SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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Where do you get your books from?
Olivier wrote: "I actually get my books pretty exclusively from Amazon. I recently decided to only buy hardback. This is because a) I like the feel and b) I want a nice looking library in my future house.To my su..."
Amazon grew up and grew rich on a forty percent discount for new textbooks. Often that holds for bestsellers, too. If you have Prime and you like the service, you're sitting pretty. If you don't mind gently used books, try thriftbooks and buy books in "Like New" condition.
If you like to comparison-shop, because of the weak Canadian dollar vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar, you might try comparison-shopping with Indigo (site chapter.indigo.ca), keeping in mind that the ship fees from suburban Toronto the USA are high, on the order of eighteen of our dollars or more, but at least for me, ship time is VERY fast, as good as Prime or better -- The "kicker" is that the Canadian dollar is worth only about four-fifths the USA dollar. (I have personally never gotten a better deal with Amazon of Canada, and they're slower -- I imagine Amazon(USA) does its best to make sure their captive amazon.ca doesn't undersell them. Indigo is a competitor.)
If you really, really like shopping around, write me at
allensmalling@gmail.com and we can chat further.
Not all hardcover books are that strong, durable or long-lived, but they are usually easier to pass on when you're done. I'm not sure that mass-market hardcovers bring any more money on average.
Have fun! "ALLEN."
Allison wrote: "Also, can we take a minute in this very appropriate thread to bless Project Gutenberg? They're like Prometheus, bringing free books to set fire to curious minds. Keep up the good work you intellectual rebels! "I just got Little Fuzzy from them for free. And I noticed that a good percentage of Cory Doctorow's books are there
CBRetriever wrote: "Allison wrote: "Also, can we take a minute in this very appropriate thread to bless Project Gutenberg? They're like Prometheus, bringing free books to set fire to curious minds. Keep up the good wo..."Oh hells yeah! Kudos to Project Gutenberg.
And if you take the time to work it, the Internet Archive is fair and free:
https://archive.org/about/
Happy Birthday, Double Nickels!Everybody, wish New Jersey's most literary GR Leo a happy birthday!
I spend half of my yearly wages at booktopia.com.au or if I can't find a title there I go straight to wordery.com.I pick up some great, obscure titles and classics from second-hand bookstores (always love reading the inscription inside the covers) but only about 5% of what I read comes from the library, which I am a bit embarrassed about because I'm a librarian :(
I don't know what country you're writing from, Kristy, but if it's the USA so many public libraries don't provide the close to universal coverage they used to -- or at least, so it seems to me. Of course, if you live in a town with a big college or university, I bet there are some good or great used-bookstores there. Evanston, Illinois, used to have the second-greatest number of them in America; I don't think that's the case now but it still has some good ones.
Mod
I pick up some great, obscure titles and classics from second-hand bookstores (al..."
LOL Kristy. I chuckled IRL at the sheepishness.
I imagine it's because you're the consummate professional and love the library so much that you don't want to remove things from circulation for others. It's very noble of you, really ;-)
Gary wrote: "Anyone know, does Kindle Unlimited tend to have a lot of new releases and such? Id consider subscribing for a bit if it would allow me to check out new stuff as it comes out. My reading has ramped ..."In my experience, Kindle Unlimited has a lot of new books. Certain publishers have deals to put new releases on Kindle Unlimited. I believe they still offer a 30-day free trial.
I still like to walk into a bookstore and see what they have, especially with my kids. Now, I have to convince my kids that we're buying only books, not toys! I enjoy bumping into a good book, like that's how fate would have it.
I buy my cook books from 2nd hand shop or markets.The 2 ebook i purchased last week on KoboShop
I moved to a new area 5 years ago, I was really pleased that the major library for my larger area was a block away from my new house. wow I said. I have been there 3 times. I keep being given books: my nephew and a niece , who both blame me for their book addictions, don't keep books once read, and constantly arrive with their latest "bundle"
From there I find I like a series so I just have to buy the rest, usually online a place called Fishpond, or if I don't want to keep the book ( that is if I want to finish the series but not enough to read it again) I will buy an ebook
ebooks are from amazon, although I am having a hissy fit over their helpfulness at the moment
In Australia you can travel long distances with no wi fi/ mobile connection. Imagine my annoyance when we were travelling in such an area, I pulled out my kindle to read the latest book I had downloaded and !!!!!!! Amazon had kindly kept it ready for me, I was suggested to just download it!!!!!!!
Then I went to re read another book on it, having given up on the first one, only to find that Amazon had again put it up in the cloud somewhere since I have finished it, I could down load it when I wanted it again.
Not happy Amazon!!!!!!!
For me the purpose of a kindle is to use when travelling, I load several books on it so that if I don't like one I can move on. Saves on carrying a lot of paper books.
What is the use if I have to download it over and over again.
Ok, Amazon, that is indeed not cool. I often travel outside of range, too. I will definitely hang onto my Sony eReader and also have paper books when traveling, since apparently I can't count on the Amazon books on my tablet. :(
I just did something I don’t normally do....I ordered the CD of We Are Legion (We Are Bob) from the Book Depository in the UK. Well it was $11 and I normally see if for around $26 so I thought why not. And it was free delivery to Australia. Hopefully it gets here before my next big trip so I can listen to it when I’m driving. I used to order text books for uni from overseas all the time but never normal books.
I've never had that happen. Often people who're new to the current model Kindles often think that everything under All is actually downloaded on the Kindle, when actually only the books with check marks beside them are on the device. And Kindle Unlimited books could experience that behavior when out of their geographic region. I keep mine on Downloaded, not All and then I know absolutely what's on my Kindle (I'm talking actual Kindles, not the reading apps)
CBRso what do you do after you have read a book on your actual kindle, have you ever tried to re read one? I have had a kindle , or a few as I update, for 8 years now.
yes I keep my list on all, and the books I am talking about have actually been read on this device. I found out that they disappeared back to the ether when in frustration I decided to re read a book I had read a few months back, it wasn't there, just a queued sign .
I then tried a few other "older" books , all in the ether. it doesn't mean I have lost them, once in an area that I had reception I clicked on them and they were downloaded
after asking around I found two other people had had the same problem, they said what they did was request all to be downloaded, (slowly for each book, aaaahhhhh) and then turned on aeroplane /n o wifi part of the kindle.
That works but it means you cant really buy anything while on the trip. Just takes a bit more planning of getting all before I leave
I reread my Kindle books all the time. Right now my method is to only have unread books on my Kindle (actually downloaded) to the tune of about 300 books, so there's no way I'm going to run out on a trip. Currently I'm starting a reread- new read of the Sword of Trush series and I have all the volumes downloaded. Plus I'm reading Jamaica Inn.
maybe its being in aussie land, who knows. I just know there are 3 of us here that have had the same problem.i have learnt from this and put many , many books on the kindle for trips
as I've said, I always do that and have about 300 onmost of my devices right now
Probably is the whole Aussie thing. They’re constantly trying to take our money and give us a diluted service.....
I was doing the "in France" bit for a while and a least the Aussie's have Prime Video, the French dont have any video offerings through Amazon. I heard they now have NetFlix but it's pretty restrictive and isn't through Amazon. And they can't borrow digital books from their libraries
Amazon Prime Video is only just coming now. Amazon itself only got here earlier this year and Prime is just starting to be advertised. I’m sure I read that it’s starting in September. And it’s a much diluted service compared to Prime in America. Amazon is also stopping us from ordering through Amazon US like we used to be able to do. Netflix is the same. We’ve only had it for probably 2 years now and we have, once again, between 10 and 20% of what’s available on America. And we pay more for the service.
Australia gets diddly squat which is why the country is actually the biggest bunch of Pirates in the world. It’s the only way we can have access to a lot of stuff.
Also where I live we have a very limited range of digital books that we can download from our library. And that service has only been available for the last 11 months or so. They’d not long jumped into the digital age when I joined the library in October. Our town only just got decent internet in April.
It’s a massive, sparsely populated country with not much internet and mobile phone service in most of it. They have trouble working out how to get the services to those of us who don’t live along the coast.
Jacquelineyou have it all the right way. diddly squat is right
It does. I cleaned up a lot before our recent move, but now have a 'new-to-me library and so my remaining dead tree books are collecting a fresh batch of dust. :(
re Nook, etc.: Anyone here have experience with Kobo?
My husband used it years ago... don't know if he remembers anything helpful though. I recall he stopped because he got a different device, not because it didn't work for him.
I use the library mostly and then buy the rest. I don't have a singular place I buy books from.
John wrote: "Ok, so today I decided I wanted to catalog all my physical copy books so I know what I need and what I already have. This is mostly for series and specific writers. I hate buying duplicate books un..."I love this comment, I joyfully told my husband that there is another "nut" out there like me. I have all of my 700 books on a spreadsheet , I found that way I could re-sort on series or on category ( my own of course)
I then went through each series and looked up on the net to see if there was a new book, this was added to the spreadsheet with a new column to buy, once sorting the columns I would end up with a list of books that I wanted to read.
of course fictfact is a really helpful site on what is new for series.
at the moment I am working through my ebook collection and adding them into the spreadsheet.
sigh my family feel this is definitely an OCD trait
wow I didn't think of the short stories , must add that to my spreadsheet.
Kristy wrote: "I spend half of my yearly wages at booktopia.com.au"Definitely the best Aussie online book retailer. I miss the days when they offered free pickup and their warehouse was about five minutes drive from my work. IIRC they offer free shipping if you go there via booko.com.au though.
Jacqueline wrote: "Probably is the whole Aussie thing. They’re constantly trying to take our money and give us a diluted service....."I've been using Kindle on first a cheap Kindle and then a combination of my phone and iPad and never had this issue. Very weird. (Obviously commenting as an Aussie.)
Yeah sometimes it works properly and sometimes it doesn’t.
I get my books however is more convenient. I subscribe to Storytel which give you unlimited access to their audio and ebooks at a monthy fee of about $14. They have a huge collection of English language audiobooks, about a third of everything I read or on my to-read list I can actually find there.Then I pay for a credit from Audible a month which I spend on one of the more expensive audiobooks on my to-read list.
The rest I alternate between iBooks, Amazon Kindle, or physical, whichever is cheapest :)
John wrote: "What are people's thoughts on the Kindle Paperwhite? Specifically for use with OverDrive. Most of my books are in epub format. Would I have to convert them to Mobi? Or does Kindle now support epub?..."Paperwhites can't read books in epub format, just in Kindle and mobi format
So far I stayed away from audiobooks since they were too expensive in comparison with the ebook version. But lately some of the books in the group reads were 10€ or more for ebook version, so I'm thinking about subscribing to audible - suddenly the 10€/month for 1 free book doesn't look so expensive anymore.
ALLEN wrote: "https://www.thriftbooks.com/shipping-...I can honestly say that firm has been a blessing to me, since I read a lot, prefer HC, and don't care if it's brand-new as long as it's clean. "
Me too Allen! after discovering this website it is mainly where i now get my books from. Have about 6 books arriving this week for & it cost approx.$23
Hope it all works out. Welcome to the fold!
Apparently my audiobook of We Are Legion (We Are Bob) has arrived at the Post Office. I got it for $A10 from Book Depository UK. Just trying to decide whether I should change my tshirt before I go down there. Is it appropriate for a nearly 55 year old to be wearing a black tshirt with gold writing that says “I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good” on it down the shops? Yeahhh I better change into something “normal”. They have trouble with different here.
I like to compare prices for new paperbacks between American vendors and bookdepository or wordery (both UK). Sometimes the prices are lower. Ship times to USA are slower, but there are no ship fees
Yeah it was free shipping which was a bonus. If we access any of the online shops through booko.com.au the shipping is supposed to be free too apparently. Well it is for some sites that usually charge a lot for shipping anyway. Great site for Australians that one. It compares all of the sites all over the world and you can get the best price.
John wrote: "Don't you hate it when you know you own a book, but have no idea where it is?Over the last decade, I had bought a series of books of HP Lovecraft's short stories in conjunction with Richard Mathe..."
Gosh yes. Of course it was worse when my books were in boxes, but even now that they're on shelves they manage to escape.
After spending a lot of money on the ebooks of Terry Pratchett in German translation, while I already own all of them in English, I got the splendid (allthough late) idea, of going to the internet antiquarian bookseller rebuy. Now I've got 7 Pratchetts for under 20€. Should have thought of that earlier.And I had the great fortune, that both families of my departing children said their thank-yous in form of vouchers for amazon and our local book store. Yes!
I borrow from the library most of the time. I use the Libby app a lot. And then I go to the library bookstore a lot too. Then I try to shop at indie bookstores once a month just to support them 😅 and then there’s Barnes and noble 😅
Here in the USA, I make great use of thriftbooks.com as a kind of "Internet antiquarian." Domestically, books ship free over $10-.
I have a real problem with most book stores - I can walk into one and find absolutely nothing I want to buy/read and often walk out empty-handed. Maybe it's the local indie book stores and local Barnes and Noble, but the vast majority of books on their shelves seem to be older books or re-issues with a mere 20-30 new books per month in the genres I read most of which in the case of SciFi/Fantasy seem to be paranormal romances (I don't read these)
Wish I could walk out empty handed....lately my local bookshops (ok local to the farm that is) have been getting books in that I actually want. And I’ve been ordering some too. Went into the newsagent out here in the Outback earlier today (to find Australian Vogue with the free Kylie Jenner lip kit for my daughter but they hadn’t even received any because they sent them all to city stores and ones close to the coast where more of the people are apparently which is completely unfair because country girls deserve to be pretty too 🤪) OMG...now where am I? Oh yeah newsagents....and they got some cheap $6 books in so I got a James Patterson, a John Grisham for an AtY prompt and a silly historical romance thing with 4 novellas in it. We normally don’t get books out here. They’re all mass produced and not great quality.
I love owning the book so I can read it at my leisure. I always physical copies from the bookstore. Sometimes Amazon if it is available cheaper and I'm not dying to get started on it. I do like to support the local bookstores though.
I've adopted a mostly paperless lifestyle and I've become kind of a Kindle snob. If a book isn't available digitally, I won't read it. There's just so much convenience there for me, but I'm a tech guy so it fits, I suppose. I even use my library card simply for renting ebooks.
It's hard for me to handle Kindle for anything longer than novella length (say, 75 pp.). I also hate the technical bugs that still seem to plague such downloads -- cut-off page numbers, missing back-of-the-book material and such. Kindle or similar downloads are fine for articles and things of that nature, but not long books -- reading the screen strains my eyes and the curl-up factor is minimized. I probably buy about sixty to seventy percent of my books used, mostly Thriftbooks with a little BWB mixed in (they aren't as slow as they used to be if one is willing to pay the ninety-nine-cent surcharge.) Since i don't belong to Prime any more, and Walmart matches the price of most new books, I tend to order from Walmart because it's so much quicker.
In all fairness, though, while shipping from Smilin' A can be slow, local delivery with AMZL is more efficient than it used to be -- they'll even predict how many stops the driver has left before s/he gets to me. You won't get that with USPS, or with the big private delivery services without an account.
Sometimes I order from bookdepository.com or wordery.com. Both are British, and both are slow, but shipping is free and sometimes the books themselves are a good deal cheaper. I got KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (pbk.) much cheaper than through an American store or site, for example.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Jamaica Inn (other topics)Little Fuzzy (other topics)
Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Are Real (other topics)
King's Dragon (other topics)
Prince of Dogs (other topics)
More...
To my surprise, this decision has actually proved not very expensive. In many cases, oddly enough, hardback version was cheaper than any other version (save ebook, of course).
In cases where the hardback is too expensive, I have purchased used copies . Significantly cheaper, and I can't even tell they are used.