what I really miss is the browsing, The wandering up and down the aisles, checking out new genres, new covers, new authors. It isn't as easy on the Kindle. Oh, they offer suggestions for new stories computer generated by the stories you've already bought, but it just isn't the same.
Sometimes I want to read something completely different.
That was how I 'discovered' Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden. I picked up White Night, the seventh or eighth in the series and enjoyed it. I then purchased the preceeding books and anxiously await the next one. I made the mistake of loaning the first three books to a friend, only never to see them again. Yes, I emphatically stated that I wanted them back. After a while, I gave up asking for them.
NEVER loan a book that is a 'keeper'. You will never see it again. Jus' Sayin'.
There's something magical about the smell of books. Not the dusty, musty old books, but the clean, "new car" smell of paper and ink of a paperback. Randomly picking up a title and reading the blurb on the back, or opening it up to read the snippet inside the front cover, or the first page or two.
Or for those of you who are like me . . . checking out the ending. I truly miss flipping to the last page to see if the hero and heroine managed to get together in a romance. Yes, I know that's how the story is supposed to end, but sometimes I want to make sure it's going to happen! This doesn't ruin the story for me, but it confirms why I want to spend the time reading their journey.
The Kindle allows for this function, but it isn't the same.
It's tough these days for many bookstores to survive. Even the big name stores are having a tough time getting merchandise to appeal to the masses. Our local Barnes and Nobel store has started offering toys for all ages along with the obligatory coffee shop. This is a huge store, but it probably offers only 5% of all the books offered on the Kindle. They simply can't house that many books. So they have to be picky about what books they showcase.
Which is why they lean toward the guaranteed sellers, the big name authors. Which is why publishers pay big money for their books to be 'featured' in one of those cardboard thingies--sorry, I forgot the name of those things! Every now and then, I've stumbled across one of my recently published author friends. It's rare, but it happens. Sometimes if an author has only a few books that sold 'okay', but hasn't cranked out more than one a year, they will disappear from the shelves.
Oh, many times the store says they'll order a book for you, but it's easier just to go on Amazon and do it yourself, plus you get it delivered to your door. Or you spend ten seconds to upload it to your Kindle.
I've never willing purchased a hardback fiction book. I could never justify the cost, though there are a few of them in my saved books, namely a couple of the later Harry Potter books. At the time that I bought them, they were just as cheap as a paperback book at a Sam's Club, so I bought them. Personally, I don't see how a publisher can make money on a fictional hardback. I'm sure they do make their money back, but the overhead is so much higher than an electronic book.
So the question becomes . . .
How do you discover new authors on your Kindle? Is there a trick that I just haven't figured out?
Curious minds want to know.
Later, Peeps!
I don't have a Kindle but I have the app on my iPad. There have only been a few I've purchased. I have a hard time reading. There is something about holding a book.
ReplyDeleteAnd, we have Half Price Books here, so hardbacks can be found for $1.
I love that I can store so many books on the Kindle--they occupy so much less space than the alternative. But I wish they would update the app so I can totally erase some of the books that I downloaded. It 'removes' them, but you can still upload them.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I like the added feature that it will tell you that you downloaded a particular book already. That saved me some $$.
I'd much rather read fiction on a Kindle than in paper, though reference/research books are a whole other story. I like to be able to flag the pages and mark those up.
ReplyDeleteI find new authors by going through the bestselling lists, both paid and free. If it's paid and the story doesn't prompt me to buy it but does sound interesting, I download the sample. I have to say, I've only gone back and bought maybe 3 or 4 after reading the samples. Apparently, the book's got to be tantalizing enough to tempt me from the get-go.
I haven't done it, but I understand that if you go into your account on amazon.com, you can delete stuff from your archives. Not as easy as doing it from the app, but it can be done.
I was reading paper for the Reader's Choice contest, which brought out the nostalgia in me. I probably would look for books in the bookstores, but then buy them for my Kindle. . . unless they are cheaper in paper, which is sad as its happened numerous times.
ReplyDelete