read horror, one has abandoned crime & mystery.

I missed my Nook and bought a new Nook Glowlight yesterday. This thing is so light! I also had to use my $5 coupon that had to be used within a few days, so combined with the rest of the pittance from the lawsuit, I paid $2.25 for a $10 ebook that wouldn't work with the Kobo 40% off coupon. Yay!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Tarana

What is it about Baldur's Gate? My sister, bro and former bro all had to have that working.

It is a game that single-handedly resurrected the RPG gaming scene, revitalized interest in Dungeons and Dragons, and even pulled RPG's somewhat into the mainstream. In addition, it has an epic storyline.

But I think you are not the norm. Many people's preferences change.

Most people prefer not to change anything; ever moved an icon on someone's Windows desktop? Disaster. Maybe it is different in entertainment, and people just consume stuff once and move on.