Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

Have you read any more of these?

Not yet. I have lots and lots of books to read, and I tend to space series books out. It's floating towards the top of my thoughts for a next book to read though. (I got them all at £0.99 each. So perhaps it was a good move after all.)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Not yet. I have lots and lots of books to read, and I tend to space series books out. It's floating towards the top of my thoughts for a next book to read though. (I got them all at £0.99 each. So perhaps it was a good move after all.)

Now reading "The Nicholas Feast". It's very good, although I don't like the psychic/supernatural bit which is unnecessary and raises too many other possibilities for my liking in a murder mystery.

Just picked up the Brother Cadfael prequel for free with a Kobo coupon.

I've also double-checked my figures for 2014, and corrected some minor mistakes.

I'm currently at 211 books added to my TBR and 245 removed from it. Which sounds good, but quote a lot of those removals were for other reasons than reading them.

At best it's only 167 books actually read and removed from the TBR (counting short stories), but it really is 211 added to the pile.

But I'm doing quite well so far this month, and on the 1st July I will be under budget (briefly) for the first time since January. (If I don't spend $2.80 or more for the rest of June!)

[Tarana]

I did a count and I have bought 156 books/audiobooks this year so far and read only 52. That listing doesn't include the Baen bundles or regular Audible credits. Maybe I'm just an ebook hoarder. On the plus side, recent purchases have been from the wish list or OCR'd books - just wish they were couponable at Kobo.

I skipped the June Baen bundle since there was nothing there that really interested me. I like the next two, however and one includes yet another Vorkosigan saga book. I wish I had thought to look up that series when we had the 90% off coupon.

I'm doing a craft book purge over the next couple of weeks. That will be a bit time consuming as I plan to scan those idea/patterns that I think I will do 'some day'. This way, I will just have shelf space for those books I regularly use or already have the supplies for. Selling the books will give me a slush fund for future ebooks the rest of the year given that my budget is being sucked dry for vet bills (two kitty surgeries in 3 months).

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Here's my 2014 summary:

Books purchased: 16
Books Read: 11

Money spent $13.64
Budgeted (2014) $1200.00
Balance $1186.36

One of favorite authors has a book on sale for $1.99 [discountable] so that may make book number 17 for this year.

I didn't purchase the book even at a final cost of 99 cents. Now I am regretting it. Good grief. I've moved to the other extreme.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I didn't purchase the book even at a final cost of 99 cents. Now I am regretting it. Good grief. I've moved to the other extreme.

It could be. Having spent only 1.14% of your book buying budget with 48% of the year gone, I think it's safe to say that you have your buying under control.

I, on the other hand, have spent nearly 58% of my budget for the year with only 48% of the year gone. I still have a little progress to make in keeping my buying under control!

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It could be. Having spent only 1.14% of your book buying budget with 48% of the year gone, I think it's safe to say that you have your buying under control.

I, on the other hand, have spent nearly 58% of my budget for the year with only 48% of the year gone. I still have a little progress to make in keeping my buying under control!

Hopefully, the book will go on sale again and when it does .... BAM! I'll buy it promptly.

In addition, I'm having a difficult time using my 75% Kobo contest code.

[Tarana]

I'm having a difficult time using my 75% Kobo contest code.

I actually gave two of those away the last contest because nothing on my wishlist would take a code. Of course, that's because I forgot about the Vorkosigan saga,but still - don't feel compelled to use it. If nothing strikes your fancy, just post it in the Kobo codes list and someone who didn't get such a fine code can use it.

I'm well over budget, but I think I can get back in budget over the summer. May had some ebook purchases that were on the wishlist, but not couponable and possibly not buyable if Kobo suddenly stopped our option to shop in different countries. Most of what is still on my wishlist are bits and pieces of series to complete, none of which require me to buy the missing pieces until I get to it.

[Melon Soda]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

1. Add to wish list rather than buying
2. Only buy if on special offer and on your wish list
3. Only exception is most recent in series by favourite authors.

This list is really very useful! I used to be so happy to get 20% or 30% coupons for Kobobooks until I realized that higher discounted codes like 50% to 75% are not impossible, thanks to generous souls on the Kobo discount code thread in this forum! (I just wish the next contest will give everyone more chance of getting higher discounts!) Now I am just building up my wish list so that when the next contest rolls along or multi-use coupon is released, I will be "ready".

[pdurrant]

Welcome to the thread! There will probably be another Kobo discount code competition in July - they seem to be running about one per month at the moment.

And then there's Kindle Daily deals, and publisher special offers. There are advantages to having a moderately long TBR list, so that one can wait for the bargains to appear.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Hopefully, the book will go on sale again and when it does .... BAM! I'll buy it promptly.

In addition, I'm having a difficult time using my 75% Kobo contest code.

I used my 75-code on Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Tor reduced it to $2.99 and it comes highly recommended and Hugo winner so for 75 cents I grabbed it. No regrets this time.

I still have $8.50 left on my Kobo gift card.

[Tarana]

Now I am just building up my wish list so that when the next contest rolls along or multi-use coupon is released, I will be "ready".

Do review your wishlist now and then. I ended up removing a lot of books from it because there were other books I wanted to read more (not including Vorkosigan saga).

[Rev. Bob]

Personal milestone: As of today, I now have over 900 ebooks on my Kobo Glo. The sad thing is that I still have almost 250 more to process...but at least some of those are backlist books that I've already read as Ent corpses, so they won't be going onto the reader.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Personal milestone: As of today, I now have over 900 ebooks on my Kobo Glo. The sad thing is that I still have almost 250 more to process...but at least some of those are backlist books that I've already read as Ent corpses, so they won't be going onto the reader.

So those 900 are bought ebooks you haven't yet read? That is a very hefty TBR. My TBR is a mere 764 as of today.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So those 900 are bought ebooks you haven't yet read? That is a very hefty TBR. My TBR is a mere 764 as of today.

It's a little more complicated than that, but pretty close. Out of 902 total documents on the reader, one is my own novel in progress and another is a book I finished reading earlier this week. Of the 900 remaining, some are short stories and some are books that I've read but don't want to be without - such as my Tom Holt, Stephen King, and Robert Heinlein collections - so you can probably knock about 80 more titles off. (I count 78, but rounding is good.) That takes me down to "only" 820 unread ebooks on the reader. Some of those were freebies, but I don't have numbers on those; I don't treat paid as different from free.

Actually, that's not quite true. I've got a big "Pending" folder that contains everything I've acquired but not sorted through and incorporated into my library yet, and one of its subfolders is a "not added to Goodreads" pile, most of which were freebies. (Some of those will get added, but...well, it's complicated.)

So, if I take that Pending folder and subtract the not-in-GR stack, a quick check tells me that I've got 352 books yet to process. I know there's a lot of Kobo-driven backlist content in there, but I doubt that amounts to half the total. In fact, when considering the not-in-GR stack, it's probably best if I call the unread-and-unprocessed total an even 280...again, rounding is good. That takes me to a cool 1100 unread ebooks on my system. Then there are the very-roughly 400 unread Ent corpses to factor in, which takes me to 1500 volumes...an estimated ten years' worth of reading.

So, yeah...my TBR's (very roughly) around twice the size of yours. However, my TBRRFN (TBR Right F'ing Now) list is only 36 items, and several of those are shorter works - like the Tor.com Hugo-nominated short fiction. That's a lot more manageable, right?

(right?)

[peachiekene]

Everyone sounds so much more organized than me. ^^;