Books of the Month, June 2016 - Six of Crows and The Aeronaut's Windlass

[Sean]

Been wanting to read Six of Crows for a bit now. This gives me a good excuse. Also wanted to re-read Aeronaut's Windlass. Again, perfect timing.

[Wayland, Ernest Scribbler]

yeah, drinking can get right expensive. I found a new apple pie moonshine recently that I'm really enjoying that is amazingly strong and delicious. Also, great for this group, it's called FIREFLY. ;)

[Cupcakes & Machetes, Hybrid Creature]

Maybe we'd make enough money that I could quite my day job and just read full time in between smuggling books. ;)

[Shawnie]

We should automatically get to the front of the library queue because it's for BOTM. ;-) Dreaming...

[Wayland, Ernest Scribbler]

Shawnie wrote: "We should automatically get to the front of the library queue because it's for BOTM. ;-) Dreaming..."

I approve of this idea!

[Alex]

Raven Rebecca wrote: "just to clarify, I am sober on this Tuesday ;-) "

THIS tuesday, eeeeeh?

[LittleBookDruid]

Mostly done with the first Grisha book. I am finding this series so amazing while the common opinion is that it's not that good and The Six of Crows is the better one. Can't wait to get to that point.
And reading all the discussion here, I am kind of evilly happy from the fact that libraries in my area are considered ghost town. -_-
Which means I get any book the moment I enter.

[Cupcakes & Machetes, Hybrid Creature]

LittleBookDruid wrote: "Mostly done with the first Grisha book. I am finding this series so amazing while the common opinion is that it's not that good and The Six of Crows is the better one. Can't wait to get to that poi..."

I personally loved the Grisha trilogy. I thought it was very original, great world building and fun characters. A lot of people didn't like the ending but I thought it was actually a quite fantastic way to leave off.

[LittleBookDruid]

Hybrid Creature (devours books instead of brains) wrote: "LittleBookDruid wrote: "Mostly done with the first Grisha book. I am finding this series so amazing while the common opinion is that it's not that good and The Six of Crows is the better one. Can't..."
Long way left to reach that point. But more psyched after this comment. :D

[Audrey, Queen of the Potato People]

Hold requests are free at my library. I can find most books, audiobooks, and DVDs I look for. If the system doesn't have something, they'll borrow a copy from other libraries in the country. The only time you pay is if you return something late, which is 25 cents a day. They use Overdrive, too, which is still kind of weird to me. Six of Crows is waiting for me now.

[Roger, Knight Radiant]

My library is awesome, it is connected with all the libraries in the state of Massachussets, except for some in Boston, so while my local library may not have a copy of the book I'm looking for the chances that there is a copy in the system is very good. I think right now there are 60+ copies of Six Of Crows in the system so I should be able to get it fairly easily

[Rinn, (Retired mod) Captain of the SSV Normandy]

Nice one, Roger! :D

You should reserve several and send them out to our Canadian friends ;)

[Roger, Knight Radiant]

Rinn wrote: "Nice one, Roger! :D

You should reserve several and send them out to our Canadian friends ;)"

Ha, I could be part of the underground railroad for books as suggested before, my parents live 60 miles from the Canadian border...

[Lancer, Warden of the Slums]

All that's left to do it build a 60 mile long tunnel under the boarder.

[Jessica]

Greg, thanks for explaining the whole ebook checkout system with the libraries, although now I feel guilty for books that I haven't gotten around to reading and have had to re-check out! I had no idea they may need to repurchase. Oops.

One little trick I learned though was to load my kindle up with library books, and then put it on airplane mode. Then you can keep them on there as long as needed. Just don't reconnect to wifi until you've finished your books, or they disappear!

[Jessica]

Yay! Aeronauts Windlass just became available at my library! The wait list for Six of Crows is about a mile long though, so I will probably be able to check it out by the end of summer? Must mean it's a good one!

[Fannie]

I will try to participate as well with any of those two books if I can find them. I am also Canadian and my library have a very very small english section. If a book if not translated, I can't find it most of the time.

[Rinn, (Retired mod) Captain of the SSV Normandy]

Damn, I just discovered that Aeronaut's Windlass is not out in paperback until July :(

[Greg]

Jessica wrote: "Greg, thanks for explaining the whole ebook checkout system with the libraries, although now I feel guilty for books that I haven't gotten around to reading and have had to re-check out! I had no i..."

Ha ha, I had the same reaction when I first found out Jessica, some guilt about checking out electronic audiobooks that I didn't get around to reading.

I do the same thing you mentioned with airplane mode now on my iPod now so I don't have to recheck them out. I can't afford to leave my phone in airplane mode, but these days I use my iPod almost exclusively for Audible & Overdrive audiobooks for my commute; so it works perfectly with my iPod! :)

[Jessica]

The iPod is a perfect way to listen to the audio books, I'll have to remember that. We are moving to Chicago soon and will be relying on public transportation. I learned very quickly to always have headphones on (even if you aren't listening to anything).... Bare ears means the train oddball is going to talk to you, and WOW....I really didn't want to hear what he had to say! LOL.

[Wayland, Ernest Scribbler]

The reason the libraries are limited in their number of e copies comes back to the writers. Us writers are a silly breed in that we'd like to get paid for our hard work. If a library has infinite copies of our work electronically, then they buy once and then a whole lot of people don't buy it.

Just another way to look at it.

[Kirsty, Jedi Master]

Good point well made Wayland!

The libraries should totally just buy more copies!

[Roger, Knight Radiant]

Wayland wrote: "The reason the libraries are limited in their number of e copies comes back to the writers. Us writers are a silly breed in that we'd like to get paid for our hard work. If a library has infinite c..."

What a silly concept. Aren't you aware that pirating books is good for an author? /sarcasm

[Jessica]

Wayland, makes perfect sense.
I wonder though, do they keep of the number of checkouts for hard copy books, too?

[Jessica]

I need to proofread before I hit send. That didn't even make sense to me. Meant to say do the libraries keep track of the number of times a hard copy book has been checked out, too? I wonder if they have to buy a new copy after a certain number has been reached.

[Wayland, Ernest Scribbler]

They do, I think, track checkouts so they can weed out ones that don't move a lot. It's been my experience they get a lot of copies for a new best seller, and thin them out as the rush dies down with book sales and such. I think they only replace them if A) it's seeing a lot of traffic and B) it gets damaged.

[Greg]

I think that's right - they only replace them if they're damaged. So a little different than eBooks that expire after a fixed number of checkouts and have to be rebought.

I think it comes down to convenience factor - if a person has to physically go to a library to pick up a book, they might be more inclined to buy a book instead. If they can click a button from their living room, they're probably more likely to do that. So from an author/publisher perspective, they have to put some kind of limits on library eBooks or it'll impact sales much more than physical library books do.

That doesn't make the long library waits any less frustrating (!), but I guess I can kind of understand the other perspective too.

Another topic since we're talking about publishing: Here's a pet peeve though that I'll never understand - why the heck do they make certain audiobooks unavailable in certain regions on Audible? I can understand different release dates, but I look up older audiobooks (years old) that I desperately want to listen to, and as soon as I login they vanish (since they're not available in the US region). I've called Audible, and their hands are tied by the publishers. It makes me very angry - after all I want to pay for them but can't get them at any price. Utterly exasperating!!!

[Natalie]

Haha I just finished reading Six of Crows. I started early when I saw what the books would be for the month. I guess I have time to read the other book as well now.

[LittleBookDruid]

Awesome, Natalie. Already ahead of schedule.
And Greg, that sure got to be frustrating. I mean, why doesn't matter the physical publishing schedule, but e-stuff is supposed to be global. Sometimes it frustrate me to no end too, the way most companies treat countries outside of US. Which is in a lot higher percentage.
I mostly used to order physical copies from Amazon until my mother put a ten books per month quota. And now I have to wait for international releases as well :(. (yeah, I read more than ten books per month) So bummed

[Greg]

LittleBookDruid wrote: "Awesome, Natalie. Already ahead of schedule.
And Greg, that sure got to be frustrating. I mean, why doesn't matter the physical publishing schedule, but e-stuff is supposed to be global. Sometimes..."

Sounds like you're a very fast reader LittleBookDruid!! :)

[Greg]

Raven Rebecca wrote: "I'm driving past my public library today, and I think, "what the heck, might as well check" so I go the desk and The Aeronaut's Windlass is SITTING RIGHT THERE. No hold, nothing. Ju..."

Glad you got it Raven! I did have to place a hold at my library, but I did it a while ago and I now have in my greedy hands both a checked out hardback copy and a checked out book on CDs packet of The Aeronaut's Windlass. Will start it today on my commute! :)

[Veronica]

I have library cards to three different libraries so I can usually find what I want at one of them. The one that's about 20 miles away has Six of Crows available so I should be picking that one up this weekend (I have to return some other books there anyway).

[Lel]

sir Lancer wrote: "So.. Maurice... Dude like where I live now, there is like no library within like 40 miles...so maybe don't assume I'm a jackass that doesn't know what a library is."

That really sucks! I dont use the library but feel like I would miss it if I didnt have it near to me.