Just want to convert..

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Lordblacknail

I might have fifty copies of a book like Storm Front by Jim Butcher in the Jim Butcher folder, and if I want to read it and put it on my Kindle, I will find, usually the latest copy, convert it, and put it on my Kindle. If it has artifacts, I will try another copy to put on my Kindle. I have not looked at every book in my book pool folder, I have no idea which ones in there are 5.0v and which aren't.

So these are a pile of torrented books? Where did you get them?

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by meeera

So these are a pile of torrented books? Where did you get them?

That was my thought. You don't buy 300,000 books, multiple copies of each.

For me, the convenience factor makes it worthwhile to just pay for them as I read them.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by twowheels

That was my thought. You don't buy 300,000 books, multiple copies of each.

For me, the convenience factor makes it worthwhile to just pay for them as I read them.

Potentially we are talking about PG books or similar, although if so I must admit Storm Front is a lousy example to use.

Or perhaps there is a mess of books from various conversions to and from various formats of the original acquisition and he has no idea which the originals are.

At least, I hope so.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by meeera

So these are a pile of torrented books? Where did you get them?

Easy answer. The Internet.

Sounds like he downloads them from multiple sources, dumps them all the different copies of the same book in the author's directory (not folder) and tries reading them until he finds a copy that's good enough. These are not bought eBooks, they are downloaded from the net eBooks.

[Bilbo1967]

Jeez. Every time somebody mentions they have a lot of books the holier-than-thou brigade start jumping up and down screaming "pirate". Do you all get a warm fuzzy feeling from thinking you're so much better than him?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Jeez. Every time somebody mentions they have a lot of books the holier-than-thou brigade start jumping up and down screaming "pirate". Do you all get a warm fuzzy feeling from thinking you're so much better than him?

But don't you understand... it is a myth that people read PG books, so there is no other conceivable choice...

Plus,

it is better to just not help them, because you might be helping a pirate. -- Tao of Jon

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Jeez. Every time somebody mentions they have a lot of books the holier-than-thou brigade start jumping up and down screaming "pirate". Do you all get a warm fuzzy feeling from thinking you're so much better than him?

No, in fact I'll fess up to having downloaded books now and then (generally if no vendor will sell it to me [out of print, geo-restrictions, etc] no matter how legit I want to be, or if I already have a paper copy and don't feel like buying it again -- understanding that there are costs to creating the ebook as well). That said, yes, I do feel better than I would otherwise due to the fact that I pay for the vast majority of my books, music, movies, and software. When I was younger and couldn't afford software, and my parents couldn't/wouldn't buy it, I pirated (there was no online music/movies back then, and ebooks were extremely niche and rare). Now that I can, I pay.

As a software developer, if somebody who honestly can't afford my work pirates it, I'm OK with it. If they can otherwise afford it and get value from it, then I hope for them to pay. (though most of my work is basically impossible to pirate as it's tied to specific hardware, unlikely to be pirated as it's used in regulated medical devices, and it's my employer who would incurring the direct loss, not me).

[Lordblacknail]

I got the majority of them from newsgroups. Before my first Kindle arrived in 2010, I started at the last entry, three years back, and looked at every book that was listed. I dl the ones that looked interesting. Don't use torrents because I don't trust them. I have also bought a lot of books from Amazon and other places. When I moved here from Seattle, I gave away over 12k paper books. (And by the way, it was harder to find someone who wanted them that I would have ever imagined. Ended up shipping some to the Philippines and gave the rest to VA hospitals.)

[Lordblacknail]

For those of you that buy them as you read them, good on you. I read at least two books a day, every day. Back when I was reading paper, it was always a chore to find the next book. I will never have that problem again.

[HarryT]

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