Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

£10 off kindle today at tescos if that helps - http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.213-6852.aspx (see voucher in the banner there)

http://live.theverge.com/Event/Live_from_Apples_education_event_in_NYC

do you find yourself in the middle of a dozen books at the same time?

― koogs, Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:56 PM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, but that was pretty much always the case. my apartment just looks tidier now.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:59 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this, plus i actually get through them. that little status indicator at the bottom--73%! 92%! you can do it!--is very encouraging.

Hoos, I just love you :)

there are people who aren't doing that in their heads all the time anyway? those people are weird

i am 12% through 'culture and value'

I've found myself checking how many pages a book has in order to work out what page I would be at if I was reading the paper version. I have no idea why.

I am 11% through 'Perdido Street Station', which would be around p97 of the 880 page paperback.

^^^ditto all the way. i also find myself mentally calculating page counts based off of how many page turns it takes to get it to move a percentage point.

my ereader tells me how many pages are in the book and which on i'm on. it's kind of strange turning pages three or four times without seeing your page number change. i kinda wish i had %s

which e-reader is that? i would like that way better, even if it is a little regressive to keep comparing to the paper version.

The newest Kindles give page numbers.

! didn't know that -- interesting move

% is very useful. When reading a paper book I would generally check the page number for the last page so I'd know if I was one quarter of the way through or two thirds or whatever.

What's up, Kindle thread? I am a new Kindle Touch owner/convert, having received one for christmas. I was always a big reader and was never into the idea of one of these things, but am totally hooked and now read 3-4 hours each day, minimum. Shocking how quickly I was turned.

Anyway, no doubt this has been covered upthread but are there any smart solutions to reducing one's physical library and opting for Kindle versions where available? Suppose it wouldn't be in the publisher's interests to let you "exchange" books you already own for a digital version. Also mad because I just renewed my New Yorker and Nation subscriptions and would much rather have those as files. I still love paper and will definitely keep reading hard copies of art books and magazines, which take up about 50% of my reading, but as someone that has moved large distances a few times over the last 5-10 years, I would happily reduce my library as it exists. Can't really be bothered to sell on Marketplace and replace with digital versions, though I did think about it.

Sony reader says 'Page 43 of 218' or whatever

I recently obtained my Kindle too, and loaded it up with lots of good things. However, it's reminded me of how many unread physical books I still need to read, so I haven't used it much yet!

Seems that you can now check out books directly from the NYPL catalog without going through the overdrive etc.

> for instance, new Alastair Reynolds turned up this morning. £11.39 from amazon in hardback. £10 for digital edition so i'd've saved 1.39 towards the cost of the ereader...

just got a £2.85 refund on this with their price guarantee thing so actual price was £8.54, so the *hardback* was actually cheaper than the digital download...

Hardbacks should come with free downloads, imo.

yes, but that doesn't alter the fact that downloads are, in themselves, a stinking ripoff either

one wonders how much that's based on a retailer being the arbiter of download prices, rather than a publisher / group of publishers

What price do y'all think a newish literary fiction book (let's just say) should be? I can't see paying more than $10 for a download and would prefer less than that. Is it presumptious to expect them to be cheaper? I have some books on my wishlist that are $15 and up, a couple over $20...there's no way I'm paying that much for a file.

Look at this for example. Surely WHOEVER sets the price can go lower than a 21 cent difference between paper and digital for a book that has only been out six months.

http://www.amazon.com/Crimes-Southern-Indiana-Frank-Bill/dp/0374532885/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327081256&sr=8-1

I think publishers are in a weird place - digital isn't leading their business yet, but they can't offer huge bargains to entice people or those bargains will become the new pricing norm as the digital % of the business expands. But if there isn't enough of a savings then they buyer feels screwed because the publisher is saving on production, distribution, returns, etc.

I don't know what the answer is.

ok then

though I do know your 21 cent difference example is bullshit.

I guess I'm comfortable at $10-$15 for a new book that has a hardcover edition. However, once a paperback comes out I think anything above $5 -$7 is getting silly.

I'm new to the ebook thing (just a couple of months, still reading library books and public domain stuff) - do prices shift when paperbacks come out?

so far my rule is that I won't pay for anything over $10. I've only had my kindle for about 3 months though.

Last time I checked (some NYT article maybe 8 months ago) I thought it was the vendors who wanted a general 10$ price cap and the publishers who were all 'are you insane we'll go out of business at such prices'.

yes. amazon had the prices capped at $10 originally, then the publishers threatened to pull their books unless they controlled the pricing and amazon had to give in.

i totally get that a great deal of publishing costs (just like music) aren't related to physical production, but i still don't feel great about paying more than $10 for a digital edition. $10 is cool though.

totally cool

ebooks of old SFF and lit classics are running pretty cheap (largely around $6), which is nice as that's at least half my reading.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/why-some-e-books-cost-more-than.html

Basically, the publishers were getting concerned about Amazon's dominance in the ebook market, so they adopted a different pricing model for ebooks compared to print copies. This results in the price of printed copies and ebooks being basically unrelated to one another, but also keeps Amazon from owning the digital market.

The comments on that blog post are almost more interesting than the post itself.

(FWIW I have a Nook so for me Amazon owns none of the ebook market...)

lots of free wodehouse on amazon

link?

Think there were some Psmith books,Mike maybe, and one early Jeeves novel.

The Code of the Woosters and Joy and the Morning you will have to pay for.

My Man Jeeves, Right Ho, Jeeves, Piccadilly Jim, A Damsel in Distress are free.

Maybe we should start free PGW book club thread.

all those also on gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/w#a783

But I don't want to read free books! I want to read the books I WANT to read!

Like, I didn't go around buying cheap Jeeves paperbacks when Kindles didn't exist.

The regional price differences are inexcusable too, e.g. a hardback that costs US$25 is usually AU$45–60 here (and our $ is worth more ffs). ebooks are exploding here and that's got loads to do with it.

Search "5000 ebooks" on the Pirate Bay then.

still a bit grumpy that a non-touch, non-keyboard, non-3G Kindle costs more in the UK than the US price for the Kindle Touch, which isn't coming out in Europe because fuck Europe, or something

but those Australian prices are ridiculous

tbf the kindle touch is inferior to the latest gen non-keyboard kindle from what I've heard from friends. No real need for touch controls imo.

but but angry birds

Um that's only on Kindle Fire and not Kindle Touch isn't it?