Why I don't have a Kindle, Part 2
Despite lots of sewing and no book posts, I am in fact continuing to read. I "ran out" of books this week and went to Half-Price Books.
As I returned home with a stack of 9 new books, requiring me to find about 9 inches of bookshelf space, I wondered if maybe I should reconsider a Kindle. They are getting cheaper, and maybe that's something to add to a Christmas list. I decided to go onto Amazon and figure out what the same books would cost me.
Half-Price Books Total: $53.82 plus tax
Kindle Total: $59.15 plus tax
"Look," you say, "it was only a few dollars cheaper at the bookstore, plus you won't eventually have to have an extra bedroom to store all your books. A Kindle is definitely worth it!" Unfortunately, you would be wrong. The Kindle total is only cheaper because 3 of the 9 books weren't available as eBooks!
Between the expense of books and lack of availability, there's no justifying a Kindle for me yet. $5.98 vs. $9.86 per book means a 65% premium for eBooks. That's a bit too much for me to swallow.
As I returned home with a stack of 9 new books, requiring me to find about 9 inches of bookshelf space, I wondered if maybe I should reconsider a Kindle. They are getting cheaper, and maybe that's something to add to a Christmas list. I decided to go onto Amazon and figure out what the same books would cost me.
Half-Price Books Total: $53.82 plus tax
Kindle Total: $59.15 plus tax
"Look," you say, "it was only a few dollars cheaper at the bookstore, plus you won't eventually have to have an extra bedroom to store all your books. A Kindle is definitely worth it!" Unfortunately, you would be wrong. The Kindle total is only cheaper because 3 of the 9 books weren't available as eBooks!
Between the expense of books and lack of availability, there's no justifying a Kindle for me yet. $5.98 vs. $9.86 per book means a 65% premium for eBooks. That's a bit too much for me to swallow.
Labels: kindle, used books
posted by Darci at
4:42 PM
3 Comments:
This is interesting. I still am kindleness too.
And BOOKS are so pretty on my bookshelf.
My question is, how many of the "unavailable" books did you actually enter Half Price Books wanting to read, and how many were bargain impulse buys?
I do not have a Kindle, nor do I plan to get one soon, but I still think it seems like a good idea for a voracious reader like you. And what about all the free books? e.g. anything by Dickens, Austen, etc.? That's gotta count for something!
Victoria - Great point. I do owe a lot of my "decor" to books at this point. I once spent an afternoon deciding which books were going to get stacked on which shelves and in what order. I had to have a good balance and mix of size, color, and content.
Hilary - If I read more classics and new release best sellers, a Kindle would be a fantastic deal. However, eBooks aren't available for a lot of older-but-not-massively-popular books as well as from some authors. In this case 1 unavailable book was an impulse, 1 was a book I was specifically seeking today, and the other was a book I've picked up many times and finally bought today, so a half-impulse.
Also, despite my concerns about the economics, I would LOVE to have a Kindle and will almost certainly buy an e-reader eventually. When my bookshelves collapse I will be singing a different tune.
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