Distressing news about the books on your Kindle

[CycloneWanderer]

Public libraries are for students and cheapskates. I have an office in my house in which I have my book collection, I think anybody who doesnt have at least one bookshelf in their house must be poorly educated and unintellectual.

I'm guessing you don't consider a hard drive as a bookshelf. I have some bookshelves at work, where I keep my work collection (almost none of it is available in digital format). I don't have any bookshelves at home. I donated my phsical books to the library and now have a rather large and diverse digital collection. With regards to public libraries, you pay for it whether you use it or not and can be used to the great benefit of the community. For example, I've seen everything from book clubs to chess lessons to music lessons to political group meetings take place at our local library. Why would you let your pride keep you from supporting such an institution with your patronage? I'd wager that a higher percentage of people who use their public libraries are educated and intellectual than those who have a bookshelf in their home.

 

[CycloneWanderer]

Don't feel bad, I have 4 packed to the gills and my wife got me a kindle and has prohibited me from bringing any more physical books in the house due to simply storage space.

I was in the same boat. Getting married really cut down on shelf space and forced me to go digital. Now that I have, I'll probably never buy another paperback.

 

[Grand Mal]

Public libraries are for students and cheapskates. I have an office in my house in which I have my book collection, I think anybody who doesnt have at least one bookshelf in their house must be poorly educated and unintellectual.

How very intellectual of you.

 

[Slartibartfast]

How very intellectual of you.

I don't own a book shelf but on my good reads group I have over 500 books marked.

PoS should learn that you can't judge a book by its cover

 

[Grand Mal]

I don't own a book shelf but on my good reads group I have over 500 books marked.

PoS should learn that you can't judge a book by its cover

I've got the shelves full of hardcovers, apple-boxes full of paperbacks in the basement, hundreds of pounds of back issues of this and that and I still always put the library books on that end of that shelf- cuts 'way down on the overdue fines.

 

[Ray410]

I thought the book prices on Kindle were too high even when I mistakenly thought you did own the books.

You can get better prices than any E-book by buying used books, in excellent condition, on Amazon. And you own the book.

Amazon has contracts with used book dealers all over the United States to advertise and sell their used books at prices that are usually lower than the shipping cost. You have to work to pay over $4.00 total, including shipping, and generally you cannot even tell the book is used.

It's much different than your local used book dealer where the books have been read fifty times by kids eating peanut butter sandwiches.

 

[Slartibartfast]

I've got the shelves full of hardcovers, apple-boxes full of paperbacks in the basement, hundreds of pounds of back issues of this and that and I still always put the library books on that end of that shelf- cuts 'way down on the overdue fines.

Lol

I lost all my books in the divorce last year. I had three large bookshelves overflowing and then multiple boxes and then whatever is still at my parents house.

Good news is my older boy is devouring them so it was worth it

 

[Hard Truth]

That is why I distrust the whole movement to move computing, data and content to the "cloud." Unless you have a copy on your device in a format that can not expire you are only borrowing those cloud-based apps, data and content.

 

[Grand Mal]

Lol

I lost all my books in the divorce last year. I had three large bookshelves overflowing and then multiple boxes and then whatever is still at my parents house.

Good news is my older boy is devouring them so it was worth it

Might be a blessing in disguise. I'm a packrat anyway but I don't think I've ever been able to toss out a book. Hence the accumulation.

 

[Phoenix_M]

Don't feel bad, I have 4 packed to the gills and my wife got me a kindle and has prohibited me from bringing any more physical books in the house due to simply storage space.

Me too! We had a bookcase collapse and now we are down to only 11. And that's after getting rid of close to a thousand paperbacks. I'm only allowed to bring home new physical books if I donate them elsewhere when I am done with them. (And I STRONGLY recommend Books For Soldiers to anyone wanting to pass their old books along)

However the main reason we all have Kindles now is because my wife developed a rare lung disease. If you can't afford bookcases with glass fronts, books will collect a tremendous amount dust which was a problem. Then when she was in the hospital for an open lung biopsy, a new hardcover we had pre-ordered from our favorite author arrived. She was very excited because she was bored stiff, and very distressed when she discovered that she literally could not hold it up to read for more than 5 minutes.

Whatever else your issues with Kindles might be, they are much easier for someone with major medical problems to handle.

 

[polgara]

Gotta read the contract. You never owned the content, just the format. With amazon this takes the format of a reader, a digital file, and access to a library. So far Ive been perfectly satisfied with the arrangement.

You don't mind them "repossessing" something you have paid for, or am I misreading your post? What if you want to reread it at a later time?

Greetings, Jonny5. :2wave:

 

[Fiddytree]

Yeah, it happened before. I believe it was 1984 that was removed from customer's libraries.

 

[Fiddytree]

Public libraries are for students and cheapskates. I have an office in my house in which I have my book collection, I think anybody who doesnt have at least one bookshelf in their house must be poorly educated and unintellectual.

Public libraries might have texts that are ordinarily expensive to purchase used (let alone new). While I prefer to have my own copy, the reality is that with many subjects, it becomes inefficient to purchase them all.

 

[Fiddytree]

How very intellectual of you.

Heh, I'd argue otherwise. I doubt he tries to grab 20-30 books on a subject at a time for reference.

 

[PoS]

Public libraries might have texts that are ordinarily expensive to purchase used (let alone new). While I prefer to have my own copy, the reality is that with many subjects, it becomes inefficient to purchase them all.

I havent been to a public library in years. I do go to a lot of used bookstores to find rare and out of print books to add to my collection. I love to collect books.

 

[Fiddytree]

I havent been to a public library in years. I do go to a lot of used bookstores to find rare and out of print books to add to my collection. I love to collect books.

I visit various libraries regularly (including state document depositories). I personally do not travel to used book stores, because of the lack or uncertain collection of materials. I have used online used book storefronts to build up my own collection.

 

[PoS]

I visit various libraries regularly (including state document depositories). I personally do not travel to used book stores, because of the lack or uncertain collection of materials. I have used online used book storefronts to build up my own collection.

I find it fun going through shelves of old books, I could spend hours just doing that and stumbling onto books I never thought to find. I have this fantasy of finding the real Necronomicon or similar works like that. I was able to get a rare book like The Dune Encyclopedia and a very good price by just browsing at a used bookstore. :mrgreen:

 

[DDD]

See this is the reason I like paper and print. I buy it, I own it. No one can shut off my account or prevent me from opening up the book any time I want to re-read it, or give it to a friend to read, or re-sell it, or donate it to a library. E-books are nothing... it's vapor-ware just like any other software. If Amazon tomorrow decides they no longer want to support books they can shut off their servers and all the licensed books go away. Poof!

My paper books will be here as long as I am, or as long as I choose to hold them and keep them preserved. Over the years I have grown more anti-technology because of BS like this... I've got a few e-books but rarely if ever access them and they were the .99 cent deals. Everything in the electronic world we do not own.... that's hard to get your head around especially for people who have grown up with the internet and didn't know a world without it.

Plus you do not need to be concerned with batteries or any other dependency on electricity during daylight with ordinary books.

 

[spud_meister]

I have a few ebooks, but I much prefer dead trees. Plus bookshelves make great insulation.

 

[Your Star]

You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer - NBC News

Am I the only one that knew about this? I thought that, once you "bought" the books, you owned them. I'm a little frustrated about this. Once I bought my Kindle, I "repurchased" all my favorite books and put them on the Kindle, and then donated the books. So I have had to pay for them twice, which is bad, but now I don't own them?

That's pretty standard for any digital purchase. From iTunes, to Steam, to Amazon, etc. What we need is a comprehensive consumer digital rights bill to put digital purchases on par with physical purchases.

 

[ChezC3]

I knew there was a reason I only purchase $0.99 books for Kindle....

 

[Jango]

Yeah, not all that surprising but is still infuriating.

I "own" a Kindle Fire, which I use as a computer nowadays because "my" laptop overheats after 20 minutes. I recently complained on Facebook on the Kindle page about numerous problems with the device. I got prompt but unsatisfactory responses. The lady couldn't tell me how long the Kindle was beta-tested since I pointed out that it seems like the beta-testing process was shortened (or skipped entirely) to get the product on the shelf since we live in a release-then-fix technological society.

 

[jonny5]

The kindle is actually a pretty crappy device. The battery life is pretty ****ty, the memory is pretty much non-existent, the Silk Browser is spyware, you don't actually own anything you buy, you can't uninstall any of the apps that come with it, it doesn't have any ports except the mini usb port, it doesn't work with any wired devices, you can't customize what will display in the carousel and therefore if you want to keep it clean of everything you use you have to continually remove certain things to keep them off the carousel, the amazon app store is extremely limited compared to apple app store, you can't access the root without voiding the warranty, etc. In short, the kindle sucks.

Which kindle?

 

[jonny5]

That's pretty standard for any digital purchase. From iTunes, to Steam, to Amazon, etc. What we need is a comprehensive consumer digital rights bill to put digital purchases on par with physical purchases.

Yes, thats what we need, more govt of course. God forbid you just dont use it if you dont like it.

 

[jonny5]

You don't mind them "repossessing" something you have paid for, or am I misreading your post? What if you want to reread it at a later time?

Greetings, Jonny5. :2wave:

As I said, think of it like movies. You pay $12 to sit in a room and watch it once, and then its just a memory. I pay $3 for a ebook to read it wherever and whenever, and itll be there as long as the technology exists. Relatively, its a great deal no matter what the contract says.