…and Kobo, because I’ve used both. For the record, I like my Kindle better (this is comparing the Kindle PaperWhite to a fairly basic, nomal-sized Kobo). I like the back-light, I like the screen set-up, and I definitely prefer the store, which has a greater selection and cheaper books.
New toy!
No, I’m not a fan of Kindle exclusive content and all of that, but whatever floats your boat. You just go on with your bad selves, author-publisher types.
What I’m going to do here is link to a few books I’ve bought and/or read recently, and invite you all to do the same. Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords, author sites, etc. Link to what you’ve bought, what you’ve recently enjoyed, or your own e-books you’ve got on sale in the comments. Gimme a blurb, gimme a price, gimme your thoughts, gimme a link.
DO MY WORK FOR ME, MINIONS.
The Butterfly Storm (Kate Frost, contemporay romance) <– currently reading
Under the Empyrean Sky (Chuck Wendig, Dystopian YA/Cornpunk) <– read, LOVED
Emergence (KL Schwengel, Fantasy) <– beta read, loved, still need to read finished product
Siren’s Secret (Debbie Hurst, Romance avec mermaids) <– just started
Unteachable (Leah Raeder, NA Contemporary Romance) <– have not read
Blackbirds (Chuck Wendig, contemporary cussing) <– have not read
The Crimson League (Victoria Grefer, Fantasy) <– have not read
…and there’s the problem. I could list thirty more books, all “have not read.” See, I get these e-mails with free and cheap e-books, and I grab them if they look good.
And then I never find time to read them. I’m looking through my Kindle library and I don’t remember buying half of the books I see there. Don’t remember what they’re about, or why I bought them, so I’m in no rush to open them, read them, or review them*. Not that my paperback shelf is better, thanks to 40% off sales at Walmart and the secondhand book store, but the Kindle definitely provides more temptation and more opportunity to forget what I bought.
How do you all deal with that? Do you set reading goals? Refuse to buy more books until you get the TBR pile down a bit? Or are you happy to let your library grow unchecked, not worrying whether you’ll ever get to reading a book you got for free or paid very little for, just happy in the knowledge that there’s a library there to browse when you want it?
All of this kind of makes me understand how many books there really are out there (as in, 600,000+ published last year alone).
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the DNF (Did Not Finish) ones…
So go ahead. Tell me what you’ve picked up recently, what’s good, what you’re selling, and how you deal with your reading list. Then head over to the A-Z Challenge list and see what someone else is up to!
—
*Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve read a single book I’ve got for free. Hmm.
disregard the prologue 
April 12th, 2014 at 10:27 am
Huh. Interestingly enough, I buy way less e-books that I proceed to forget than I ever bought never-to-be-read paperbacks. Maybe because I can’t see all those pretties lined up on a shelf, so it’s less of a “must buy to have and marvel at” kind of thing, and more of a “must buy to read” thing.
One trilogy I read a while ago and loves was Under the Never Sky and its sequels by Veronica Rossi. I’ve read way too many YA dystopian “romance” novels lately that were just meh (and with horribly artificial relationships), but that one was great. There are some clichés to be found (always are), but they pretty much drown in a clever plot and awesome characters.
That’d be the Amazon page for the first one: http://www.amazon.com/Under-Never-Sky-Veronica-Rossi-ebook/dp/B0068PHX56/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1397306376
April 12th, 2014 at 10:28 am
Thanks for commenting! That sounds like an interesting one.
April 12th, 2014 at 10:50 am
Interestingly enough, I was just telling one of my two “Besties” yesterday that I am starved for a good read. I have not lost myself in a book since we moved. I have read a good deal of stuff I need to, but nothing that I just “want” to….I lie. I read for and hour and a half on the plane to Ontario last month. I have “The Highlander” waiting, and I am sure I’ll enjoy it as my passion when I read is Historical Fiction. My favourites are the Matthew Bartholomew series by Susanna Gregory, and the Matthew Shardlake series by CJ Sansom. And mysteries? Anne Perry and Agatha Christie please! I can’t deal with time travel well…the whole “can I go back and change my history” drives me insane if it is the subject of the whole novel. I have loved reading since I can remember and my Kobo is full….I must get back to it ….after Easter! As far as dealing with the list? Give me a good series to read and the trouble is getting myself back to THIS world to deal with this life! lol
April 12th, 2014 at 1:31 pm
I feel slightly guilty about all the books I’ve got on my Kindle which I haven’t read. Guilty because I’ve spent a bit of money on them (generally not much) and haven’t read them yet. But as you put it so well, they’re there for when I get round to reading them. Maybe a rainy day… And of course at least they’re not clogging up my bookshelves! 🙂
April 12th, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Exactly. I’m not worried about the day when I have to clean out my Kindle “shelves” and feel guilty about everything I haven’t read, but it happens on my real shelves. I just have NO space for books!
April 12th, 2014 at 1:36 pm
I know the feeling well! My shelves were heaving till I had a clear out of a load of books. But now they’re starting to fill up again lol.
April 12th, 2014 at 1:37 pm
That said, I have all of my homesteading/home repair/raising chickens/whatever books in paper copy instead of Kindle, in case the zombie apocalypse cuts power supplies. That’s just good sense. 😀
April 12th, 2014 at 1:42 pm
Well we must have had a zombie apocalypse about half a dozen times in the last few years – the amount of times the power’s gone! :-p
April 12th, 2014 at 2:04 pm
Here, too. And the zombies must bring storms, because there’s a huge correlation there. 🙂
April 12th, 2014 at 4:23 pm
😀
April 12th, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Great minds think alike, but I like your post on Kindle better 🙂 I also download free books all the time, so many that I’ve lost count of them. I joined several reading challenges this year (classics, series, etc.) to help whittle down my TBR list, but at the rate I download books I don’t know that it will ever be in the double digits again.
April 12th, 2014 at 6:14 pm
Yeah, I’m trying for a book a week and it’s just not happening. I think I’m going to have to settle fr being happy that I have a whole library of books that I thought looked interesting at some point, and try to remember to take the Kindle with me more often when I go out.