Literary sun surfer Vote • August 2016

[Bookpossum]

Yes, prices in Australia are notoriously high. I was going to borrow from the library, but the Random House edition sounds very good. Thanks for your research, Bookworm-Girl. And apologies that my iPad doesn't know about underlining.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I find Australia to be the most difficult to locate books, and they also suffer from high prices too. Recently I've found multiple books that aren't available in Canada and vice versa that aren't in the US but are everywhere else!

There are many versions of Of Human Bondage available and unfortunately the quality varies widely. It took some creative searching and downloading of samples to choose one. I decided to go with the Modern Library edition by Random House since it has a lengthy intro by Gore Vidal and commentaries by Theodore Dreiser and Graham Greene. It was $2.99 in the US. The Kindle version has the new PageFlip, enhanced typesetting, X-ray, etc.

Creative searching sounds right because I can't find it, heh. Do you have a link? I have the free version now but might switch to another.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Definitely creative searching! Here is my method and how to find it.

I didn't like the free version because the formatting did not indent paragraphs and with the short dialogue the text felt all crammed together.

You can find it by a search on the Amazon website with targeted keywords. In the Amazon search field, select "Kindle Store" from the drop-down choices and type "of human bondage modern library" in the search box and it will bring up the book. The ASIN is B000FC1JOY. ASIN is Amazon's unique identification number for the book. You can just paste that into the search field too.

When there are too many versions of something then I start typing publisher names like penguin and oxford into the keyword searches. Sometimes I go to the paperback version and then look for a comparable Kindle edition from that page.

Here is another technique that works well. I download a sample of one of the book versions to my e-ink Kindle. Then from my Kindle, I select the option to view that book's description in the store. On the store page under the book image, you will see a hyperlink that says "All Editions" and a number. Click on the hyperlink and then you see a list of other options which is usually much higher quality than the one you get from the Amazon website originally.

So the way I found this particular version originally was that I located a paper version of the Penguin edition on the Amazon website from my laptop. That led me to ebooks from Penguin and Signet, and I downloaded samples to my Kindle Oasis. From viewing one of those samples on my Oasis and looking at All Editions in the store, I was able to find the Modern Library (Random House) version.

They sure don't make it easy! I hope that makes sense.

EDIT: If you still can't find it, just PM me.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I didn't like the free version because the formatting did not indent paragraphs and with the short dialogue the text felt all crammed together.

I see what you mean by short dialogue. Ouch.

I got the HarperPerennial Classic edition from Amazon.ca, which looks decent on my T3.
I've read a few other HarperPerennial Classic titles before, and found them quite readable on Sony readers.

[sun surfer]

Thanks, Bookworm_Girl. It's wild that's it's so difficult to find some of the bigger publishing house editions on Amazon. I ended up going with the Penguin. I wouldn't recommend it on the basis of price-versus-quality, but I liked that its many chapters all start on a new page.

By the way, how does the Oasis compare to the Voyage for you?

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Thanks, Bookworm_Girl. It's wild that's it's so difficult to find some of the bigger publishing house editions on Amazon. I ended up going with the Penguin. I wouldn't recommend it on the basis of price-versus-quality, but I liked that its many chapters all start on a new page.

By the way, how does the Oasis compare to the Voyage for you?

I'm surprised it was so hard to find different versions and better formatting for this book!

I have mixed emotions on the Oasis versus Voyage. I think the Voyage is the superior product: more even lighting with fewer shadows, slightly higher contrast on the text and I like the origami cover with vertical stand. I also really like the auto-brightness setting on the Voyage. The first Oasis screen I got had awful shadows that I couldn't tolerate and the second one is better but not as good as my Voyage. I also think the Oasis is over-priced. On the other hand, I love reading one-handed with the Oasis and appreciate that it's so thin and lightweight. I like reading it without the cover and got a DecalGirl skin for it. Therefore I haven't used my Voyage since I got the Oasis! In summary it's not perfect and a tradeoff.

[Luffy]

I think I will one day go for the voyage. Thanks.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I'm surprised it was so hard to find different versions and better formatting for this book!

I have mixed emotions on the Oasis versus Voyage. I think the Voyage is the superior product: more even lighting with fewer shadows, slightly higher contrast on the text and I like the origami cover with vertical stand. I also really like the auto-brightness setting on the Voyage. The first Oasis screen I got had awful shadows that I couldn't tolerate and the second one is better but not as good as my Voyage. I also think the Oasis is over-priced. On the other hand, I love reading one-handed with the Oasis and appreciate that it's so thin and lightweight. I like reading it without the cover and got a DecalGirl skin for it. Therefore I haven't used my Voyage since I got the Oasis! In summary it's not perfect and a tradeoff.

Thanks. I really like the Voyage (and I have the origami cover too in leather) but I'm still tempted by the Oasis because of how easy one handed reading is with it.