FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by issybird

These are self-published books by an author who has named himself "Language Learning University." Moreover, a quick look shows none of the five-star reviews, some of which appeared within days of publication, are verified purchases. You can post such deals if you want, but please, if you can't personally recommend them, not in a sticky thread.

Out of curiosity, I followed the link to Amazon. I've always had a vague desire to learn Spanish better. And I notice that there are a LOT of 'Language Learning" titles available for free/low cost or KU eligible. (some even with audio) I don't recall that many titles available the last time I looked, about a year ago.

I haven't downloaded any yet, but the sheer number of them, and the relative 'newness' of all of them makes me wonder if some older source for this sort of thing has passed into public domain.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Out of curiosity, I followed the link to Amazon. I've always had a vague desire to learn Spanish better. And I notice that there are a LOT of 'Language Learning" titles available for free/low cost or KU eligible. (some even with audio) I don't recall that many titles available the last time I looked, about a year ago.

I haven't downloaded any yet, but the sheer number of them, and the relative 'newness' of all of them makes me wonder if some older source for this sort of thing has passed into public domain.

Nor that this sort of people are above outright plagiarism if they can make a quick profit.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by issybird

These are self-published books by an author who has named himself "Language Learning University." Moreover, a quick look shows none of the five-star reviews, some of which appeared within days of publication, are verified purchases. You can post such deals if you want, but please, if you can't personally recommend them, not in a sticky thread.

I definitely _don't_ want to post them, _anywhere_, given the circumstances. I'm ditching the ones that I bought, and taking down the post. Thanks.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

Jared Diamond's _Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies_ is $2.99 on Amazon.

This is #6 on this morning's Wall Street Journal eBook non-fiction best sellers list.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I definitely _don't_ want to post them, _anywhere_, given the circumstances. I'm ditching the ones that I bought, and taking down the post. Thanks.

There may be value in even dubious sources, I wouldn't let peer pressure control your reading habits. We may have killed your enthusiasm, but don't let us kill your curiosity!

[GtrsRGr8]

Quote from the O.P. (Opening Post) of the FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction thread:
We point out free and bargain Non-Fiction titles to each other. Please don't post any self-published books*, and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates.

In case no retailer is specifically mentioned in a post, it is safe to assume it's for Amazon US.

Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day, so grab them fast!

*Unless you have read them yourself, think they are excellent, and you're not connected to the author in any way.[/I]


Reply by Me to GlenBarrington:
The problem is that the books that I posted 1) were apparently self-published, and 2) I had not "read them" myself, "think they are excellent . . . ." In short, I broke the rules.

I almost always do at least a cursory check, before posting on a thread that has the above, or similar, restrictions, to order to make sure that the book(s) are not self-published. I failed to do it this time--I was fooled because of the high-sounding "Language Learning University" name, and the fact that there were so many of the books.

As I understand it, there is no problem posting things like that on, say, GARussell's under $3 Non-Fiction Books thread. There are not, on that thread (and others), the above restrictions that the sticky "Non-Fiction" thread has. GARussell's thread, to name one thread, is a place where I could have posted the books without breaking any of the above rules, as per the O.P. of the GARussell's thread.

[I'll have to do it on another thread, but I want, sometime, to vent my spleen about self-pubs and indies getting mixed in among the books published by traditional publishers, on various lists of marked down books.]

[issybird]

The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III by Alan Strauss-Schom is $2.99 (list $16.99) at Kindle and Kobo.

[ReadingManiac]

[I'll have to do it on another thread, but I want, sometime, to vent my spleen about self-pubs and indies getting mixed in among the books published by traditional publishers, on various lists of marked down books.][/QUOTE]

Some of the best books I've ever read are indies, though keeping a rule to only post ones you've read is very reasonable. There's a lot of crap to wade through to find the good ones.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

[I'll have to do it on another thread, but I want, sometime, to vent my spleen about self-pubs and indies getting mixed in among the books published by traditional publishers, on various lists of marked down books.]

Some of the best books I've ever read are indies, though keeping a rule to only post ones you've read is very reasonable. There's a lot of crap to wade through to find the good ones.[/QUOTE]

First, the quote that ReadingManiac was replying to, was from me. Sorry about my goofed-up formatting.

Yes, the rules on MobileRead regarding posting indies/self-pubs, go a long, long way toward keeping the crap off of the threads which have those rules. I'm grateful for those rules. However, I was specifically talking about the mixture of indie/self-pubs (I actually don't know the difference) with those published by traditional publishers, "on various lists of marked down (e)books."

Yes, maybe I was painting with too broad a brush. But you have to admit that there are far, far less bad ebooks published by traditional publishers than there are by indie/self-pub businesses. I would rather see a marked down ebook list that omitted indie/self-pubs altogether, even if it meant possibly missing out on some good (or great!) indie/self-pubs. It is just too time-consuming to do even a cursory vetting of each marked down indie/self-pub. But I think that such a situation is only hypothetical--I do not know of the existence of such a list.

"Well, just take a look at the ratings of the indie/self-pubs, to find out how good they are," someone might say. Well, first, if the number of ratings is less than, say, 20, the ratings are just not going to be reliable. And it seems like indie/self-pubs just don't get as many ratings as books by traditional publishers do. Second, call me paranoid, but I just don't trust the ratings of indie/self-pub books as much as I do with the books from traditional publishers. Amazon tries to keep false or illegitimate ratings out of the reviews, but I still can't help but think that some of the indie/self-pub ratings and reviews are coming from Aunt Susie, Uncle Bill, the neighbor's Cocker Spaniel, who knows?

I think that I can skip the venting of my spleen, in the future, about that. I think that I just did it.

[Dngrsone]

As I recall, The Martian was originally a self-pub.

[issybird]

Let's get back on topic, please.

[lxpose]

Keith Thomas - Religion and the Decline of Magic - £1.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9L9E

[Little.Egret]

Charles River Editors , Free

The OSS and CIA: The History of America’s Intelligence Community during World War II and the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency

Cinco de Mayo: The History of the Battle of Puebla and the Famous Holiday



https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-t...+river+editors

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=digital...+river+editors

https://www.amazon.ca/s?i=digital-te...+river+editors

[issybird]

William L. Shirer's The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940 is $2.99 at Amazon.

Once purchased, the WhisperSync price for 48 hours of audiobook is $7.47 (narrated by Grover Gardner).

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by issybird

William L. Shirer's The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940 is $2.99 at Amazon.

Once purchased, the WhisperSync price for 48 hours of audiobook is $7.47 (narrated by Grover Gardner).

I read Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, as a teenager. I "couldn't put it down"--I read the entire 1280 pages (as per RosettaBooks' modern reprint), using every spare moment that I had. I've found few, if any, books that engrossing.

It's hard to see how this present book, dedicated to just one particular stage (and country) in World War II, could keep my attention as much as Shirer's book covering (almost?) the entire history of the War in the Western hemisphere. However, Shirer finds lots to say in this present tome--it is 1567 pages long (as per this RosettaBooks edition) and, as you mentioned, the audio is 48 hours long!

I've read some tidbits, even recently, that have impressed upon me the great significance of the collapse of the Third Republic of France in WWII. However, a high school history teacher did that first--one of the three (that I remember) turning points that he saw in the war against Germany and their allies was the halting of the German advance in North Africa at El Alamein, their defeat at Stalingrad (in the Soviet Union), and Britain's evacuation of some 600,000 (if memory serves me correctly) Allied soldiers from Dunkurque (Anglicized--"Dunkirk") on the French coast, to Britain--an almost unbelievable number of soldiers, who would live to fight another day.

Thank you for allowing me to give my plug for the book.