Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Apache

Yesterday I bought the eBook to an old paperback I still have. I did not know it was available as an eBook so I bought it and am almost finished with it. I love Gollancz for publishing old out of print Sci Fi.
Apache

While I love getting those old SF books in ebook form, it's like having easier access to your favourite drug. Though I have been removing the paperback versions as I pick up the ebooks which makes my wife happier -- she never expected to refer to the basement as "the stacks".

[HLS]

My addiction is never ending

Since April 30



The Litigators
John Grisham
1
...
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself
Alan Alda
2
...
The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
Wladyslaw Szpilman
1
...
The Crooked Staircase: A Jane Hawk Novel
Dean Koontz
1
...
Parents Who Killed Their Children: True stories of Filicide, Mental Health and Postpartum Psychosis
Dr. RJ Parker
1
...
Throttle (Kindle Single)
Joe Hill, Stephen kING
2
...
The Atlantis World (The Origin Mystery, Book 3)
A.G. Riddle
...
The Atlantis Plague: A Thriller (The Origin Mystery, Book 2)
A.G. Riddle
1
...
The Atlantis Gene: A Thriller (The Origin Mystery, Book 1)
A.G. Riddle
1
...
This World Is Full of Monsters: A Tor.com Original (Kindle Single)
Jeff VanderMeer
4
...
Timeline: A Novel
Michael Crichton
1
...
No Peace for the Damned (Magnolia Kelch Series Book 1)
Megan Powell
1
...
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

[pdurrant]

So, which ones do you regret getting? Are those numbers a rating or a cost?

[pdurrant]

One thing I find hard to resist is a 'classic' novel in the Kindle daily deal. But I'm getting much better at resisting them. Just because I've heard of the novel and author, or because it's been made into a film, I shouldn't get the book just because it's available at £0.99.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

One thing I find hard to resist is a 'classic' novel in the Kindle daily deal. But I'm getting much better at resisting them. Just because I've heard of the novel and author, or because it's been made into a film, I shouldn't get the book just because it's available at £0.99.

Yes, those 99ps (or 99¢s) add up over time, in addition to adding to the clutter of "books I most likely will never get to." Unfortunately, it's much easier to justify ten books for 99¢ (and that's pretty much risen to $1.99) than it is to justify one book for $10, or $20 (which isn't happening), but I'd be so much more likely to get the value from the pricey book!

One reason I'm quoting this is because I have an ancillary dilemma. Long ago, I cleared the deadwood freebies out of my Amazon account. However, where I'm stuck is in getting rid of those aforementioned 99¢ "bargains." Many of them I'll equally never read and they're equally a distraction, but somehow having paid for them gives them a gloss and there they sit.

And yes, I'll anticipate the response: I know virtual books take up no real space, etc. But there are the same reasons to get rid of the paid for junk as there are to get rid of the free junk. Sunk costs, or to put it bluntly, money wasted, is no justification for retention.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Yes, those 99ps (or 99¢s) add up over time, in addition to adding to the clutter of "books I most likely will never get to." Unfortunately, it's much easier to justify ten books for 99¢ (and that's pretty much risen to $1.99) than it is to justify one book for $10, or $20 (which isn't happening), but I'd be so much more likely to get the value from the pricey book!

One reason I'm quoting this is because I have an ancillary dilemma. Long ago, I cleared the deadwood freebies out of my Amazon account. However, where I'm stuck is in getting rid of those aforementioned 99¢ "bargains." Many of them I'll equally never read and they're equally a distraction, but somehow having paid for them gives them a gloss and there they sit.

And yes, I'll anticipate the response: I know virtual books take up no real space, etc. But there are the same reasons to get rid of the paid for junk as there are to get rid of the free junk. Sunk costs, or to put it bluntly, money wasted, is no justification for retention.

I encountered this a few years ago. I had just finished reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up, and my wife and I agreed that we needed to downsize some. Mind you, I am not a Kondo disciple, as there are a lot of issues of privilege tied up in the notion of being able to throw out/donate bags of stuff, but I appreciate the notion.

So, we went through every book on every one of our eight 6-foot shelves and decided what to keep. Easy enough. But I am the only one with an ebook library. So I put Calibre into cover view and tried to do the same. I build a TBR every January, and if I couldn't see that book hitting that list anytime soon, it was time for it to go.

As an alternative, you can create a folder of those books elsewhere on your PC and just remove them from Calibre. If, in 6-12 months, you have had no need to go looking for something to read out of that folder, delete it and be done.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I encountered this a few years ago. I had just finished reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up, and my wife and I agreed that we needed to downsize some. Mind you, I am not a Kondo disciple, as there are a lot of issues of privilege tied up in the notion of being able to throw out/donate bags of stuff, but I appreciate the notion.

So, we went through every book on every one of our eight 6-foot shelves and decided what to keep. Easy enough. But I am the only one with an ebook library. So I put Calibre into cover view and tried to do the same. I build a TBR every January, and if I couldn't see that book hitting that list anytime soon, it was time for it to go.

As an alternative, you can create a folder of those books elsewhere on your PC and just remove them from Calibre. If, in 6-12 months, you have had no need to go looking for something to read out of that folder, delete it and be done.

I can't stand the thought of wasting even more time going through my unread books to find the ones I'll never read!

Fortunately, my tagging system means that the mere presence of books I'm unlikely to read isn't normally bothersome (and the time spent tagging has already been spent).

[HLS]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So, which ones do you regret getting? Are those numbers a rating or a cost?

I copied from my content and device page I think its how many collections they are in. Not sure. I forgot to edit them out

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I encountered this a few years ago. I had just finished reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up, and my wife and I agreed that we needed to downsize some. Mind you, I am not a Kondo disciple, as there are a lot of issues of privilege tied up in the notion of being able to throw out/donate bags of stuff, but I appreciate the notion.

My reaction to Kondo is that while I appreciate her basic insight about only keeping things that spark joy, I think that fleshing it out into a book did lead to troubling concepts, as with this. My own reaction to donating is that if something isn't really serving a purpose for me, I'd rather get it out there where it might do some good, but a fair amount of stuff doesn't spark joy but I need it anyway.

I think the tipping point for me with Kondo was when she described how she empties out her purse every single night, to repack it the next day. Someone's got way too much time on her hands! And I do clear out the receipts on a daily basis.

So, we went through every book on every one of our eight 6-foot shelves and decided what to keep. Easy enough. But I am the only one with an ebook library. So I put Calibre into cover view and tried to do the same. I build a TBR every January, and if I couldn't see that book hitting that list anytime soon, it was time for it to go.

I'm just about there, but not quite. It's been easier for me to take the occasional pass than once and done. I appreciate this comment as bolstering my resolve to go for deeper cuts.

As an alternative, you can create a folder of those books elsewhere on your PC and just remove them from Calibre. If, in 6-12 months, you have had no need to go looking for something to read out of that folder, delete it and be done.

What I did a while back is to rank my books in terms of appeal; I have five classifications and my default Calibre list orders them according to them. What I like about this is that it's out of sight, out of mind. Once I haven't looked at the titles in a while it would be easier to do a blanket deletion. Realistically, I don't need or want to have to consider those in the bottom two categories again.

[HLS]

I been getting moods almost daily. Mostly freebies. I think I have more books I can read in a lifetime

[pdurrant]

Moods? Typo for Books?

I recommend ignoring freebies, as do many others here. They are not free - they cost you time.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

One thing I find hard to resist is a 'classic' novel in the Kindle daily deal. But I'm getting much better at resisting them. Just because I've heard of the novel and author, or because it's been made into a film, I shouldn't get the book just because it's available at £0.99.

I always double check those at Gutenberg.org. A lot of Classics are free there.

Free books are my nemesis. My cloud has over 2000 books for me to catch up with.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I recommend ignoring freebies, as do many others here. They are not free - they cost you time.

I find some really good reads in the freebies! I treat them like samples though. If they don't grab me, I delete.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

I find some really good reads in the freebies! I treat them like samples though. If they don't grab me, I delete.

It's certainly possible that by (on the whole) ignoring freebies I'm passing up some gems. But every freebie I obtain, start, and then abandon wastes time that I could be spending enjoyably reading some of the books I have already bought because I want to read those books.

[DrNefario]

The thing about public domain books or other permanent freebies is that they'll almost certainly still be there later when you actually want to start them. If you ever actually want to start them. There's no need to download them now.

If it's a short term giveaway, then it's likely to be a self-publisher looking to build an audience, and again, I'd say it's fairly likely that it will happen again. If not, it's probably not very expensive anyway. I'm very picky about freebies these days - and yet they still make up a fair proportion of the recent acquisitions I haven't read - and almost never buy bargains just because they are bargains.

When it comes down to it, I already have plenty of what you're offering, whatever it is.