Books you gave up on ever being ebooks

[DMB]

Does anyone like Michael Innes's detective stories? When I got my first kindle I managed to buy a few of these, but they were a bit of a disappointment: full of OCR errors with no apparent editing. If you're paying book prices they should be of book quality.

I've always loved Anthony Price's stories. I have now got quite a few in ebook form, but some are just not available.

[DMB]

One book from the 1950s that I yearned to get hold of was Robert Robinson's Landscape with Dead Dons. I had read it when it came out, but it was out of print for ages. It was, however, re-issued by Back-in-Print Books in 2006 and I got a pback copy. Nevertheless what I really want is something I can read on my kindle.

It's a lovely gentle but witty book and is still the Oxford mystery story, despite Inspector Morse et al..

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DMB

Does anyone like Michael Innes's detective stories? When I got my first kindle I managed to buy a few of these, but they were a bit of a disappointment: full of OCR errors with no apparent editing. If you're paying book prices they should be of book quality.

I haven't been tempted to look for his mystery novels, but I recently picked up his Staircase in Surrey quintet (written as J.I.M. Stewart, of course), but I haven't looked at them yet, so no idea about the formatting. I loved those novels.

It's lovely to see you post again. Welcome back!

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by DMB

Does anyone like Michael Innes's detective stories? When I got my first kindle I managed to buy a few of these, but they were a bit of a disappointment: full of OCR errors with no apparent editing. If you're paying book prices they should be of book quality.

I've read a few, the most recent being "The Land God Gave to Cain". I like his books, but they definitely feel like they are set in a world that no longer exists (particularly with respect to societal norms). I don't have the same feeling with the grittier works of the time, such as those by Ian Fleming or Alistair MacLean. I wonder if young people today enjoy Innes' books?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DMB

Does anyone like Michael Innes's detective stories? When I got my first kindle I managed to buy a few of these, but they were a bit of a disappointment: full of OCR errors with no apparent editing. If you're paying book prices they should be of book quality.

I have all of them. The quality seems fine to me. No obvious errors.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I've read a few, the most recent being "The Land God Gave to Cain". I like his books, but they definitely feel like they are set in a world that no longer exists (particularly with respect to societal norms).

That, for me, is their appeal.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by DMB

Does anyone like Michael Innes's detective stories? When I got my first kindle I managed to buy a few of these, but they were a bit of a disappointment: full of OCR errors with no apparent editing. If you're paying book prices they should be of book quality.

I've always loved Anthony Price's stories. I have now got quite a few in ebook form, but some are just not available.

I love old mysteries. I'm doing more rereading than new reading these days. I've bought all of the Inspector Appleby books. I read most of them many years ago but I want to read the whole series in order (I recently finished reading or rereading the 32 Inspector Alleyns by Ngaio Marsh).

I've read three of the Appleby books so far without noticing any typos but I'm taking a short break after the third one; I don't think I can have read it before because I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered all those disgusting rats and skipped it this time around. If I remember it correctly my favorite the first time around was Appleby's End.


Landscape with Dead Dons is on my wish list. I think I might have read a few books by Anthony Price a long time ago but I don't remember them. I'll have to take a look at what's available -- my current TBR pile won't last more than another fifty or sixty years and I'm only in my seventies.

[artifact]

Originally Posted by dandelioncottage

Another wish come true--it looks as though Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series is now available here in the U.S., complete with the Garth Williams illustrations.

These just popped up in the 'New Additions' section of my local library's Overdrive account.

[murg]

Originally Posted by JasmineJasmine

"Ebooks are More Accessible". Heavily disagree here unless you are rich. Inner City poor cant afford a kindle and to buy all the ebooks. They can go into a library and read all they want for free though, so paper books are far more accessible. Until there is a program to give free e-readers (with free GSM access like some kindles have) to all citizens and force companies to have free lending to these e-readers, Paper books will always win. And honestly this is really needed, IF we are a true society we should be clamoring for Amazon to open up an ebook library and a program to give free GSM kindles to the poor to help spread knowledge. Or they can give money and infrastructure to local libraries to help with this.

While I agree about the affordability of the Kindle, many people in this demographic have mobile phones. And you can read on a mobile phone.

Why is it that people are always clamoring for the other guy to open their wallet and give stuff away? If you want someone to distribute free (or cheap) ereaders to the poor start up the program yourself. Put some effort into it. Put your time into it. Put your own money into it. Get donors. Do the work.

Or, if this was a really important subject to you, you would have done some research and discovered that there are already some programs aimed at ebooks and the poor out there in the U.S. (there are threads about this on this forum). Or was this just an off the cuff remark?

Talk is cheap.

And how are ebooks different than physical books in this matter? If the companies should be forced to give free ereaders and ebooks to everyone (yes, all 322 million Americans), then why shouldn't they be forced to give away physical books to everyone? Or even just the libraries? In fact, the publishers charge more when selling to libraries then to the public.

How are the people involved in this program going to be paid? Anything that involves distributing physical goods to 322 million people is going to require a lot of people to do the work. Are we going to force them to 'volunteer'? Who's going to pay the authors? Or are they going to forced to 'volunteer' also?

And why should the Kindles be GSM? GSM is expensive. Can't the poor just go somewhere where there is free WiFi, like their local library (where they are already going to get physical books)?

Why should this free giveaway be limited only to citizens, are you posit? Many of the poor people in America are not citizens. Why do you want to discriminate against these poor people just because they weren't born in the U.S.?

What does 'if we are a true society' mean? America is the society it is. If you want to change it you have to put the work in.

Edit:

I see from another thread that you are an author who sells books (yes, they're colouring books, but they are books all the same). Have you gone to your local inner city and given away your books?

[ElspethB]

Originally Posted by dandelioncottage

Another wish come true--it looks as though Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series is now available here in the U.S., complete with the Garth Williams illustrations.

I am so happy about this! I pretty much blew my ebook buying budget for the next six months and purchased all of them. I happily read and reread my old paperback copies all through childhood, and even as an adult I've reread them every five or six years. Had the Garth Williams illustrations not been included, I would have passed on purchasing the set, but fortunately they are. In fact the illustrations are lovely water-color versions of the original black-and-white drawings, and they look beautiful both in color on my tablet and in monochrome on my PW. The publisher did a very nice job in creating these ebooks.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by JasmineJasmine

"Ebooks are More Accessible". Heavily disagree here [...]

I don't know what post you mean to be quoting, but you remind of this comic:
https://xkcd.com/871/

Anyway, "more accessible" does not have to equal "universally accessible" to be good.
Plus there is evidence that in some areas, free ebook access for the poor is easier (and safer) than physical library access, and affords a better selection.

[billsfan2]

It appears the remaining books not previously released in e-book form are now available!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by billsfan2

It appears the remaining books not previously released in e-book form are now available!

Yep, came out at the start of last month. Pretty much everything except some short story books. I am very, very happy. Talked about it in the backlist thread in reading recommendations.

[SteveEisenberg]

I recently read Huey Long by T. Harry Williams (1909-1979). It won the Pulitizer Prize and the National Book Award. And Huey Long has been mentioned, for months, in many news articles, as someone who bears a family resemblance to a leading US political candidate. And yet, still no proofread eBook.

By the way, I don't think Huey Long really is similar to anyone running today. Good book anyway.

[Tarana]

I gave up on The Australians , a series by William Stuart Long ever being put into ebook in the foreseeable future. William Stuart Long is the pen name of Vivian Stuart.

Some of her very early historical fiction books (naval military) published as V.A. Stuart were with a different publishing house and were moved to McBooks Press well over a decade ago. My guess is that the Stuart estate does not own the copyrights and until they revert to them, it won't be republished in any form. So, I had my Mom's books scanned and I'm reading and editing them myself so that I can read them and she can reread. Great books!