All tagged ebooks

In Which I Help You Spend Your Ebook Settlement Refund

In Which I Help You Spend Your Ebook Settlement Refund

Sarah Moon
Links + Things

Did you get a nice surprise in your email inbox this morning? I was more than excited that I got a nice Amazon gift card thanks to the Ebook Settlement Refund.

Now I'm faced with the age-old book hoarder's dilemma: Do I maximize the gift card by strategically shopping sale items or do I splurge on some pricey picks?

So, I took one for the team and sifted through way too many pages of the bargain section on Amazon and think I'm going to go with quantity--there are just too many super-cheap options that I've had on my to-read list for ages. Plus! Apparently, we can use our refunds on both ebooks and print books, which is good news, since most of the deals I found are on the old fashioned variety. 

Here are some of my finds. These are all either books I've enjoyed, a CEFS contributor recommends, or I've heard from trusted reviewers are worth checking out.

Please double-check the pricing and format before clicking that buy button, okay? My blog software should update the price if it changes, but you can't trust technology!

Click on the cover image to visit the book's Amazon page.

Libraries and Book Discovery: A Reader's Experience

Libraries and Book Discovery: A Reader's Experience

Sarah Moon
Opinion

If Scott Turow's goal is cultivating an image as an epic jackass and simultaneously eroding reader support for the authors by way of the Author's Guild, he's been doing a bang-up job lately.  

In the past there's been many wackadoodle anti-ebook rants, but this week, Turow steps it up and takes on libraries. Yes, libraries. 

Apparently, Turow and the Authors Guild believe that libraries offering ebooks is yet another in a vast conspiracy against authors. (He also--perplexingly--accuses "search engines" of conspiring against authors as well; read Tech Dirt's analysis of that lunacy.)

Now many public libraries want to lend e-books, not simply to patrons who come in to download, but to anybody with a reading device, a library card and an Internet connection. In this new reality, the only incentive to buy, rather than borrow, an e-book is the fact that the lent copy vanishes after a couple of weeks. As a result, many publishers currently refuse to sell e-books to public libraries.

In his piece, Turow chooses to ignore a number of facts in favor of grand statements (hey, why let facts get in the way of a good argument?). But what struck me most was Turow's bizarre assumption that library users who can easily (and that's debateable for anyone who's used Overdrive) access ebooks won't buy books, that instead they'll simply click and download books "for free*"

Library ebook readers won't buy books?

That assertion has got to be the biggest, stinkiest load of crap I've read in a very long time--and I've spent a lot of time on the Internet.