Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[Tarana]

I'm trying to figure out how much I have in promotional credit for the same thing. So far, I can't get it to come up because Prime insists on One Click. So you don't know until you get the email for how much was used.

LightSpeed Magazine has another Kickstarter. I can extend my Lightspeed magazine subscription by a year AND get all the back issues of their Fantasy magazine for just $36

Darn. Had to get that. They aren't actually going to charge the card until the funding closes. My sis loved the Fantasy issues I got as part of last year's Kickstarter.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I'm trying to figure out how much I have in promotional credit for the same thing. So far, I can't get it to come up because Prime insists on One Click. So you don't know until you get the email for how much was used.

Put an mp3 song in your cart. That will show how much credit you have.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Tarana

IThey aren't actually going to charge the card until the funding closes.

Oh, good point. That will ensure I don't forget, which I really don't want to do for this one.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by issybird

Put an mp3 song in your cart. That will show how much credit you have.

Or you could go to this page and hit the orange button.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Or you could go to this page and hit the orange button.

Thanks! For Amazon UK it's this link.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Or you could go to this page and hit the orange button.

Much better, thanks!

[pdurrant]

I was rather surprised to find I had exactly £7.50 in credit, since many of the items I'd bought were 0.99 or other non-round numbers. So I added them up. My 7 purchases since I started getting promotion credits in late November do add up to exactly £13.50!

[pdurrant]

I resisted a Kindle Daily Deal! I have so little free budget at the moment, that I'm hording it in case one of the books actually on my wish lists comes on special (or I get a really good Kobo coupon).

[Rev. Bob]

I shelled out $15 for the Humble Archie Comics Bundle. I skipped a good deal of it, but I really picked it up for the Afterlife With Archie, The Married Life, and Archie Meets KISS content (although Sabrina and Josie certainly didn't hurt).

Afterlife was...whoa. Definitely not the usual fare, which is what I liked about it. Others have compared it to Twin Peaks in terms of "upheaval reveals suburbia's dark underbelly," and while I haven't seen Peaks, that's a pretty apt description. There's a reason this is rated Teen+, and the zombies are arguably the least of it. It's solidly grown-up material, a far cry from the Wacky Hijinks stories one usually expects of the line, and I was very impressed. More issues are coming, and I may pick AWA V2 up when it's ready.

I almost feel like I got my money's worth from that one story, but there's a lot more in the bundle - including two 1000 page and two 400+ page Archie collections and a 300+ page collection each for Sabrina and Josie. The high-res PDFs are huge, but the "optimized" (under 100MB each) versions are serviceable.

[pdurrant]

Two days to go to the end of January! And still only £11.06 spent on ebooks. It may even be that my expected subscriptions (Asimov's and Analog) don't make it into this month's budget and skip to February's!

Doing well so far. Only another 11 months and two days to go!

[BelleZora]

I bought only three books this month ($7.97 total) and have read two of them. The third is on board to be read within the next week or two. All three were wish list books purchased when they were offered at sale prices. My TBR pile is down by an additional four, not counting both book club books which I also read.

Last year's budget goal of $40 monthly didn't work for me because I didn't change any habits. If I spend a couple of hours daily reading MR bargain and recommendation threads as well as all the various book blogs, I'm going to find books I NEED to read really CHEAP. If, instead, I use those two hours to just read a book, I enjoy a pleasant morning without feeding any book hoarding compulsion. Such a simple solution.

But I regret nothing. As Paul has said, it is having a sizable TBR on hand that allows us to be selective about our purchases. It's just that when one perceives that a happy pastime has passed some point of rationality, it is time for a reality check.

[pdurrant]

My TBR is finally down one book on the start of the year!
And in terms of paid-for books bought and read I'm doing very well - 12 read and only 6 bought!

It's some freebies and a couple of gifts that have increased my TBR this month.

I would look forward to a significant reduction in my TBR next month, except that I'm buying the LightSpeed kickstarter, which will give me lots of new books in the form of the backlist of Fantasy Magazine. If I resist other purchases, I'm hoping that my TBR won't get about 800...

[issybird]

I was going to wait until the end of the month for my roundup, but this works, too, as we've notched four weeks on the year and my "budget" is one book per week. Of which I've bought none so far!

I've read eleven books but my TBR is still down by only four, because of pbooks, library books, public domain and an audiobook. This probably won't change by month's end, as I won't finish another bought ebook by then. I've identified two books I'm going to get with Kobo coupons but I'll wait until Sunday, just for the bragging right of no books bought in the first month.

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Last year's budget goal of $40 monthly didn't work for me because I didn't change any habits. If I spend a couple of hours daily reading MR bargain and recommendation threads as well as all the various book blogs, I'm going to find books I NEED to read really CHEAP. If, instead, I use those two hours to just read a book, I enjoy a pleasant morning without feeding any book hoarding compulsion. Such a simple solution.

But I regret nothing. As Paul has said, it is having a sizable TBR on hand that allows us to be selective about our purchases. It's just that when one perceives that a happy pastime has passed some point of rationality, it is time for a reality check.

Last year my goal was amorphous ("buy fewer ebooks"), hence no success. All I did was keep a list of purchases. I do think the list helped me formulate my goal for this year, though, because the total was patently ridiculous.

I'm not really sorry, either, but even if can maintain my current pace of a TBR reduction of 50 per annum (which is highly ambitious, as I won't stop buying books altogether as I have so far this month), we're still talking years and years and years of unread books. Such a problem.

I have to acknowledge that I'm enjoying abstemiousness as much as gluttony. Slowing down, becoming more thoughtful - these are positive things which are more sustained pleasures than the transient rush of hitting the buy button.

Congratulations all around, folks!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

Congratulations all around, folks!

Yes, I notice almost all of us are doing better this year (though it helps if you don't count audio books ). I've definitely been better, though this new (to me) series by Jodi Taylor is going to push me if I can't get them for a very good price.

[Demingy]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I shelled out $15 for the Humble Archie Comics Bundle. I skipped a good deal of it, but I really picked it up for the Afterlife With Archie, The Married Life, and Archie Meets KISS content (although Sabrina and Josie certainly didn't hurt).

Afterlife was...whoa. Definitely not the usual fare, which is what I liked about it. Others have compared it to Twin Peaks in terms of "upheaval reveals suburbia's dark underbelly," and while I haven't seen Peaks, that's a pretty apt description. There's a reason this is rated Teen+, and the zombies are arguably the least of it. It's solidly grown-up material, a far cry from the Wacky Hijinks stories one usually expects of the line, and I was very impressed. More issues are coming, and I may pick AWA V2 up when it's ready.

I almost feel like I got my money's worth from that one story, but there's a lot more in the bundle - including two 1000 page and two 400+ page Archie collections and a 300+ page collection each for Sabrina and Josie. The high-res PDFs are huge, but the "optimized" (under 100MB each) versions are serviceable.

I've been successfully (so far) fighting the temptation to get this bundle. I keep trying to remind myself that I don't read a lot of comics and already have a relatively large TBR of comics (considering I rarely read them) but then the 'other voice' says "but it's Archie...." and of course Archie happens to be a significant portion of the comics that I do read.