HollyBee Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I guess this is a rant. I'm looking for some interesting fiction to read this summer. After searching the forums, I popped onto Amazon. For at least half of the books I'm looking at, the paperback version is cheaper than the Kindle version. The most extreme example was the new Sookie Stackhouse book (I know, brain candy--it's summer). Paperback is $7.99, Kindle version is $12.99! :svengo: What the heck? I love my Kindle, but come on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 the motivation would be less stuff to carry if, for instance, one is traveling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Instant gratification because Prime two day shipping just isn't fast enough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 the motivation would be less stuff to carry if, for instance, one is traveling. Yes! I just got back from an overseas trip, and I went through four books on it. I will definitely get a Kindle before my next trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoughCollie Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) The e-book prices are set by the publishers, who raised them jointly. It has something to do with Apple, and Amazon cannot lower the prices. If you look on the Amazon Kindle forums (linked below) and do a search for "agency model", you can get the story with facts set straight. Meanwhile, I get the high priced novels I want to read from the library. I'm not paying agency model prices for books I will only read once. If you look on the Kindle boards at Amazon, there are lots of free books offered, and a woman named Joyce posts the links to them daily. I've collected about 100 of them since September, and so far, have only deleted 2 of them because they were awful. The rest were really good, and I have discovered a lot of authors. http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_topf_a Edited June 21, 2011 by RoughCollie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginevra Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Portability. Storage. 60-seconds-later. Any and all of those have been reasons for me to download a book I could have obtained otherwise cheaply or free. I have even downloaded books that I actually own in print because I want to take them somewhere. Shhhhh!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I guess space and convenience? But I'm with you, OP, I'm not paying $13 for a Kindle book, especially when the paperback is so much cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 That's why I have a Nook. Borrowing EPub books from the library is so much more cost effective. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I was curious, because I just bought the new Sookie hardback in May and wondered that the paperback was already available. I think, this particular paperback isn't available until March 2012. Unless I'm reading it wrong. Right now, you can only get the hardback. So, you need to compare e-book price to what you can get now.....hardback at $16.77. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyBee Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 If you look on the Kindle boards at Amazon, there are lots of free books offered, and a woman named Joyce posts the links to them daily. I've collected about 100 of them since September, and so far, have only deleted 2 of them because they were awful. The rest were really good, and I have discovered a lot of authors. http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_topf_a Thank you for this! That's why I have a Nook. Borrowing EPub books from the library is so much more cost effective. Barb The Nook didn't exist when I got my Kindle, or I definitely would have considered this. I'm still holding out hope that library use will happen for the Kindle (in my lifetime--ha!). I was curious, because I just bought the new Sookie hardback in May and wondered that the paperback was already available. I think, this particular paperback isn't available until March 2012. Unless I'm reading it wrong. Right now, you can only get the hardback. So, you need to compare e-book price to what you can get now.....hardback at $16.77. You're right. I was looking at the hardback page (or the Kindle page, can't remember which), and it had the prices of other versions listed below. It had the paperback price, but it didn't indicate in that list that it wasn't available yet. I didn't click through to the paperback page. I just assumed that if it was listed, it was available. Duh. So how was the Sookie book? Is it worth buying at the $12.99 Kindle price? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plain jane Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Also, if you buy enough paperbacks, eventually you run out of shelf space and bookshelves aren't always cheap. And eventually your house will run out of floor space for another bookshelf and you will have nowhere to put that new paperback. :glare::tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommylaw Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 In fact, I belong to nearly 35 libraries just for their Cybershelves. I love my Nook! Aside from a few children's books I purchased I almost exclusively read eLibrary books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 So how was the Sookie book? Is it worth buying at the $12.99 Kindle price? Sigh. No. Not a spoiler, but more details on my opinion........ So, don't look if you like to go into a book blind............. It's a book that wraps up some necessary things, passes time till the next book, has no real new developments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyBee Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 Sigh. No. Not a spoiler, but more details on my opinion........ It's a book that wraps up some necessary things, passes time till the next book, has no real new developments. Well, that's a shame. Thanks for letting me know, though. I might check it out from the library, then. In hardback. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookfiend Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 In fact, I belong to nearly 35 libraries just for their Cybershelves. I love my Nook! Aside from a few children's books I purchased I almost exclusively read eLibrary books. Blatant Hijack - how do you belong to other libraries? Do you pay a membership fee? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 In fact, I belong to nearly 35 libraries just for their Cybershelves. How do you do that?? I belong to three because my husband has lived in three cities for his job in the past year or so. Don't they want proof of residency? :bigear: Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 :tongue_smilie:I'm sure Amazon is targeting consumers like me. One of the greatest things about my Kindle is that I can purchase a book and have it instantly at any time of the day or night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kat19 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 That's why I love my Nook so much..free library books. Just got the second Sookie Stackhouse book yesterday. I have noticed some ebook prices on B&N are crazy too(I hated paying 7.99 for the first Sookie book). I want good cheap(free is even better) ebooks :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 There is no motivation for me. I love the feel and smell of books. :D :iagree: I'm getting tired of people asking me if I'm going to get one of the new electronic reading devices, while I'm sitting there reading my Penguin paperback Thucydides that cost me 25 cents, is lighter than their machine, and which I can set down and walk away from for a few minutes, or leave on the front seat of the van, without worrying that someone is going to steal it. (And if someone is walking by, says to himself "I have always wanted to know more about the Peloponnesian War!" and reaches through the window to take it ... well, I would consider that an act of non-culpable necessity, like Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 There is no motivation for me. I love the feel and smell of books. :D I know, I feel the same way. My DD truly agonized over her desire for a Kindle because she felt like a traitor to the real book, she pondered it seriously for many months. (In the end, she got one anyway - we will still buy normal books, but the e-reader IS very convenient when you travel...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 There is no motivation for me. I love the feel and smell of books. :D I got a handmade leather cover for my Kindle. The best of both worlds! (I also refuse to pay more for an ebook than I would for a paperback.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Also, if you buy enough paperbacks, eventually you run out of shelf space and bookshelves aren't always cheap. And eventually your house will run out of floor space for another bookshelf and you will have nowhere to put that new paperback. :glare::tongue_smilie: THIS is the primary reason ebooks are getting more interesting to me I can buy many books -- hardcover or paperback -- for a couple of dollars each. But we have real space problems storing them at home! So having them stored in the storage space on a hard drive somewhere is quite worth a higher price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 We expect much of the storage problem to solve itself before long: dd is already talking about which of our books she's going to take with her when she goes to college. Once they're in her dorm room, they're her storage problem. Also, dh has an office in a very old building, back when they were made with high ceilings because they didn't have central AC. So he has plenty of tall bookshelves, and has moved much of the overstock into his office (he keeps a list of the books available so I can borrow from what I've come to think of as our "library storage"). I look forward to "Hoarders: Over-Literate Edition." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weddell Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I know a couple people have already said this, but the kindle is going to get library lending sometime this year. (And people in the hacker community have long ago figured out how to remove the protection from library books to read on their kindles). I would love to find out about joining other libraries. Ours actually has a great e-book selection, but never hurts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeacherZee Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 It depends on how desperate I am to have the book (I'm not in the US so I can't use Prime and books take 1-2 weeks to get here from the UK (all RoyalFail dependent)). It also depends on if I am having a fibro flare-up. If I am I read almost exclusively on the Kindle because I often can't hold a paperback open without wanting to cry. I too own books in both paperback and Kindle, what can I say it is a sickness. But I do still shop around for book prices. Also I am looking forward to Kindle library lending :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I too own books in both paperback and Kindle, what can I say it is a sickness. heh. I've bought books on my Kindle because I don't want to go downstairs into our storage room and hunt them down. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommylaw Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) I'm in graduate school, working on my nurse practitioner degree. My university has a library sharing program that allows me access to something like 74 different libraries throughout the country. I can even borrow books from one library and they will mail them to my college. I utilize the eBooks frequently. Edited June 22, 2011 by mommylaw because I can't spell past 6pm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I know a couple people have already said this, but the kindle is going to get library lending sometime this year. (And people in the hacker community have long ago figured out how to remove the protection from library books to read on their kindles). I would love to find out about joining other libraries. Ours actually has a great e-book selection, but never hurts... If your parents or siblings live out of state, you could use the digital portion of library accounts. They aren't likely using the digital portion anyway. You can only check out 5-10 books at a time currently, depending on the system. It's win-win. You use the part they're not using and the library gets the circulation numbers. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I'm in graduate school, working on my nurse practitioner degree. My university has a library sharing program that allows me access to something like 74 different libraries throughout the country. I can even barrow books from one library and they will mail them to my college. I utilize the eBooks frequently. Luu-cky! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_l_e_0..Q_c Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 (And if someone is walking by, says to himself "I have always wanted to know more about the Peloponnesian War!" and reaches through the window to take it ... well, I would consider that an act of non-culpable necessity, like Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread.) :lol: I like your thinking here. that said, I do own and use a Kindle, and I' ve gotten to the point where I no longer enjoy holding a paperback. The ink stains my fingers, the pages fold and fight back, and it's heavy. I never ever expected I would prefer the Kindle, but now I do. I have less dust in my house, less bookshelves... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah C. Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I buy books on my Kindle when they're more expensive than the cheap paperback because, if one wants to read while lying down and nursing a baby, the Kindle is much easier to manage than the paperback, plus it holds waaay more books. ;) Also, I don't have to come up with shelf space for Kindle books. So I'll end up keeping and probably re-reading books that would end up going to Half-Price otherwise. I buy very few Kindle books over $10 though - they have to be ones I *know* I'll re-read for me to pay the extra money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 There is no motivation for me. I love the feel and smell of books. :D :iagree:...it's the low tech appeal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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