I haven’t done a post about my Kindle experience yet, well I have but I’m not ready to published it yet. The short version is: I like it. The tricky thing about owning one has been deciding whether to buy the electronic version of a book or the paper one.

The decision is easy for some books. Technical books, TV tie-ins, and the occasional non-fiction are all guaranteed Kindle buys. These are books I’ll either only read once, become outdated after a year or three, and/or are books that I’ll want to makes notes in and be able to search easily.

Fiction books are more difficult for me to decide on. There are some series that are no-brainers, like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series. These are also books that I get in hardback if possible because they’ll last longer.

Other books aren’t as easy though. For instance, I love Glen Cook’s Garrett, P.I. series. I discovered the fantasy noir series a few years ago and have working on collecting the entire series. Gilded Latten Bones was recently released and I was standing in the bookstore yesterday trying to decide if I should buy it or go out to the parking lot and buy it on my Kindle or do both.

I am really really really resisting buying both editions of any book, even though I did make or exception to that rule recently (that’s a post for later though).

The bookstore copy will go on my shelf when I’m done and, unless there’s a fire or burglary, I know I’ll be able to take it down and read it again five or ten or more years from now. The Kindle copy won’t contribute to the epic clutter of my office or the overloading of my bookshelves, and it’s easier to sneak reading time in at the office too, since I can read on my phone or laptop in addition to the Kindle itself.

In the end, I decided to get the dead trees and am continuing to resist urges to go ahead with the Kindle version as well. Besides trying to figure out which location in the Kindle matches up to whatever page I’m on would be a pain. My decision came down to the fact that besides reading them, I’m also collecting them and I don’t want to have a gap in the series on my shelf.

Still Buying Dead Trees
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6 thoughts on “Still Buying Dead Trees

  • November 19, 2010 at 4:22 pm
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    I’ve not purchased any electronic media yet for my ipod Touch because I just can’t give up the feel of a good book. There is just something about turning page after page and dog earing a corner when you head to bed.

    Sure eventually I’ll have to bow down to the electronic media delivery of books and magazines, but it will be far into the future I hope. lol

    • November 20, 2010 at 4:52 pm
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      I do enjoy the analog experience too, but Kindle reading also provides an interesting experience. I get a very Trek-like vibe reading on it.

  • November 19, 2010 at 9:30 pm
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    I think if I’d been collecting hard copy books for a while, I’d feel obligated to continue buying dead tree version books, especially if they are sequels to a series and I have the previous books in that format. In fact, that’s the only reason I still pick up the odd hard copy book or two these days. I’d buy more if I didn’t clear out my whole inventory of books during my last big move a few years back. The other thing is, I purchase most of my ebooks in epub at other vendors and not always from Amazon. I don’t want to depend completely on them as a source to keep my entire archive of ebooks.

    • November 20, 2010 at 4:56 pm
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      Where are you buying most of your stuff from? What I have been buying, I’ve been getting from Amazon. I like that the Amazon purchases will sync between the Kindle device and software on other platforms, but the DRM is a huge downside.

      I have so much stuff, I’m glad I don’t move as much as you do.

      • November 21, 2010 at 2:07 am
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        I get my stuff from all over, really, whatever I can find. Off the top of my head, places like Fictionwise and booksonboard are just a couple of sites I seem to remember that offer a pretty big selection of non-DRM books, or they will let you select as many formats to download once you’ve purchased the book, depending on what e-reader you use. For a lot of books I keep a mobi/prc version and an epub version, for example, because I read on the ipod and android a lot on top of my Kindle. I do still buy from Amazon though, usually when I’m feeling really lazy and don’t feel like scouring the internet or if there’s a new book I desperately want to read right away. Plus the ability to sync between all my devices is really nice…

  • November 22, 2010 at 12:23 am
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    I get my Nook Color Monday! Can’t wait. This is my first jump into the digital book scene. They say you read faster on them. We shall see! I like to collect OLD books, especially anything to do with Robert E. Howard.

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