Ok, still alive. Just being lazy like I usually am towards the end of the year. Been catching up on my tv shows and books, haven't been surfing much.
So I've talked about how much of a read-aholic I am. And I've also talked about how much money I've spent buying books. I have to also mention that I recently got into eBooks.....as a way of saving the trees. Ok, ok, my acceptance of eBooks are in no way altruistic like that, it was purely a logical and financially fiscal decision since I could practically just download most of the books for free. The whole tree-saving aspect is a boon. So is the shelf space I've managed to save.
But anyways, despite having downloaded a whole lot of books in the past coupla months (and not read a third of them as yet), I find I still have the need to buy books. Hence why I got myself the Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Fantasy Collection (which arrived on Saturday). I also actually shelled out cold hard credit card cash for 2 kindle books from mammoth e-tailer Amazon.com which is a real milestone for me considering that I think electronic paper of any kind should be free (I still have a mild lingering preconcieved notion that things I can't actually physically feel should not cost me. Trust me, I DO understand the concept of copyright and such).
Which is really want I wanted to talk about. I guess, after my experiences with the Kindle books, I've come away feeling that I really do not mind paying for a paperless version of a book. I realized how much of a physical space saver, delivery time saver and shipping cost saver eBooks really are. The two books I got were Jen Lancaster's Pretty In Plaid and Cayla Kulver's Legacy which totaled at $19.98 ($9.99 each) and I got to read them instantly.
I've been trying to get Jen Lancaster's latest offering for some time now since it was released earlier in the year but since this book was only published in hardcover, the prices inclusive of shipping was something of a deterrent. While I was shopping around on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble hoping for some holiday deal earlier this month, I thought I might as well see if there's a digital version of the book. And since I'm here talking about it now, obviously there is. Just none that could be downloaded for free :P
It didn't take long for me to decide to just go for it and cough up $9.99 for a book I wouldn't be able to turn it's pages with my fingers or get a whiff of that new book smell. What I did get instead was the satisfaction of book delivery within 15 minutes of my pressing on the search button. I also found to my extreme delight that reading electronic versions of books are great in that at a click of a mouse you can just jump to a different page to look at the glossary or illustration or in Jen Lancaster's case, her footnotes and with another short click jump back to the page you were reading.
eBooks are also great for buying when the paper variety is constantly out of stock. I've been trying to get Cayla Kluver's book Legacy in paperback since June when Amazon's newsletter informed me of their latest Amazon published bestselling author who happened to be a 16 year old girl. I've made it pretty clear that I still like to read young adult fiction and so I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been hunting for this book for nearly 6 months. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble were out so again, I decided to see if they had an eBook version. Barnes & Noble didn't but since Cayla is on the list of Amazon published writers, they'd of course want to make more money by exclusively (I'm simply assuming this is true) holding the rights of eBook distribution for themselves.
And that solved my waffling between which eBook reader to use. I had only previously used third party eBook readers as well as Barnes & Noble's but if you buy Amazon, you have to install their Kindle reader application. I hate the fact that I have to use too many different types of readers to be able to view different eBook file types but I have to say that besides the Microsoft rtf reader, Kindle is really a great pleasure to use. In fact, it's definitely the best one out there.
So after working around the whole stupid "no-delivery-outside-the-US-for-Kindle-digital-content" thing, I am now the proud owner of two paid eBooks. And a slew of other free eBooks I found on Amazon. And it's not just the classics but recent authors like James Patterson have also offered their books for free download. It's a marketing strategy where they offer the first book in a series for free and when the story hooks you, you'll most likely end up buying the next book. It's also a great way to introduce authors to a wider audience. I just finished reading "Serial" which I got free and is on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller list. The product description reads:
"Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? # 1: Don't go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. # 2: Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2? When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an "After School Special," SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides. Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other's opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win."
It's a joint effort by two thriller writers Jack Kilborn and Blake Coruch. I loved the story they collaborated on, although it is completely sick and twisted, more so than I usually enjoy but it did pique my interest to see if their individual books would reel me in as much as this free effort did.
Right now, I'm trying to decide if I want to get the Kindle version or the paperback version of the sequel to "The Nanny Diaries", "Nanny Returns: A Novel". The tipping point will definitely be cost :)
So I've talked about how much of a read-aholic I am. And I've also talked about how much money I've spent buying books. I have to also mention that I recently got into eBooks.....as a way of saving the trees. Ok, ok, my acceptance of eBooks are in no way altruistic like that, it was purely a logical and financially fiscal decision since I could practically just download most of the books for free. The whole tree-saving aspect is a boon. So is the shelf space I've managed to save.
But anyways, despite having downloaded a whole lot of books in the past coupla months (and not read a third of them as yet), I find I still have the need to buy books. Hence why I got myself the Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Fantasy Collection (which arrived on Saturday). I also actually shelled out cold hard credit card cash for 2 kindle books from mammoth e-tailer Amazon.com which is a real milestone for me considering that I think electronic paper of any kind should be free (I still have a mild lingering preconcieved notion that things I can't actually physically feel should not cost me. Trust me, I DO understand the concept of copyright and such).
Which is really want I wanted to talk about. I guess, after my experiences with the Kindle books, I've come away feeling that I really do not mind paying for a paperless version of a book. I realized how much of a physical space saver, delivery time saver and shipping cost saver eBooks really are. The two books I got were Jen Lancaster's Pretty In Plaid and Cayla Kulver's Legacy which totaled at $19.98 ($9.99 each) and I got to read them instantly.
I've been trying to get Jen Lancaster's latest offering for some time now since it was released earlier in the year but since this book was only published in hardcover, the prices inclusive of shipping was something of a deterrent. While I was shopping around on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble hoping for some holiday deal earlier this month, I thought I might as well see if there's a digital version of the book. And since I'm here talking about it now, obviously there is. Just none that could be downloaded for free :P
It didn't take long for me to decide to just go for it and cough up $9.99 for a book I wouldn't be able to turn it's pages with my fingers or get a whiff of that new book smell. What I did get instead was the satisfaction of book delivery within 15 minutes of my pressing on the search button. I also found to my extreme delight that reading electronic versions of books are great in that at a click of a mouse you can just jump to a different page to look at the glossary or illustration or in Jen Lancaster's case, her footnotes and with another short click jump back to the page you were reading.
eBooks are also great for buying when the paper variety is constantly out of stock. I've been trying to get Cayla Kluver's book Legacy in paperback since June when Amazon's newsletter informed me of their latest Amazon published bestselling author who happened to be a 16 year old girl. I've made it pretty clear that I still like to read young adult fiction and so I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been hunting for this book for nearly 6 months. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble were out so again, I decided to see if they had an eBook version. Barnes & Noble didn't but since Cayla is on the list of Amazon published writers, they'd of course want to make more money by exclusively (I'm simply assuming this is true) holding the rights of eBook distribution for themselves.
And that solved my waffling between which eBook reader to use. I had only previously used third party eBook readers as well as Barnes & Noble's but if you buy Amazon, you have to install their Kindle reader application. I hate the fact that I have to use too many different types of readers to be able to view different eBook file types but I have to say that besides the Microsoft rtf reader, Kindle is really a great pleasure to use. In fact, it's definitely the best one out there.
So after working around the whole stupid "no-delivery-outside-the-US-for-Kindle-digital-content" thing, I am now the proud owner of two paid eBooks. And a slew of other free eBooks I found on Amazon. And it's not just the classics but recent authors like James Patterson have also offered their books for free download. It's a marketing strategy where they offer the first book in a series for free and when the story hooks you, you'll most likely end up buying the next book. It's also a great way to introduce authors to a wider audience. I just finished reading "Serial" which I got free and is on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller list. The product description reads:
"Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? # 1: Don't go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. # 2: Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2? When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an "After School Special," SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides. Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other's opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win."
It's a joint effort by two thriller writers Jack Kilborn and Blake Coruch. I loved the story they collaborated on, although it is completely sick and twisted, more so than I usually enjoy but it did pique my interest to see if their individual books would reel me in as much as this free effort did.
Right now, I'm trying to decide if I want to get the Kindle version or the paperback version of the sequel to "The Nanny Diaries", "Nanny Returns: A Novel". The tipping point will definitely be cost :)
