Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[pdurrant]

Today I've bought four books, but I'm extremely happy about it. It's one of those times where the purchase is completely justified. An excellent sale on a series I'm currently reading, where every book I've read in the series so far has received 5/5

It's the Poldark series by Winston Graham. They're on sale at Amazon UK today for £0.99 each.

If you've been enjoying the TV series, I highly recommend the books. The first two series cover the first four books. The third series starts on the BBC next weekend.

Or if you bought the first seven books when they were on offer a while back, this is an excellent opportunity to get the remaining five.

One of the times I'm glad I've resisted other offers, so I can take up this one with a clear conscience.

And using 'no-rush' shipping credits too!

[CRussel]

Oh, Great. Now you've done it, Paul. I was doing well this month, and you've just made me buy 11 books!!!

Seriously, at those UK prices, how could I resist. They've been on my list for a while, but the US prices weren't encouraging. This way I got the entire set for less than the price of two in the US. Too bad the whispersync prices aren't great.

[issybird]

Good for you, Paul. And Charlie.

I can't match this on quantity or cheapness, but I made a similarly justifiable purchase yesterday, The Road to Ithaca by Ben Pastor, the latest in the Martin Bora series. It had been on my wishlist since before its release and yesterday the price dropped to $2.99 at Amazon. I also used credit. No guilt here, either, even though I'd hoped to get through June without a purchase.

[CRussel]

I'm not so sure, issybird. Buying a whole series, even at a really good price, when I haven't actually read any of it yet? Not really smart. OTOH, it was a good price. And I do expect to enjoy it, though I seem to be stuck in a SF/F rut lately.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It's the Poldark series by Winston Graham. They're on sale at Amazon UK today for £0.99 each.

Half glad I missed this deal. It is one I've been sort of waiting for, but at the same time, I hate dealing with traveling and amazon. ^^; Maybe it'll come stateside some time? None of my libraries have it and I've actually put off the tv series in favor of trying to read it first.

----------------------
I did pretty well in May. Only 4 bought. Two were wishlist items that went on sale (one with a coupon on top of that). One was a non-wishlist sale. One was a wishlist full price (ouch!). That last one kind of falls into the gray "gift" area.
$12.76 total. $7.99 for the full priced. $1.99, $1.99, and 79¢ for the sales.

Going through my tbr list is going better than it has this year, but none of the books read were ones I bought this month. (Currently trying to get through a library book on top of that. I think it's maybe not my thing or I'm just not in the mood for it.)


Not doing so great in June. Spent what remained of some paypal cash from swagbucks on trying to complete a collection. (12 books) ^^; I have no regrets because I've been very slowly collecting this one for a few years. It just means whenever I have some throw-around money, my numbers will be up until I've gotten everything. I am still kicking myself for not being better about getting it when Scholastic was still couponable and kobo was throwing coupons at us left and right.

(This series is VERY unlikely to go on sale. There was a permanent price drop a little over a year ago, none of the books have been on sale since they started converting to ebooks in 2012.)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

I hate dealing with traveling and amazon. ^^; Maybe it'll come stateside some time?

A mild nuisance to set up, but then trivial. OK, it helps that I have an old, first gen, Paperwhite with no resale value that I registered with AmazonUK. But even that could have been worked around with only the initial setup being annoying. Now I have a smallish giftcard on auto-renew against my Canadian CC, and I can buy as easily from there as the US.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by CRussel

A mild nuisance to set up, but then trivial. OK, it helps that I have an old, first gen, Paperwhite with no resale value that I registered with AmazonUK. But even that could have been worked around with only the initial setup being annoying. Now I have a smallish giftcard on auto-renew against my Canadian CC, and I can buy as easily from there as the US.

True. I've done it, maybe, twice. It wasn't terrible, just tedious. I've also been running into issues with kindle for PC and calibre. (It's simple enough to fix it, but it makes me less inclined to buy kindle books now.) I like the dedicated super-old kindle idea though.

That said, the sale was already over when I went to look for it.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

I like the dedicated super-old kindle idea though.

Worth looking around for an old one available locally, used. Just be careful that it isn't bootleg or locked out. For me it was easy - it's an old one I had before an upgrade.

[DrNefario]

I had a minor lapse with some used paperbacks in a charity shop, yesterday. (Not strictly relevant to the title of this thread, but I don't distinguish between paper and ebooks when it comes to my TBR.)

One was a wishlist book, the next in a series (Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski), and I thought the other was also the next in a series (James White's Sector General) but it turned out to be book 5 rather than book 3. This is kind of annoying - it tempts the completist in me to try to fill the gap - but the books don't seem to be available anywhere, really, and I think I'm just going to go ahead and read it.

Regarding the Poldark thing, my new rules mean I would only have bought book 1 if I hadn't read any of them. (Fortunately for me, I'm not that interested and resisted the whole lot.)

[pdurrant]

If James White's Sector General series was available as £0.99 ebooks I'd snap them up like a shot. Alas, that doesn't seem likely.

And while they might be available as £0.99 paperbacks second-hand somewhere, I don't really buy paper any more.

[DrNefario]

I'm happy to buy paper if it's (a) short and (b) something I just want to read and then pass on again, rather than keep.

The charity shop I was in did also have first two books, at 99p, that's why I assumed this one would be book 3.

[pdurrant]

If you haven't found it already, I highly recommend

http://ereaderiq.com/

At least, if you're in the US, Canada or the UK. (As those are the only Amazon stores it covers.)

You get add Amazon books to your watch list, and get an email when they drop to your target price.

An excellent, and free, service.

I have 122 books in my list now, waiting for a good price!

[pdurrant]

Another three books bought today. Mostly for my wife - the first three le Carré novels which are today's Kindle daily deal.

But they still count. That's seven bought and only five read this month. And I don't regret a single one of the purchases.

It seems odd to hope that the Kindle Daily Deal doesn't come up with anything I want!

[DrNefario]

Luckily, I already have those three, although one is in paper, or I'd probably have slipped up today, too.

[Tarana]

Here's a reminder for we addicts. My sis died last month and had 93 unread paperbacks. She also never read the 20 some ebooks she asked me to buy and never read. So, another reason to take hold of our addictions. The paperbacks i can resell, but the ebooks will just get deleted since they aren't stuff any of us read. I have way too many ebook unread although I am making a dent in the audio books not yet heard.