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11 votes
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Feeding an ebook addiction
I read a lot (my wife gets mad at me because I read so much faster than her), and these days I do most of my reading on Kindle. Fortunately there are ways to do this for little or no money. If...
I read a lot (my wife gets mad at me because I read so much faster than her), and these days I do most of my reading on Kindle. Fortunately there are ways to do this for little or no money. If you're interested here are some ways to get more ebooks without spending a lot of money:
- Project Gutenberg is the grandparent of free book sites, with 60K+ public domain works.
- MobileRead has an entire forum for fresh uploads of public domain works in Kindle format (they have other formats too).
- The Libby app (iOS/Android) makes it trivially easy to borrow ebooks from your local library.
- The Hoopla app (iOS/Android) is another way to borrow from your local library.
- The Library Extension browser add-on (Chrome/Firefox) will alert you when a book that you're looking at online (say, on an Amazon product page) is available at your local library. (This covers print as well as ebooks)
- BookBub will send you a daily email with books that are currently on sale at the major ebook stores.
- I'm not sure how I got into this one; I think it was when I registered a new Kindle for Christmas. But in any case, Amazon is currently in the mode of offering me a $1 ebook credit on every order I have shipped, as long as I'm willing to take non-prime shipping and wait a few days. As far as I can tell this option is available on every Prime order, so I shamelessly take advantage. Need a $4 USB-C cable to replace one that's fraying? Hey, I can get it a few days later and add $1 to my credits. Until they stop this, I'll keep breaking every order up into individual single-item orders. It's not even worse for the planet, because their warehouse software recombines everything into as few boxes as it can anyhow.
17 votes -
Requesting an export of personal data from Amazon shows how extensively they track your reading habits
11 votes -
E-books at libraries are a huge hit, leading to long waits, reader hacks and worried publishers
25 votes -
Like This Or Die - The fate of the book review in the age of the algorithm
4 votes -
Helsinki Library has robots to help reshelve books – they get a lot of press attention but they're not the important part of the library
5 votes -
Better World Books and the Internet Archive unite to preserve millions of books
8 votes -
The Kindle is fine. It could’ve been much more than that.
27 votes -
Orwell knew: We willingly buy the screens that are used against us
10 votes -
The rise of robot authors: Is the writing on the wall for human novelists?
4 votes -
Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction
15 votes -
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff review – we are the pawns
7 votes -
The 'future book' is here, but it's not what we expected
9 votes -
Near the end of the Middle Ages a device came into service that helped avid readers: the book carousel or book wheel
14 votes -
Humble Book Bundle: Game Development
7 votes -
What is your experience with jailbreaking your e-reader?
I spent some time yesterday using the guide by KOReader to jailbreak my kindle PW. What features do you use if you've jailbroken it? Do you find it has changed how you read?
22 votes -
Bad romance - To cash in on Kindle Unlimited, a cabal of authors gamed Amazon's algorithm
10 votes -
The authors who love Amazon
6 votes -
How a group of romance writers cashed in on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited
3 votes -
How do you read?
I'm wondering what all the different ways people read here are! Do you always buy a new hardcover, or do you get everything from your library on your e-reader? Feel free to share both format and...
I'm wondering what all the different ways people read here are! Do you always buy a new hardcover, or do you get everything from your library on your e-reader? Feel free to share both format and when/where/what you like to read.
15 votes -
Thanks to all those who recommended a Kindle
A while ago there was a post comparing e-books and hard copies. After chatting with a few people, I was convinced to spend the money on a Kindle to replace reading on my laptop. It's an amazing...
A while ago there was a post comparing e-books and hard copies. After chatting with a few people, I was convinced to spend the money on a Kindle to replace reading on my laptop.
It's an amazing difference and I'd recommend it to anyone who reads on a "normal" screen. My eyes don't get tired, night reading is more comfortable, I've got 40 books in my pocket, the screen really is glare free, and I've charged it once in a week and a half.
So if you read e-books, get a reader with the e-ink screen. It's worth it, and thanks to those who convinced me.12 votes -
On books vs. the stories within
My focus when partaking of an accumulated work of written word has always been on the story itself. The ideas and plot and characters presented transcend the physical media within which they are...
My focus when partaking of an accumulated work of written word has always been on the story itself. The ideas and plot and characters presented transcend the physical media within which they are presented. But I know from reading various forums, including that-site-which-shall-not-be-named, that many people steadfastly cling to their tomes of dead trees with a fervor that seems unshakable in the face of technology. The smell of mold ridden paper, the tactile sensation of flipping through the pages, the collectibility of a treasured collection of ideals... I understand the value of collecting an antiquated form of presentation, but does it truly add anything to the story telling experience? I liken it to vinyl records; the ability to touch what you are partaking of, that tactile and physical wholly personable experience with the media with which you are interacting can be a powerful motivator, but to try to convince me that Spotify is inferior because it is new and digital and convenient seems deplorable. When I read the same story on a Kindle are we not experiencing the same thing? Does the fact that I carry my entire library of 900+ books with me in my pocket dilute my experience? I can zoom, and dictionary, and Wikipedia, and translate literally at the touch of my finger. I can highlight and make notes, I can scan the book without losing my place, without ever needing a bookmark. What am I missing by not having dedicated and decidedly wasteful space in my home for storing my leaves of enlightenment?
5 votes