The Flagship store at NorthWest Hwy just east of Central Expressway is a place of joy and awe for me.
If you have never been there: it’s about the size of a Walmart, perhaps? And entirely filled with temptation.
I’m not allowed to go there very often.
Because I Will Not Act Like A Responsible Person there and control my spending.
They are open rather late, till 11pm, in case that helps to get you there. They also have some kinda coffee and bake shop on premises, for extra energy.
Ands they are not very far from the 24-hour Cafe Brazil on the service road of Central Expressway, across from SMU, in case you need more serious sustenance.
Half Price Books
5803 E Northwest Hwy,
Dallas, TX 75231
@f00l I think I’ve been to that Cafe Brazil - I go to one of the smaller ones in Irving, which is probably why it’s not as well-stocked. I’ll have to check that one out!
Also check the other HBP locations. Simmer if the newer ones and suburban ones are kinda generic.
The older ones can have their own atmospheres.
There is one on Preston across from Valley View Mall that usually has good and interesting things.
You work, I presume, in Carrollton?
There are a few nice HPB stores in Plano. I like the older one (west of Central) slightly better. As they said age they acquire more interesting stuff and more dedicated buyers and sellers.
But I think there is a good one near Preston in Plano also.
And a good one in Frisco, with a kinda “newish” flavor. It’s off Preston (again!), This time in that largish maze of small shops off 121.
You may have to use your GPS to find it in the maze.
There is some sort of well-known great used book store in Denton if you ever go there for the music. Forget the name. Near downtown and the universities somewhere.
@woodhouse I miss our HPB’s first few years; we found a lot of great books there, historical, sci fi, metalworking… we sold a few older and interesting books to them too. unfortunately they went downhill pretty badly. And now they’re gone.
We sold a few books to them early one but they got so lowball on everything we gave up.
@duodec@f00l I work near enough to a Half Price (not in TX) that people will come in occasionally and conversationally complain about their offer from HPB and I always tell them that if they itemize their tax deductions they’re probably better off donating their books.
The thing is that HPB makes their money on volume and as far as I can tell they’re not interested in interesting books as much as popular mass market paperbacks. The other thing is that there may only be one or two books out of a bunch that they actually want, and the rest will go directly into the recycling bin behind the store (which is a paradise of crap and why I have multiple Rod McKuen books in my car).
When I visit HPB I head straight for my interests.
Certain fantasy and mystery writers, esp if not available in e-book format.
After-Doyle Sherlock Holmes pastiches.
Atlases and ref books.
Children’s picture books. Caldecott stuff.
Anything that catches my eye.
Then I hit the vintage and collectibles section. I look at everything I have time for. I esp love vintage kid’s books.
If it’s expensive, I compare online prices.
And I spend too much. Somehow or other.
Around here (DFW), I don’t know whether they dump books as trash or recycling. But the buyers have told me that they sell a lot of “books by the yard” to decorators and to people who “dress” empty for-sale houses, and they donate frequently to hospitals, group homes, shelters, nursing and care facilities, etc.
Of what people bring in to offer, they only have a purchasing market for a fairly small percentage of items.
@duodec Eh, I worked at the closest library for many years and once got a grocery bag full of John Dickson Carr paperbacks because they were too old and beat up to be interesting/put out on the sale shelf (greatest day of my life? depressingly possible!). I don’t think the library is interested in storing a bunch of not particularly valuable books. I’m not even sure if thrift shops would want to deal with the volume. Honestly, it’s nice the books are even being recycled.
@f00l I take a slightly different route past the collectibles case (for tarot decks) to vintage/old and interesting, scoot around to New Age/occult/folklore, then to fantasy/sci fi to check for The Shadow of the Torturer (it’s never there) and horror to check for any Robert Aickman. Then I either go straight to clearance or run through sheet music or crochet first.
I have been known to eye the occasional vintage children’s book.
Which fantasy and mystery writers do you seek, if it’s not too personal?
@mossygreen I didn’t say to donate to the library, but to the ‘Friends of the Library’. Maybe thats not a general thing, but in both Las Vegas and my current suburban Chicago area, the main branch of each town seems to have one. They take in book donations year round. I expect the library proper cherry-picks some for its shelves but nearly all of it is stored and then sold in mass used book sales several times a year.
The money supports the library; the FOTL are, at least here, volunteers who get the perk of being able to read lots of donated books, and (maybe) getting a little early access to the book sales when they happen (I know they don’t get a discount here).
Better than a recycling bin, and that remains an option for truly unsellable stuff.
@duodec True! I don’t think you’re wrong, but maybe, like, the Little City book sale would be better because of the huge volume of books? Seriously, they get a lot of books.
Suburban Chicago, huh? So, uh, if I said I work in an area where I don’t think the FOTL would think their clientele would take warmly to HPB leftovers could you guess where? [Please don’t.]
Fantasy. Not up to date at all
JRRT, GRRM, Rowling, Robert Jordan, Harry Dresden books
Mean to do Name if the Wind.
Way out of it with fantasy.
Mystery.
So many over the years. Can’t remember them all. Can’t remember more than a few if my favs
I like Hillerman a lot.
Louise Penny
The great Golden Age writers.
Lightweight pleasant stuff like Royal Spyness and McCall Smith.
PD James
S Holmes of course.
A bunch of the Scandinavian writers.
Raymond Chandler
Ed McBain
Elmore Leonard
John D MacDonald
Arthur Upfield
James Lee Burke
The Moonstone
Carl Hiasson
Martin Cruz Smith
Margaret Truman
Mike Lawson
Charles McCarry
Crispin
A bunch of stuff I havent gotten to yet.
I am forgetting a bunch. There are so many good ones.
If it’s halfway decent I’ll read it.
And
The incomparable John Le Carre
/image spy who came in from the cold
This is all super incomplete.
So many more good ones that don’t come to mind at the moment.
@f00l@mossygreen Turns out yesterday through Sunday was the annual FOTL holiday sale.
I found three worth picking up. “Something of Value” by Robert Ruark, and two volumes of Horatio Hornblower novels; I loved the few Ruark books I read before but this one was hard to find for a while and I had stopped trying. And Hornblower kept coming up again and again as recommendations from my acquaintences with military service or connections.
All three hardcovers in very good condition (but no dustcovers), $10.
@f00l My current fantasy interests are mainly a vague plan to reread everything by Tanith Lee in chronological order and maybe one day finally read the Mythago Wood series (read the short story the author turned into a novel back in the '80’s, I think, and then was excited to see the novel sometime in the '90’s and now it’s way later so I’m clearly in no rush), so your list seems reasonably up-to-date to me. I guess I’ll also read any Arthurian legend/pastiche that comes down the pike.
Oh wait, I’m totally psyched that Philip Pullman finally published another book, so it’s probably time to reread the His Dark Materials trilogy. Did you ever read his Sally Lockwood series? The first book is essentially The Moonstone with a teenage girl detective.
As for mysteries, I can’t stop rereading Dorothy L. Sayers and John Dickson Carr.
@duodec Curses! I have to devote more time to FOTL book sales. I have a short list of books I want to own which are quite expensive online. I mean, sure I never finished Conjuring Up Philip, but I don’t want to spend approximately $100 to find out how it ends. I mean, I know how it ends because it’s a non-fiction book about a Canadian psychic research group who decided to see if they could manifest real phenomena around a fake ghost they made up, and they say they did, and that’s the book. BUT WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE?! All I want is a withdrawn library copy.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand: you did well at the sale! Congratulations on your haul.
@ruouttaurmind i generally avoid Dean Koontz and Stephen King movies bc they are such a let down after the books. I made the mistake of giving Odd Thomas a chance, particularly after how good Anton Yelchin was in Star Trek. Nope, back to avoiding those movies.
@mollama I haven’t read any of the Odd Thomas books. I watched the movie on a miserable plane ride from London to Detroit, and I didn’t hate it. But then maybe that’s mostly because it distracted me from the excruciating ride?
I’ve only seen the TV miniseries Stephen King movies, and, well… ya. Although I did see Creepshow in the theater when I was a nipper (6th grade, sneaked in with friends after buying tickets for ET). I did enjoy that quite a bit. Of course I was 10 at the time, so…
@ruouttaurmind I just hit the teenage kissy-face part. Did they let that Twilight lady guest write a chapter? I guess it’s required in young adult books.
@f00l Here’s mine, anyways. http://372pages.com/
Mike Nelson (Formerly of MST3K and currently of Rifftrax) and one of his senior writers Conor Lastowka did a “book club” podcast of Ready player one. It was immensely entertaining. They wrapped it up a few weeks back but are planning on continuing with the author’s next book at some point
I just poke around for podcasts. See the recs in iTunes etc. Try them. See what I wanna make time for as a priority.
Lately I’ve done a bunch of news and political stuff. Mostly the big names.
And one for fun:
better off undead.
Which name changed to
Worst Podcast Ever.
There are some really good ones out there
@CaptAmehrican mentioned some history podcasts. And other people have comes up with some.
I’ll try to dig up the links and put them here.
I don’t do much reading if blogs. Lack if time.
If I were going to read blogs I might start with
The Bloggess
Daring Fireball?
Other blog recs welcome (any topic!) since I’m so out of the loop.
We’ve also had book and podcast discussions in the past. I’ll try to dig up those links.
Re podcasts
What radio/audio programs do you like?
What are your interests?
There are so many good podcasts that narrowing it down is the problem.
I’ve yet to listen, but a lot if people really like something called
"The Moth"
I think it’s personal stories from many people. Not sure?
TedTalks is available thru podcasts.
Many well-known media outlets
Slate, Salon, HuffPost, Vice Media, NYT, Washington Post, the New Yorker, NPR, etc, have good and intelligent podcasts in many areas far beyond standard news and politics.
Jazz. Tech. Science. Language. Philosophy. Animation.
Whatever you want.
There are also good ones in the fitness/health/finances/motivation/life-hacking areas.
I haven’t really looked around yet that much.
There is just so much good stuff.
If you have Amazon prime check out the included “Audible Channels”
I haven’t done that much yet. But good stuff there.
@f00l My wife loves true crime murder podcasts. Specifically, long ones that follow the same case throughout a season. She says that every murder podcast that comes out goes to #1 on the charts, but i suspect that’s a chart iTunes has customized for her as a murder podcast junkie and not necessarily the iTunes top podcasts chart.
@f00l we both enjoyed the first Serial. The second with Bowe Bergdahl we couldn’t get into, but that seems to be a widespread response. S-Town was also enjoyable.
Since then she has gone on a deep dive into true crime podcasts that i didn’t follow her on. I think Serial is just about the gold standard for what she would like, a long form podcast with a developing story as it goes if you follow it in real time. It seems a lot of these podcasts originate in Georgia for some reason, and some have brought attention to cases leading to arrests or renewed investigations.
My wife does these deep dives regularly. At one point she had watched damn near every horror movie on Netflix, well into the ones with a one star rating. Some of those were laughably bad.
And the content.
Well, no. Not the content in itself so much, as I lack the time to focuse on those areas.
Rather, the clean, careful, creative engineer’s thinking habits. They are beautiful.
Which is lovely, in its way. He thinks about math as a mathematical engineer, or an engineering mathematician.
Not as a theoretical mathematician per se.
And that’s fine. Those cannot replicate each other’s critical utilities and scope at professional levels, anymore than a practicing pediatrician and a cardiac surgeon can easily sub for one another.
Both immersive mental habituations are necessary to our species, or we would be less than we are, let alone hope to be.
I care less about his context and content, more about his mind.
@f00l Waiting for a 2-fer. I have plenty of books queued up in the pipe, so I won’t run out of material anytime soon. I have patience and luxury of time on my side.
Amazon is remaking ‘Lord of the Rings’ as a series because everyone wants their own 'Game of Thrones’
Who says originality is dead?
The rumors are true: Amazon Studios is moving ahead with a small-screen adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy series The Lord of the Rings, despite the fact that Peter Jackson’s film trilogy was pretty much perfect and a remake is wholly unnecessary. (We won’t speak of The Hobbit franchise.)
Amazon has acquired global television rights to the series and given it a multi-season commitment, which will “explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring,” according to a company release, implying that the show may weave in aspects of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, since that story involves a number of characters who later reappear in Lord of the Rings.
“The Lord of the Rings is a cultural phenomenon that has captured the imagination of generations of fans through literature and the big screen,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Scripted Series at Amazon Studios. “We are honored to be working with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line on this exciting collaboration for television and are thrilled to be taking The Lord of the Rings fans on a new epic journey in Middle Earth.”
“We are delighted that Amazon, with its longstanding commitment to literature, is the home of the first-ever multi-season television series for The Lord of the Rings,” said Matt Galsor, a representative for the Tolkien Estate and Trust and HarperCollins. “Sharon and the team at Amazon Studios have exceptional ideas to bring to the screen previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings.”
The deal also includes an option for a spinoff, which fans have speculated could potentially utilize storylines from The Silmarillion, a collection of tales which explore the years before The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings took place.
Hope they don’t screw it up.
If only they could get PJ to show-run the entire thing in NZ.
@f00l I’m not sure how I feel about this. If they’re doing different storylines, that’s one thing… But leave LOTR out of it. I didn’t mind the hobbit, but it gave me:
/giphy Thorin Oakenshield
@ruouttaurmind Whereas for me the ‘cartoony’ shit Jackson put in the movie undermined it pretty badly. I’ll take the book any day.
If LOTR gets redone with some of the cartoony shit left out (Legolas and the oliphant, dwarf tossing, “suspension of disbelief destroying” crap like that), then maybe it will be worth it.
Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, neutral, but it would be nice to have the scene where they pick up the Blades of Westerness (Barrow Blades), forged by the men of Númenor; their presence and capabilities were part of the story that Jackson just smurfed around.
@duodec - I completely agree, but you have to admit the Jackson film version had great scenery. And it was certainly better than the Ralph Bakshi and Rankin-Bass versions.
@aetris Scenery and special effects matter but the story, and respecting the characters, the world, and the author/creator also matter. This page says it better than I could (but 'ware the pop up ads): Here
@duodec - Again, I’m not disagreeing, but a long time ago I figured out the truth of what @f001 said elsewhere, that Hollywood’s advice to authors is 'throw your work over the wall, we’ll throw the money back, then you just WALK AWAY."
I have tremendous respect for all the artistry that went into the Jackson films, and the script… could have been worse.
If I’ve learned anything from subscribing to NetFlix, it’s that films can be worse. Much, much worse. Even Nicholas Cage films…
I have an idea for a book about a deal-of-the-day web site community. I’d like to get an advance so I can develop this idea. Can I get a Book Deal Here for that?
@sligett My publishing company will back you on this project. I’ll forward your advance post haste in the sums of 4,000,000 millions us dollar. You need simply only to prove your bank account detail number to me
Don’t forget to use your B&N ebook settlement credit. I went to a store, found a decorating magazine about English Style that I’m going to regret, and my online credit paid for most of it. They can scan the barcode in your email.
@f00l from a B&N email dated 20 Oct. An explanation:
’…You previously received an email informing you that you have a new credit in your Barnes & Noble account as a result of a redistribution of the Apple Settlement. We’re happy to let you know that your settlement credit for $x.xx is now in your Barnes & Noble account and ready to spend.
You can use your credit toward books, eBooks, and more in any of our channels – online at barnesandnoble.com, on NOOK®, or in stores. This new credit can also be used in combination with any remaining activated credit from the previous Apple settlement distribution.’
I recently joined a weekly email list that lets me know about free romance & erotica ebooks on Amazon. They are poorly written, but they’re free. I even discovered a new fetish I didn’t know I was into!
Four more free for at least today. Remember click the buy now button after making sure it says, Kindle Price: $0.00. The read for free button will try to sell you Kindleunlimited.
@f00l Is the 20 years of Audible thing working for you? I get a blank page and it was supposed to be something free. Maybe they realized I’m not a real member.
We will post any free ones. Someone will get to it.
If you wanna be sure not to miss, create an account at Slickdeals. Then set an alert/search for “audible”. Turn on website/app alerts. Setup “Notify in-app” or whatever, as opposed to email.
Load the app. Log in.
Never miss another notable audible deal.
The Kindle alerts (should you do one) are constant.
@sammydog01 I’ve found at least a couple dozen of the daily deals compelling enough to buy, and probably only 5 or 6 have been stinkers. A few have been downright exceptional.
@sammydog01 Just finished I am Legend. Another rare example of “The movie was better than the book.” The book had much potential, but it seemed like the writer just sort of lost motivation and ended prematurely.
FYI: I’ve found a few of these sale books with the “Get this audiobook for $1.99 when you purchase the Kindle version”, with a few of the Kindle versions being a buck or two, or FREE. So be sure to check for that before springing a fiver on the audiobook only.
And Nocturnal, 22 hours. 23 cents an hour. Maybe I’m going about the book buying thing the wrong way- though it is how I got into Clavell novels back in the day and that worked out well for me.
@sammydog01 I’m with you. I don’t find much value in $5 for a 7 hour listen. I start with “what provides the most listen time” then start at the longest books and work my way down until I find something at least a little interesting.
I’ve purchased books I only found a little interesting based on the publisher’s synopsis and been quite pleasantly surprised how captivating or entertaining the book turned out to be. Though I have had a couple that turned out to be a struggle to get through (The Complete Sherlock Holmes for example at over 58 hours!).
This is what I told myself when I paused Melville. Now, I just admit defeat. His writing style was apropos for the era, but excruciating to listen to for long.
The deal always goes live between about 12:15am and 12:30am Pacifc Time each day.
The deal always ends at midnight Pacific time.
(One in a while there is no link on the home page to the daily deal.)
Or you can call them and ask. Or sign up for daily deal emails.
If you miss one you really wanted, I’ve had good luck calling them next day and getting them to give me the deal price on the book deal I missed. This does not always work. But usually.
(I am good costumer, so …)
Audible’s Treat Yourself Sale (ongoing, thru midnight Pacific Time, Nov 28th), seems to have added about 100 more books to the $4.95 list today.
Perhaps as Cyber Monday promise?
I like https://www.smashwords.com
for ereads. Some free, lots cheap. Quality varies, but some of it is quite good. I recommend Curveball and Legion of Nothing
And I didn’t notice anyone mention the Gutenberg Project. It’s amazing the obscure but interesting things you can find there. I’m on book 2 of 5 for the Scarlet Pimpernel series. Have read lots of detective noir, and more than just a few Golden Age sci-fi.
Some website called Christian Audio has the Lord of the Rings trilogy for $15. It looks like the same one Amazon has- Rob Inglis. I’m trying to figure out if it will play on my fire.
Meant to mention this offer. They did the same thing last year for this week.
That one is basic mp3 files, I think.
This is a reputable place to purchase.
The best way to play it would prob be on an Android phone, using an audiobook player.
Yeah these will play on the fire, if you want. I don’t know what default app the fire would try to use to open them. I think you can choose the app tho?
I don’t know what alt audiobook players are in the Amazon app store, but it’s pretty easy to put google play onto a fire tablet. Then you have a great choice of players.
I use Smart Audiobook Player, I think it’s called. My friend who listens constantly uses another one. I’ll ask.
One possible diff in buying here:.
I think you get a 1 time download,. So you have to archive copies of the files and not lose them. (Unlike audible or similar, where you can redownload what you own just whenever.)
not yet checked this out to see if I am correct about this store and purchases there.
@f00l No other Tolkien books but they had a C S Lewis bundle. The faqs said 12 downloads and you can call them and ask for more. They have a library feature now. They also have monthly free downloads if you like that type of book.
I can’t get my fires to show up on my computer when I plug them in. I’m still working on it.
FWIW, id play them on my Android phone if I used one.
iOS, it can be done. Either using iTunes (computer iTunes sync); be so late sure to right click on the books in iTunes and labeled then as Auduobooks - is a bit friendlier that way)
(Have done this on an iPod classic, never an iOS device.)
Or just dl the files to iOS phone. Then open in something like Bookmobile. (Works. Playing them is kind of a pita).
Perhaps you can play mp3 files in the iOS audible app. I never figured out how to.
one good way to play these is to purchase an older android phone (unactivated) and install a good Audiobook player. Something like an S3. Or an older Nexus. Cheapie.
As long as you don’t install other stuff in the phone, it ought to work ok.
@f00l I was keeping an eye on the BF deals for no contract phones on the cheap with the intention of making one a dedicated Audible player for the car. Best Buy had something under ten bucks, but it was in-store only and I wasn’t about to go face the crowds.
@f00l Meh. I had a S3 for a very short time. I hated TouchWIZ so much I replaced the phone in a matter of a couple months.
I prefer a phone with a removable battery (plan to use it with the battery removed), and with a newer OS so I won’t run into issues with software compatibility, but frankly I’ll settle for anything in the $10 to $20 range. As long as it has Bluetooth and a microSD slot, nothing else really matters.
@f00l I tried and failed to load google play on my fire but found an app that looks good. Then I tried all the cables in my drawer and found one that worked. So I’m set with LOTR and will be able to load my new e-gobooks.
My son gives me a hard time about this but I use different devices for different things.
My phone is for phone stuff, Pokémon Go, and that stupid butterfly game galmaegi got me hooked on. (Curse you galmaegi.)
My blue Fire has a scratched screen so it’s for music and audiobooks. It takes a beating in the car.
My orange fire is for videos.
I have a new yellow Fire- im not sure what I’ll use it for but it has Alexa so I can have a conversation with it.
@f00l ‘…Jane not comparison shipped, not the price looks…’ I tried to uncorrect this, and I give up. What??? I did not get the LG Tones, because at this point I have three sets. Thanks a lot; it’s addictive.
audible usually charges members (persons with subscriptions to buy credits) a rather discounted price for audiobooks not bought with credits.
Their usual member’s price for books bought with credits is discounted perhaps 20-30% from list.
This sale discounts 50% off the list price, not the usual member price.
2
credits cost roughly $10-15 each, depending on whether they are purchased by the month or year, and how many at a time. You can buy more expensive books far more cheaply using credits than you can using these sale prices.
So the best deals for books in the sakes will be those books whose sale price is well below what the member would pay for a credit.
Some books will still be a better deal by purchasing the Kindle book first and then the Audiobook, if there is a good whispersync-for-voice price for the combo.
4
Some books can be listened to for free if the listener has either Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited.
5
some books can be listened to for free using your local library and your smartphone. Instant downloads. Since libraries vary in how they do this, contact your local library for assistance.
Usually, to get set up with the library to check out audiobooks, you often need to go in just once, or can do it over the phone or figure it out from the library’s webpage.
After that, you checkout the books using your smartphone or tablet.
Basically, on sales like these, I look for books where the sale price is under $11-12, or less).
The rest are cheaper to buy with credits.
The best way to buy credits is to get the 24-credit annual plan at about $229 once a year.
This brings each credit to under $10.
So, with that plan, the only time you would want to pay the member price or a sale price for a book is when the current price of the book is under $10.
And, if you run out of credits, audible will always sell you 3 more at a good price.
@f00l I paid $8.33 ea. for 12 credits (1 year/12 credits for $100) so there’s very little that interests me below that price. I’m probably better off to keep sitting on my credits, waiting for the next 2-4-1 sale.
Yeah I couldn’t get that plan. Because I was already on a 24 credit annual plan. I would have had to switch to a monthly plan in order to be offered what you got. Didn’t seem worth the hassle.
I’m gonna look around for some under $10 books and see. And I’m going to see if any of the Greater Courses offerings go below $10.
That audible deal you got was a great thing. Maybe if they offer it again …
As for this sale: Often this is the best time to load up on classics. They often go pretty low during these.
@f00l I love that you included the libraries! I use the Overdrive app (CA library system, possibly more?) to get audiobooks all the time. Took me less than a minute in my local branch to get my card.
Today is the last day of the audible 50% of sale for person with current credit subscriptions.
I’ve been going thru The Great Courses selections, looking for cheapies. Looking for under $9 (after sale discounts). There is a fair selection of these.
I picked up Krampus by Bron last year for a buck on Amazon last year and have been watching to see if they have a deal on the audiobook. (Great read.) Instead I found this little pornographic Krampus story. If you’re into that.
4.0 out of 5 starsDecent read
December 4, 2017
Book source ~ Kindle Unlimited
Alicia and Mary-Ann run into something more than the regular wildlife when they borrow a cabin in the snowy woods.
Alicia swings both ways, but Mary-Ann doesn’t. However, there’s a little bit of girl-on-girl action (it’s a whole pinecone drugging thing, just go with it) before Krampus makes his nasty appearance. It would be so awesome if humans had a tongue like this monster. So long, so bendy, so…Wowzers!
Starts at 10%, ends at 71%. A few editing errors and the story just ends before Mary-Ann gets her big finish. How rude!
I was wrong about the date if the end of the audible site-wide 50% off sale.
It ends at 11:59pm Pacific Tome in Thursday Dec 14, 2017.
Details:
Sale ends December 14, 2017 at 11:59 PM PT. (US). Sale price reflects 50% off Audible.com’s regular price (an additional 20% off on top of the 30% off member discount). Open to active Audible members only. Discount applicable to content sold on Audible.com only.
Overall this sale is overrated, since they discount off the list price instead of the usual member price, and due to credits often being cheaper still.
But there are some possible.
I searched for “Great Courses”. (Use a desktop browser view for best utility.)
You can’t sort by price. So sort by length.
Many of them are 30 min lectures for free. Other are currently $.68. Others are currently asking about $5.00, or are $7.47.
It’s the short ones that were cheaper.
Over the Pryce went over $10.00 or so on sale, I quit looking, since credit prices are comparable.
Www.bookbub.com is a good site for e-books. It has many books by popular authors free or at reduced price to introduce new releases. Such book offers usually last only a few days, so check frequently. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the page, under READERS you will find a link to free books only. Those are from both known and new authors. You do not obtain the books directly from bookbub.com. Instead there are links for Nook, Kindle, Kobo, Sony, Apple, etc. It is not necessary to join to find free ebooks.
These are all whispersync-for-voice enabled. Which means that once the kindle books are purchased, the audible editions are discounted to $12.99, which is near the price of a credit, depending on how a member purchases credits.
Good prices on the audiobook, for people who don’t want to get involved in audible’s credit system.
The kindle prices is good today only.
Once the Kindle version are purchased, the audible editions can be purchased at any time for the whispersync-for-voice price, but Amazon may or may not keep that price forever.
Surprised nobody posted the Audible sale. Two books, one credit (selected titles). All categories are represented, but I wouldn’t necessarily call the selection “vast”.
I noticed The Exorcist 40th anniversary edition is in the select, but the narration sample seems like I wouldn’t enjoy his rendition. A great narrator can make an otherwise mediocre book quite enjoyable, but a bummer narrator can turn the greatest masterpiece into hours of agony.
@sammydog01 I’m a fair weather friend of Audible. Occasionally they send a marketing offer like “Give us another try: 3 months & 3 credits for $6” or whatever. But I got suckered into the “$99 for a year, 12 credits up front” deal last month. $8.25/credit isn’t exactly a bargain, but I’ve been following a few serials, so that gave me the opportunity to catch up on the series. I guess that’s the risk of the daily deals… give you the first in a series for three or four quid, then your stuck for per book prices from there.
@f00l At Cracker Barrel you could buy a book on tape, listen to it on your car trip, and return it at the next Cracker Barrel minus a few dollars. I don’t know if they still do that but it was pretty nice.
Audiobook went huge here in the 90’s. The economy was hot, people took jobs everywhere and had huge commutes.
There were these rent-one-book-at-a-time stores that did very well for a while. They let you reserve books that were out.
1st bad part: they would usually have only one copy of a given book. So if you were doing a series that needed to be done in order, and you were behind a really slow listener, then the reserve line could get long, and you would have to wait forever to get book #6 or something.
My friends got stuck this way, and wound up just buying and reading the paperbacks, in order to skip past the slow person.
2nd bad part:. The markets were for abridged books back then. Because of so many tapes or CDs.
And going to unabridged was a big ongoing hassle for the business, as with a 20-30 tape or CD unabridged book, it was pretty easy for a single tape or CD to get damaged or lost.
But the abridged prefs of that era made sense in a way. What with the pain of the media, and people listening mostly during commutes, that’s what people wanted.
I had portable cassette and CD players for this. I could sometime get unabridged from the library or eBay or one if these stores.
I’m ok with some abridgements for non-fiction, but I hate them for fiction. I figure either the book is worth doing in full, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, then it’s not like I’m about to run out of good books anytime soon …
Then audible opened up. You just needed a digital player. A computer, at first, for most.
And along came the iPod and similar.
Perfect marriage of media and player, before smartphones.
Then there stopped even being much of a sales market for abridged books. People could listen just anyplace; so they wanted the real book.
I still have a few on cassette and CD, for nostalgia. And there are a few books for which the e-media downloadable or streaming rights (to audible/BN/etc) have never been offered.
Incidentally, Sirius used to have an audiobook channel. I don’t know if they still do. It not for me, unless they upgraded the controls; I can’t listen continuously, as that would require.
@f00l Thank you for the reminder. I pretty much exhausted the selection offered this time around. I found four to ad to my library. A couple more looked interesting, but I hate to burn credits on shorter books. I guess I’d rather spend a credit on a long book at everyday rate than 2 short books on sale.
This topic has become a bit oppressive and OOC in length. I propose (and will create) a January Book Deals topic. Please consider posting new deals there.
Though I propose a modest modification, for brevity: “January 2018 Book Deals and Discussions”.
-also-
Linking both directions. Whoever generates the new month’s topic should create the new topic with appropriate title and link back to previous month’s topic, as well as “ending” the previous month’s topic with a brief announcement and link to new month’s topic.
I think we need a thread for folks who don’t feel much like chatting it up–like "Book Deals MONTH/YEAR NO TALKING. And then mehbe one for “Book Deals MONTH/YEAR Just-a-little-chit-chat” for folks who like writing short missives. And a NO SPOILERS thread too!
/J/K
Do whatcha feels, it’s all our house, right?
This is where I get sad that Half Price Books by my apartment never has anything I want because they aren’t doing very well
@woodhouse It’s because asshole like me read Kindle books. Sorry.
@woodhouse
Which HPB location are you kinda near?
The Flagship store at NorthWest Hwy just east of Central Expressway is a place of joy and awe for me.
If you have never been there: it’s about the size of a Walmart, perhaps? And entirely filled with temptation.
I’m not allowed to go there very often.
Because I Will Not Act Like A Responsible Person there and control my spending.
They are open rather late, till 11pm, in case that helps to get you there. They also have some kinda coffee and bake shop on premises, for extra energy.
Ands they are not very far from the 24-hour Cafe Brazil on the service road of Central Expressway, across from SMU, in case you need more serious sustenance.
Half Price Books
5803 E Northwest Hwy,
Dallas, TX 75231
Cafe Brazil
6420 N Central Expy,
Dallas, TX 75206
@f00l I think I’ve been to that Cafe Brazil - I go to one of the smaller ones in Irving, which is probably why it’s not as well-stocked. I’ll have to check that one out!
@woodhouse
Also check the other HBP locations. Simmer if the newer ones and suburban ones are kinda generic.
The older ones can have their own atmospheres.
There is one on Preston across from Valley View Mall that usually has good and interesting things.
You work, I presume, in Carrollton?
There are a few nice HPB stores in Plano. I like the older one (west of Central) slightly better. As they said age they acquire more interesting stuff and more dedicated buyers and sellers.
But I think there is a good one near Preston in Plano also.
And a good one in Frisco, with a kinda “newish” flavor. It’s off Preston (again!), This time in that largish maze of small shops off 121.
You may have to use your GPS to find it in the maze.
There is some sort of well-known great used book store in Denton if you ever go there for the music. Forget the name. Near downtown and the universities somewhere.
@woodhouse I miss our HPB’s first few years; we found a lot of great books there, historical, sci fi, metalworking… we sold a few older and interesting books to them too. unfortunately they went downhill pretty badly. And now they’re gone.
We sold a few books to them early one but they got so lowball on everything we gave up.
@duodec
A lot of the used and rare book market went online.
And now people buy e-books.
HPB may eventually turn into a “collectible and rare media store”.
@duodec @f00l I work near enough to a Half Price (not in TX) that people will come in occasionally and conversationally complain about their offer from HPB and I always tell them that if they itemize their tax deductions they’re probably better off donating their books.
The thing is that HPB makes their money on volume and as far as I can tell they’re not interested in interesting books as much as popular mass market paperbacks. The other thing is that there may only be one or two books out of a bunch that they actually want, and the rest will go directly into the recycling bin behind the store (which is a paradise of crap and why I have multiple Rod McKuen books in my car).
@mossygreen A shame they don’t donate their excess to the local Friends of the Library. I’d bet those folks would be happy to arrange regular pickups.
@mossygreen
When I visit HPB I head straight for my interests.
Certain fantasy and mystery writers, esp if not available in e-book format.
After-Doyle Sherlock Holmes pastiches.
Atlases and ref books.
Children’s picture books. Caldecott stuff.
Anything that catches my eye.
Then I hit the vintage and collectibles section. I look at everything I have time for. I esp love vintage kid’s books.
If it’s expensive, I compare online prices.
And I spend too much. Somehow or other.
Around here (DFW), I don’t know whether they dump books as trash or recycling. But the buyers have told me that they sell a lot of “books by the yard” to decorators and to people who “dress” empty for-sale houses, and they donate frequently to hospitals, group homes, shelters, nursing and care facilities, etc.
Of what people bring in to offer, they only have a purchasing market for a fairly small percentage of items.
@duodec Eh, I worked at the closest library for many years and once got a grocery bag full of John Dickson Carr paperbacks because they were too old and beat up to be interesting/put out on the sale shelf (greatest day of my life? depressingly possible!). I don’t think the library is interested in storing a bunch of not particularly valuable books. I’m not even sure if thrift shops would want to deal with the volume. Honestly, it’s nice the books are even being recycled.
@f00l I take a slightly different route past the collectibles case (for tarot decks) to vintage/old and interesting, scoot around to New Age/occult/folklore, then to fantasy/sci fi to check for The Shadow of the Torturer (it’s never there) and horror to check for any Robert Aickman. Then I either go straight to clearance or run through sheet music or crochet first.
I have been known to eye the occasional vintage children’s book.
Which fantasy and mystery writers do you seek, if it’s not too personal?
@mossygreen I didn’t say to donate to the library, but to the ‘Friends of the Library’. Maybe thats not a general thing, but in both Las Vegas and my current suburban Chicago area, the main branch of each town seems to have one. They take in book donations year round. I expect the library proper cherry-picks some for its shelves but nearly all of it is stored and then sold in mass used book sales several times a year.
The money supports the library; the FOTL are, at least here, volunteers who get the perk of being able to read lots of donated books, and (maybe) getting a little early access to the book sales when they happen (I know they don’t get a discount here).
Better than a recycling bin, and that remains an option for truly unsellable stuff.
@duodec True! I don’t think you’re wrong, but maybe, like, the Little City book sale would be better because of the huge volume of books? Seriously, they get a lot of books.
Suburban Chicago, huh? So, uh, if I said I work in an area where I don’t think the FOTL would think their clientele would take warmly to HPB leftovers could you guess where? [Please don’t.]
@duodec
We have an active Friends of the Library here.
They take all the extras and over-under, need to replace books. They run a film time shops for they popular stuff.
They also do about 4 blowout sales a year where they extra discount everything and open up lots of extra space for the sale.
I suspect there FOTL in FW would be happy to get HPB extras.
But dunno for sure.
@mossygreen
Fantasy. Not up to date at all
JRRT, GRRM, Rowling, Robert Jordan, Harry Dresden books
Mean to do Name if the Wind.
Way out of it with fantasy.
Mystery.
So many over the years. Can’t remember them all. Can’t remember more than a few if my favs
I like Hillerman a lot.
Louise Penny
The great Golden Age writers.
Lightweight pleasant stuff like Royal Spyness and McCall Smith.
PD James
S Holmes of course.
A bunch of the Scandinavian writers.
Raymond Chandler
Ed McBain
Elmore Leonard
John D MacDonald
Arthur Upfield
James Lee Burke
The Moonstone
Carl Hiasson
Martin Cruz Smith
Margaret Truman
Mike Lawson
Charles McCarry
Crispin
A bunch of stuff I havent gotten to yet.
I am forgetting a bunch. There are so many good ones.
If it’s halfway decent I’ll read it.
And
The incomparable John Le Carre
/image spy who came in from the cold
This is all super incomplete.
So many more good ones that don’t come to mind at the moment.
@f00l @mossygreen Turns out yesterday through Sunday was the annual FOTL holiday sale.
I found three worth picking up. “Something of Value” by Robert Ruark, and two volumes of Horatio Hornblower novels; I loved the few Ruark books I read before but this one was hard to find for a while and I had stopped trying. And Hornblower kept coming up again and again as recommendations from my acquaintences with military service or connections.
All three hardcovers in very good condition (but no dustcovers), $10.
@f00l My current fantasy interests are mainly a vague plan to reread everything by Tanith Lee in chronological order and maybe one day finally read the Mythago Wood series (read the short story the author turned into a novel back in the '80’s, I think, and then was excited to see the novel sometime in the '90’s and now it’s way later so I’m clearly in no rush), so your list seems reasonably up-to-date to me. I guess I’ll also read any Arthurian legend/pastiche that comes down the pike.
Oh wait, I’m totally psyched that Philip Pullman finally published another book, so it’s probably time to reread the His Dark Materials trilogy. Did you ever read his Sally Lockwood series? The first book is essentially The Moonstone with a teenage girl detective.
As for mysteries, I can’t stop rereading Dorothy L. Sayers and John Dickson Carr.
@duodec Curses! I have to devote more time to FOTL book sales. I have a short list of books I want to own which are quite expensive online. I mean, sure I never finished Conjuring Up Philip, but I don’t want to spend approximately $100 to find out how it ends. I mean, I know how it ends because it’s a non-fiction book about a Canadian psychic research group who decided to see if they could manifest real phenomena around a fake ghost they made up, and they say they did, and that’s the book. BUT WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE?! All I want is a withdrawn library copy.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand: you did well at the sale! Congratulations on your haul.
@mossygreen
How about interlibrary loan?
Free. Legal.
You might have to wait. But you can get a ton of stuff that way. Including really obscure stuff.
Love His Dark Materials. Interested that there is a new one on the way.
Did everything Sayers. Still fond if it.
Me fav might be Murder Must Advertise.
Did all of Miss Marole and enjoyed that. Mean to do the test if Christie someday.
Mean to do the others. Own more golden age stuff. Someday.
But …
How could I forget?
Josephine Tey
Omg she runs circles around the rest of the golden age writers in subtle character dev and plot.
I intend to be re/reading her for the rest if my life.
You might enjoy these.
James Anderson
https://www.amazon.com/James Anderson/e/B000APTELG/ref=la_B000APTELG_rf_p_n_feature_browse-b_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB000APTELG%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011&bbn=283155&sort=author-pages-popularity-rank&ie=UTF8&qid=1511071227&rnid=618072011
A modern writer wrote these in a golden age style. Quite charming and entertaining. Well done.
How could I forget
Debra Crombie
Texan who does very very good London based procedurals
https://www.amazon.com/Deborah Crombie/e/B000APGQCQ/ref=la_B000APGQCQ_rf_p_n_feature_browse-b_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB000APGQCQ%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011&bbn=283155&sort=author-pages-popularity-rank&ie=UTF8&qid=1511071467&rnid=618072011
@f00l There is also one located near the Alamo Drafthouse on 75.
I’m listening to “The 5th Wave” in the car today. Anyone read it?
@sammydog01 Yet another book Hollywood managed to mangle into a really bad movie.
@ruouttaurmind
They tell writers negotiating with Hollywood:
“Take the money and run.”
@f00l This is why I’m dreading with anticipation the release of the RPO movie early next year.
@ruouttaurmind
Hope you get a good surprise then.
@f00l Gaaah. I just keep remembering the (two) catastrophic films concocted from Dean Koontz Watchers. <shudder>
@ruouttaurmind i generally avoid Dean Koontz and Stephen King movies bc they are such a let down after the books. I made the mistake of giving Odd Thomas a chance, particularly after how good Anton Yelchin was in Star Trek. Nope, back to avoiding those movies.
@mollama I haven’t read any of the Odd Thomas books. I watched the movie on a miserable plane ride from London to Detroit, and I didn’t hate it. But then maybe that’s mostly because it distracted me from the excruciating ride?
I’ve only seen the TV miniseries Stephen King movies, and, well… ya. Although I did see Creepshow in the theater when I was a nipper (6th grade, sneaked in with friends after buying tickets for ET). I did enjoy that quite a bit. Of course I was 10 at the time, so…
@ruouttaurmind I just hit the teenage kissy-face part. Did they let that Twilight lady guest write a chapter? I guess it’s required in young adult books.
@sammydog01 Ya, it seems to adhere to a standardized formula for YA fic.
Can we add interesting podcasts and blogs to the included topics?
@f00l Well we could have but my edit window closed. You can post whatever you want as far as I’m concerned.
@sammydog01
So long as you all think it’s cool …
@f00l You’re always cool.
/giphy fool is cool
@sammydog01
/giphy Cool!
@f00l Here’s mine, anyways.
http://372pages.com/
Mike Nelson (Formerly of MST3K and currently of Rifftrax) and one of his senior writers Conor Lastowka did a “book club” podcast of Ready player one. It was immensely entertaining. They wrapped it up a few weeks back but are planning on continuing with the author’s next book at some point
@f00l where are your blog/podcast recos?
@mollama
I just poke around for podcasts. See the recs in iTunes etc. Try them. See what I wanna make time for as a priority.
Lately I’ve done a bunch of news and political stuff. Mostly the big names.
And one for fun:
better off undead.
Which name changed to
Worst Podcast Ever.
There are some really good ones out there
@CaptAmehrican mentioned some history podcasts. And other people have comes up with some.
I’ll try to dig up the links and put them here.
I don’t do much reading if blogs. Lack if time.
If I were going to read blogs I might start with
The Bloggess
Daring Fireball?
Other blog recs welcome (any topic!) since I’m so out of the loop.
We’ve also had book and podcast discussions in the past. I’ll try to dig up those links.
Re podcasts
What radio/audio programs do you like?
What are your interests?
There are so many good podcasts that narrowing it down is the problem.
I’ve yet to listen, but a lot if people really like something called
"The Moth"
I think it’s personal stories from many people. Not sure?
TedTalks is available thru podcasts.
Many well-known media outlets
Slate, Salon, HuffPost, Vice Media, NYT, Washington Post, the New Yorker, NPR, etc, have good and intelligent podcasts in many areas far beyond standard news and politics.
Jazz. Tech. Science. Language. Philosophy. Animation.
Whatever you want.
There are also good ones in the fitness/health/finances/motivation/life-hacking areas.
I haven’t really looked around yet that much.
There is just so much good stuff.
If you have Amazon prime check out the included “Audible Channels”
I haven’t done that much yet. But good stuff there.
@f00l My wife loves true crime murder podcasts. Specifically, long ones that follow the same case throughout a season. She says that every murder podcast that comes out goes to #1 on the charts, but i suspect that’s a chart iTunes has customized for her as a murder podcast junkie and not necessarily the iTunes top podcasts chart.
@djslack
I think itunes differentiates for podcasts between
Most popular or best reviewed (uniform for everyone within national boundaries)
And
Recommended
(Personalized)
I see lots of true crime podcasts also.
Never listened to any of them, tho I hear from others that they are very good. What did she think of “Serial” and related podcasts?
@f00l we both enjoyed the first Serial. The second with Bowe Bergdahl we couldn’t get into, but that seems to be a widespread response. S-Town was also enjoyable.
Since then she has gone on a deep dive into true crime podcasts that i didn’t follow her on. I think Serial is just about the gold standard for what she would like, a long form podcast with a developing story as it goes if you follow it in real time. It seems a lot of these podcasts originate in Georgia for some reason, and some have brought attention to cases leading to arrests or renewed investigations.
My wife does these deep dives regularly. At one point she had watched damn near every horror movie on Netflix, well into the ones with a one star rating. Some of those were laughably bad.
@djslack
I too fall into temp obsessions. It doesn’t so much wear off as after a while a new obsession kicks in and takes over.
@f00l If you like technical stuff at all, https://danluu.com has amazing blog posts- not very often, but in-depth and interesting on a given topic.
@dashcloud
Thx! I’m kinda in love.
Start with the clean, lovely appearance.
Well-formed text! Just text and links!
And the content.
Well, no. Not the content in itself so much, as I lack the time to focuse on those areas.
Rather, the clean, careful, creative engineer’s thinking habits. They are beautiful.
This:
https://danluu.com/wat/
And this:
https://danluu.com/programmer-moneyball/
And most especially, this:
https://danluu.com/math-bias/
Which is lovely, in its way. He thinks about math as a mathematical engineer, or an engineering mathematician.
Not as a theoretical mathematician per se.
And that’s fine. Those cannot replicate each other’s critical utilities and scope at professional levels, anymore than a practicing pediatrician and a cardiac surgeon can easily sub for one another.
Both immersive mental habituations are necessary to our species, or we would be less than we are, let alone hope to be.
I care less about his context and content, more about his mind.
Again, thx.
So what becomes of the monthly deals thread? deader than disco?
@ruouttaurmind no, it will just have other deals that aren’t book related.
@ruouttaurmind 3D printers and stuff
@sammydog01 Oh, sure, distract me with tech gadgets!
@ruouttaurmind
Spend the money you didn’t spend yet on books on tech gadgets.
And vice versa.
/giphy win win!
@f00l Just did that $100 Audible deal about a week ago. So I guess I need to spend a hundy on tech this week.
@ruouttaurmind
If there is nothing you want now, you might wait for a 2-fer sale.
Or just get what you want.
@f00l Waiting for a 2-fer. I have plenty of books queued up in the pipe, so I won’t run out of material anytime soon. I have patience and luxury of time on my side.
Book news. Does this fit the topic?
Mashable
Amazon is remaking ‘Lord of the Rings’ as a series because everyone wants their own 'Game of Thrones’
Who says originality is dead?
Hope they don’t screw it up.
If only they could get PJ to show-run the entire thing in NZ.
/giphy rivendell
@f00l I’m not sure how I feel about this. If they’re doing different storylines, that’s one thing… But leave LOTR out of it. I didn’t mind the hobbit, but it gave me:
/giphy Thorin Oakenshield
@RiotDemon A rare instance of the movie being more enjoyable for me than the book (The Hobbit)
@ruouttaurmind Whereas for me the ‘cartoony’ shit Jackson put in the movie undermined it pretty badly. I’ll take the book any day.
If LOTR gets redone with some of the cartoony shit left out (Legolas and the oliphant, dwarf tossing, “suspension of disbelief destroying” crap like that), then maybe it will be worth it.
Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, neutral, but it would be nice to have the scene where they pick up the Blades of Westerness (Barrow Blades), forged by the men of Númenor; their presence and capabilities were part of the story that Jackson just smurfed around.
@duodec - I completely agree, but you have to admit the Jackson film version had great scenery. And it was certainly better than the Ralph Bakshi and Rankin-Bass versions.
@aetris Scenery and special effects matter but the story, and respecting the characters, the world, and the author/creator also matter. This page says it better than I could (but 'ware the pop up ads): Here
@duodec - Again, I’m not disagreeing, but a long time ago I figured out the truth of what @f001 said elsewhere, that Hollywood’s advice to authors is 'throw your work over the wall, we’ll throw the money back, then you just WALK AWAY."
I have tremendous respect for all the artistry that went into the Jackson films, and the script… could have been worse.
If I’ve learned anything from subscribing to NetFlix, it’s that films can be worse. Much, much worse. Even Nicholas Cage films…
I have an idea for a book about a deal-of-the-day web site community. I’d like to get an advance so I can develop this idea. Can I get a Book Deal Here for that?
@sligett My publishing company will back you on this project. I’ll forward your advance post haste in the sums of 4,000,000 millions us dollar. You need simply only to prove your bank account detail number to me
@f00l Told you my English wasn’t good.
Don’t forget to use your B&N ebook settlement credit. I went to a store, found a decorating magazine about English Style that I’m going to regret, and my online credit paid for most of it. They can scan the barcode in your email.
@OldCatLady
What is this settlement credit?
@f00l from a B&N email dated 20 Oct. An explanation:
’…You previously received an email informing you that you have a new credit in your Barnes & Noble account as a result of a redistribution of the Apple Settlement. We’re happy to let you know that your settlement credit for $x.xx is now in your Barnes & Noble account and ready to spend.
You can use your credit toward books, eBooks, and more in any of our channels – online at barnesandnoble.com, on NOOK®, or in stores. This new credit can also be used in combination with any remaining activated credit from the previous Apple settlement distribution.’
@OldCatLady
Guess I didn’t get one. Huh.
I own a fair # of BN nook ebooks. And somewhere, a nook e-reader.
@f00l Call B&N directly. The email didn’t make it obvious.
I recently joined a weekly email list that lets me know about free romance & erotica ebooks on Amazon. They are poorly written, but they’re free. I even discovered a new fetish I didn’t know I was into!
You can thank me later: http://exclusivearc.com/
@UncleVinny also free and a lot of poorly written stuff:
Literotica.com
@UncleVinny Also a lot of poorly written stuff, but some really good stuff as well at freebooksy.com
A decent mixture of romance, lite erotica, mystery, fantasy and contemporary fiction.
They mix in some paid titles, but as you scroll through, there’s a fair amount of free stuff, and the list changes regularly.
@ruouttaurmind @riotdemon hey thanks!
@RiotDemon Maybe we need a new thread for poorly written erotica?
@sammydog01 more like mehrotica
@spitfire6006006 YES!!!
@spitfire6006006 poorly written Glen and @irk fan fiction erotica!
@UncleVinny
; p
@UncleVinny too far.
Free today only. Make sure it says Kindle price $0.00 and click “buy now” not “read for free”.
‘To Hell in a handbasket by Willow Rose’: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L2FGWE4?tag=fbsyemail-20
Also: ‘Secrets of Not Giving a F*#k’ : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077BQ5X5G?tag=fbsyemail-20
@cjester66 Woo! Thanks!
@cjester66 thank you!
Audible has Anne of Green Gables for free:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Classics/Anne-of-Green-Gables-Audiobook/B01KGL13FI/ref=a_search_c4_1_2_srTtl?qid=1510832696&sr=1-2
And The Hobbit for $3.95
https://www.audible.com/pd/Classics/The-Hobbit-Audiobook/B0099RKI5W/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1510832739&sr=1-1
@sammydog01 Thanks!
@sammydog01
The narrator of this version of The Hobbit is Rob Inglis.
He also recorded the unabridged version of the full LOTR.
It took me a little bit to adjust to his voice for some reason. But he’s awesome.
MorningSave has the E-go 550 audiobooks on a 32GB drive deal for $39.
Four more free for at least today. Remember click the buy now button after making sure it says, Kindle Price: $0.00. The read for free button will try to sell you Kindleunlimited.
https://www.amazon.com/Sigfrieds-Smelly-Socks-Len-Foley-ebook/dp/B075TGLGFQ?_bbid=8304490&_bbtype=blog
https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00ERVTFCM?_bbid=7886017&_bbtype=blog
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Shot-Dev-Haskell-Investigator-ebook/dp/B00M0LCFDW?_bbid=8351323&_bbtype=blog
https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00RIONNPU?_bbid=8308818&_bbtype=blog
@cjester66 thanks!
@cjester66
Ditto. Thx thx thx!
Free Today:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07681ZHXM?tag=fbsyemail-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I5BR7TI?tag=fbsyemail-20
Just click “buy now”.
Carl Sagan’s The Cosmos is the daily deal on Audible. Five bucks.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Science-Technology/Cosmos-Audiobook/B06XV1PVF5/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srImg?qid=1511011582&sr=1-1
@sammydog01
Click billions and billions of times.
@f00l Is the 20 years of Audible thing working for you? I get a blank page and it was supposed to be something free. Maybe they realized I’m not a real member.
@sammydog01 Ooh, I Am Legend is free!!!
@sammydog01 No charge: https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/I-Am-Legend-Audiobook/B002V1CB2Q
@therealjrn
@sammydog01
I dist notice that something on the site was messed up earlier. Seems to work now tho.
Unfortunately, I already owned much of what they made free this time round. They had some some of these on earlier daily deals.
But still, cool. Wish they would just keep doing this every day.
@sammydog01 Thanks for the I am Legend tip. I keep forgetting to check the 20 Days deals.
Not loving the narrator, but the price was right.
@ruouttaurmind
We will post any free ones. Someone will get to it.
If you wanna be sure not to miss, create an account at Slickdeals. Then set an alert/search for “audible”. Turn on website/app alerts. Setup “Notify in-app” or whatever, as opposed to email.
Load the app. Log in.
Never miss another notable audible deal.
The Kindle alerts (should you do one) are constant.
The audible ones are pretty reasonable.
@f00l I get the audible daily deal email. They’re not free but no more than $5. Sometimes it’s worth it.
@sammydog01
I’ve found at least a couple dozen of the daily deals compelling enough to buy, and probably only 5 or 6 have been stinkers. A few have been downright exceptional.
@ruouttaurmind
@sammydog01
Sometimes audible does an obscure promo or even freebie that never makes the email or homepage of the site.
Slickdeals tends to catch these.
@sammydog01 Just finished I am Legend. Another rare example of “The movie was better than the book.” The book had much potential, but it seemed like the writer just sort of lost motivation and ended prematurely.
Amazon has a bunch of free history books for people with short attention spans. Here is a link to all the “hourly history” books- a lot are free but not all so look closely.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_price-asc-rank?keywords=hourly+history&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Ahourly+history&qid=1511141478&sort=price-asc-rank
Free book-
https://www.amazon.com/No-Justice-Sean-Platt-ebook/dp/B075X1LLPN?_bbid=8361979&_bbtype=email
@f00l This is one of the guys that does a podcast you mentioned liking. I think.
Audible’s Treat Your Self sale, now until November 28th, features 400 books for $4.95 each.
FYI: I’ve found a few of these sale books with the “Get this audiobook for $1.99 when you purchase the Kindle version”, with a few of the Kindle versions being a buck or two, or FREE. So be sure to check for that before springing a fiver on the audiobook only.
@ruouttaurmind I just bought I, Claudius. Anyone else buy anything?
Bought The Golem and the Jinni too. 19 hours. That’s 26 cents an hour.
And Nocturnal, 22 hours. 23 cents an hour. Maybe I’m going about the book buying thing the wrong way- though it is how I got into Clavell novels back in the day and that worked out well for me.
@sammydog01 I’m with you. I don’t find much value in $5 for a 7 hour listen. I start with “what provides the most listen time” then start at the longest books and work my way down until I find something at least a little interesting.
I’ve purchased books I only found a little interesting based on the publisher’s synopsis and been quite pleasantly surprised how captivating or entertaining the book turned out to be. Though I have had a couple that turned out to be a struggle to get through (The Complete Sherlock Holmes for example at over 58 hours!).
@sammydog01
Got a bunch in cart. So far only looked at the nonfiction.
Will finish later.
Am afraid of how much I might spend.
@f00l I think I stopped at 4. I usually listen to library books but it’s nice to own a bunch too.
@ruouttaurmind I have a couple of really long ones that I stopped part way through to switch to some less challenging books. I’ll go back someday.
@sammydog01
Two McCammon books on sale- I love his stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Life-Robert-R-McCammon-ebook/dp/B005T54I2W/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1511623520&sr=8-1&keywords=boy's+life
https://www.amazon.com/Gone-South-Robert-R-McCammon-ebook/dp/B005T54GH4/ref=pd_sim_351_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Q27V15YM7ZN1KTE8SK60
Not books. Digital media. Please let me know if this is out-of-bounds.
MONK (the series)
Amazon instant video. Possibly price-matched where, have not checked.
$4.99/season HD
$2.99/season SD
Seasons 1-8
https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Monk-and-the-Candidate/dp/B000VB0CH4/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1511667140&sr=1-1&keywords=monk
@f00l I loved that show.
@sammydog01
Yeah. Good show for weirdo misfits.
This appears to be a URL that always goes to the Audible Daily Deal.
https://www.audible.com/r?C=237NAGOQNS32A&K=2AEPOYCQU38F&M=urn:rtn:msg:201711260835300c94a501eaf74214a522e4173780p0na&R=3DBU7UKKY8C54&T=C&U=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.audible.com%2Fsign-in%3Frdpath%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.audible.com%2FDailyDeal%3Fsource_code%3DAUDOREM1030179LWT%26ref_%3Dpe_407140_262422660&H=A9QVV13LLLDQGVKOBHW2OK2YJ00A&ref_=pe_407140_262422660
The deal always goes live between about 12:15am and 12:30am Pacifc Time each day.
The deal always ends at midnight Pacific time.
(One in a while there is no link on the home page to the daily deal.)
Or you can call them and ask. Or sign up for daily deal emails.
If you miss one you really wanted, I’ve had good luck calling them next day and getting them to give me the deal price on the book deal I missed. This does not always work. But usually.
(I am good costumer, so …)
BN.com also does a daily deal for audiobooks at
www.nookaudiobooks.com.
The deal is always in the front page there.
The timing is similar. The deal is good until midnight Pacific, and the new deal appears sometime before morning. Often it appears immediately.
Audible’s Treat Yourself Sale (ongoing, thru midnight Pacific Time, Nov 28th), seems to have added about 100 more books to the $4.95 list today.
Perhaps as Cyber Monday promise?
The new books on sale:
https://mobile.audible.com/2017TYSS_New/apc.htm
The main same page
https://mobile.audible.com/2017TYSS_All/apc.htm?ref=a_home-page_c0_zing_0&pf_rd_p=c276caed-a023-4000-89ff-bf81868a09e6&pf_rd_r=YT891PHVPVGK0R4JCQE1&
Check Humble Bundle they have some deals. Also http://www.read.gov/books/ some free books too.
I like https://www.smashwords.com
for ereads. Some free, lots cheap. Quality varies, but some of it is quite good. I recommend Curveball and Legion of Nothing
And I didn’t notice anyone mention the Gutenberg Project. It’s amazing the obscure but interesting things you can find there. I’m on book 2 of 5 for the Scarlet Pimpernel series. Have read lots of detective noir, and more than just a few Golden Age sci-fi.
https://www.gutenberg.org
Roy Glashan’s Library, at freeread.com.au, is a great resource for those of us who enjoy Golden Age pulp fiction:
Roy Glashan’s Library
It’s worth adding that all of Weird Tales is now on-line in a couple of formats:
Weird Tales Online
Last but not least, I’ve never really gotten into audio books, but I love old radio dramas.
https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
@kaighintze Me too! I like your other ideas too!
Some website called Christian Audio has the Lord of the Rings trilogy for $15. It looks like the same one Amazon has- Rob Inglis. I’m trying to figure out if it will play on my fire.
forgot to add the link:
https://slickdeals.net/f/10943339-lord-of-the-rings-audiobooks-download-15-for-all-3-books-14-97?src=catpagev2_SearchBarV2_cat
@sammydog01
Meant to mention this offer. They did the same thing last year for this week.
That one is basic mp3 files, I think.
This is a reputable place to purchase.
The best way to play it would prob be on an Android phone, using an audiobook player.
Yeah these will play on the fire, if you want. I don’t know what default app the fire would try to use to open them. I think you can choose the app tho?
I don’t know what alt audiobook players are in the Amazon app store, but it’s pretty easy to put google play onto a fire tablet. Then you have a great choice of players.
I use Smart Audiobook Player, I think it’s called. My friend who listens constantly uses another one. I’ll ask.
One possible diff in buying here:.
I think you get a 1 time download,. So you have to archive copies of the files and not lose them. (Unlike audible or similar, where you can redownload what you own just whenever.)
not yet checked this out to see if I am correct about this store and purchases there.
Do they have it JRRT audiobooks on sale?
@f00l No other Tolkien books but they had a C S Lewis bundle. The faqs said 12 downloads and you can call them and ask for more. They have a library feature now. They also have monthly free downloads if you like that type of book.
I can’t get my fires to show up on my computer when I plug them in. I’m still working on it.
@sammydog01
FWIW, id play them on my Android phone if I used one.
iOS, it can be done. Either using iTunes (computer iTunes sync); be so late sure to right click on the books in iTunes and labeled then as Auduobooks - is a bit friendlier that way)
(Have done this on an iPod classic, never an iOS device.)
Or just dl the files to iOS phone. Then open in something like Bookmobile. (Works. Playing them is kind of a pita).
Perhaps you can play mp3 files in the iOS audible app. I never figured out how to.
one good way to play these is to purchase an older android phone (unactivated) and install a good Audiobook player. Something like an S3. Or an older Nexus. Cheapie.
As long as you don’t install other stuff in the phone, it ought to work ok.
@f00l I was keeping an eye on the BF deals for no contract phones on the cheap with the intention of making one a dedicated Audible player for the car. Best Buy had something under ten bucks, but it was in-store only and I wasn’t about to go face the crowds.
@ruouttaurmind
Swappa.
Look for something like an S3 or s4 or similar. Perhaps an older Nexus. Note 2 or note 3.
Whatever’s cheap and decent.
Google the model to make sure no big issues.
I wouldnt go to BB either this week.
@f00l Meh. I had a S3 for a very short time. I hated TouchWIZ so much I replaced the phone in a matter of a couple months.
I prefer a phone with a removable battery (plan to use it with the battery removed), and with a newer OS so I won’t run into issues with software compatibility, but frankly I’ll settle for anything in the $10 to $20 range. As long as it has Bluetooth and a microSD slot, nothing else really matters.
@f00l I tried and failed to load google play on my fire but found an app that looks good. Then I tried all the cables in my drawer and found one that worked. So I’m set with LOTR and will be able to load my new e-gobooks.
My son gives me a hard time about this but I use different devices for different things.
My phone is for phone stuff, Pokémon Go, and that stupid butterfly game galmaegi got me hooked on. (Curse you galmaegi.)
My blue Fire has a scratched screen so it’s for music and audiobooks. It takes a beating in the car.
My orange fire is for videos.
I have a new yellow Fire- im not sure what I’ll use it for but it has Alexa so I can have a conversation with it.
Check the Woot app for a possible good deal on LG Tone audiobook friendly headphones.
Jane not comparison shipped, not the price looks quite decent.
iOS or Android.
The deal is called an “appclusive”.
This means you can’t buy it in the web. Only from the app.
Mentioned this also in either the Nov deals thread or a Black Friday thread. I forget which.
@f00l ‘…Jane not comparison shipped, not the price looks…’ I tried to uncorrect this, and I give up. What??? I did not get the LG Tones, because at this point I have three sets. Thanks a lot; it’s addictive.
Media, not books.
House, seasons 1-8 (Hugh Laurie), on sale at Amazon instant video.
$4.99 per season HD.
$2.99 per season SD.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002JPNMMM?ref_=aiv_dp_season_select
No idea how long this price will stay.
A Christmas book from Audible today, if you’re into that sort of thing. I downloaded “A Christmas Carol” narrated by Tim Curry last year (a gift from Chick-fil-a) and really enjoyed it. I hope this is good too.
https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=jacob+t+marley&sprefixRefmarker=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6&sprefix=marley
Audible is running a 50% off sale site-wide.
There are a couple of caveats.
audible usually charges members (persons with subscriptions to buy credits) a rather discounted price for audiobooks not bought with credits.
Their usual member’s price for books bought with credits is discounted perhaps 20-30% from list.
This sale discounts 50% off the list price, not the usual member price.
2
credits cost roughly $10-15 each, depending on whether they are purchased by the month or year, and how many at a time. You can buy more expensive books far more cheaply using credits than you can using these sale prices.
So the best deals for books in the sakes will be those books whose sale price is well below what the member would pay for a credit.
Some books will still be a better deal by purchasing the Kindle book first and then the Audiobook, if there is a good whispersync-for-voice price for the combo.
4
Some books can be listened to for free if the listener has either Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited.
5
some books can be listened to for free using your local library and your smartphone. Instant downloads. Since libraries vary in how they do this, contact your local library for assistance.
Usually, to get set up with the library to check out audiobooks, you often need to go in just once, or can do it over the phone or figure it out from the library’s webpage.
After that, you checkout the books using your smartphone or tablet.
@f00l
I was jacked when I got the promo email this morning. When I realized the discount was off MSRP… wind right out of my sails.
@ruouttaurmind
Basically, on sales like these, I look for books where the sale price is under $11-12, or less).
The rest are cheaper to buy with credits.
The best way to buy credits is to get the 24-credit annual plan at about $229 once a year.
This brings each credit to under $10.
So, with that plan, the only time you would want to pay the member price or a sale price for a book is when the current price of the book is under $10.
And, if you run out of credits, audible will always sell you 3 more at a good price.
@f00l I paid $8.33 ea. for 12 credits (1 year/12 credits for $100) so there’s very little that interests me below that price. I’m probably better off to keep sitting on my credits, waiting for the next 2-4-1 sale.
@ruouttaurmind
Yeah I couldn’t get that plan. Because I was already on a 24 credit annual plan. I would have had to switch to a monthly plan in order to be offered what you got. Didn’t seem worth the hassle.
I’m gonna look around for some under $10 books and see. And I’m going to see if any of the Greater Courses offerings go below $10.
That audible deal you got was a great thing. Maybe if they offer it again …
As for this sale: Often this is the best time to load up on classics. They often go pretty low during these.
@f00l I love that you included the libraries! I use the Overdrive app (CA library system, possibly more?) to get audiobooks all the time. Took me less than a minute in my local branch to get my card.
/giphy libraries rock
Audible current freebie
**Gather 'Round The Sound"
https://mobile.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Gather-Round-the-Sound-Audiobook/B0785WX584?ref=msw_search_c1_0_1_AL
Today is the last day of the audible 50% of sale for person with current credit subscriptions.
I’ve been going thru The Great Courses selections, looking for cheapies. Looking for under $9 (after sale discounts). There is a fair selection of these.
https://mobile.audible.com/search.htm?type=search&cache=1&keywords=the great courses
@f00l Thanks!
I picked up Krampus by Bron last year for a buck on Amazon last year and have been watching to see if they have a deal on the audiobook. (Great read.) Instead I found this little pornographic Krampus story. If you’re into that.
https://www.amazon.com/Claimed-Krampus-Wendy-Bigg-ebook/dp/B077X3355S/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513033286&sr=1-11&keywords=krampus&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011
Edit: Upon further search this is a favorite topic for pornographers. Who knew?
@sammydog01 We know, now. Pretty good review:
@therealjrn $2.99 for 27 pages- I should start writing porno.
@sammydog01 As short as it is, I’m guessing it lacks a climax?
I was wrong about the date if the end of the audible site-wide 50% off sale.
It ends at 11:59pm Pacific Tome in Thursday Dec 14, 2017.
Details:
@f00l
Audible’s half price sale ends tonite.
Overall this sale is overrated, since they discount off the list price instead of the usual member price, and due to credits often being cheaper still.
But there are some possible.
I searched for “Great Courses”. (Use a desktop browser view for best utility.)
You can’t sort by price. So sort by length.
Many of them are 30 min lectures for free. Other are currently $.68. Others are currently asking about $5.00, or are $7.47.
It’s the short ones that were cheaper.
Over the Pryce went over $10.00 or so on sale, I quit looking, since credit prices are comparable.
@f00l
Most of the top audiobooks of 2017 are decades old
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Many, many thanks to Sammydog01 for starting this thread.
Www.bookbub.com is a good site for e-books. It has many books by popular authors free or at reduced price to introduce new releases. Such book offers usually last only a few days, so check frequently. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the page, under READERS you will find a link to free books only. Those are from both known and new authors. You do not obtain the books directly from bookbub.com. Instead there are links for Nook, Kindle, Kobo, Sony, Apple, etc. It is not necessary to join to find free ebooks.
Kindle versions of JRRT’s trilogy are in sale today.
Till midnight Pacific Time
Please note:. These are all available at no extra charge to persons who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.
The Fellowship Of TheRing
$2.99
https://www.amazon.com/Fellowship-Ring-Being-First-Rings-ebook/dp/B007978NPG/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1513519624&sr=1-2&keywords=lord+of+the+rings+kindle+edition
The Two Towers
$2.99
https://www.amazon.com/Two-Towers-Being-Second-Rings-ebook/dp/B007978PKY/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1513519624&sr=1-5&keywords=lord+of+the+rings+kindle+edition
The Return Of The King
$2.99
https://www.amazon.com/Return-King-Being-Third-Rings-ebook/dp/B007978P18/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1513519624&sr=1-4&keywords=lord+of+the+rings+kindle+edition
These are all whispersync-for-voice enabled. Which means that once the kindle books are purchased, the audible editions are discounted to $12.99, which is near the price of a credit, depending on how a member purchases credits.
Good prices on the audiobook, for people who don’t want to get involved in audible’s credit system.
The kindle prices is good today only.
Once the Kindle version are purchased, the audible editions can be purchased at any time for the whispersync-for-voice price, but Amazon may or may not keep that price forever.
(Unfortunately, no new hardcovers at that price)
@f00l
Correction?:
These books are on sale, but may not be part of the Kindle Daily Deal. In which case, the sale prices might last longer.
Uncertain. If you want them, no info on when the price might go back up; but usually this sort of price drop is good for at least 24 hours.
Buncha free thriller / mystery / suspense ebooks here (for a limited time).
https://books.bookfunnel.com/thrillers-mystery-suspense-bundle
Someone check it out and report back?
You’re cool if you do.
@KDemo You missed some categories.
@sammydog01
Surprised nobody posted the Audible sale. Two books, one credit (selected titles). All categories are represented, but I wouldn’t necessarily call the selection “vast”.
I noticed The Exorcist 40th anniversary edition is in the select, but the narration sample seems like I wouldn’t enjoy his rendition. A great narrator can make an otherwise mediocre book quite enjoyable, but a bummer narrator can turn the greatest masterpiece into hours of agony.
@ruouttaurmind
Knew about it. Intended to when I got done. Tired and busy.
Good sale tho.
@ruouttaurmind I only buy the daily deals and books that are cheap with the Kindle copy. I’ll have to think about joining some day.
@sammydog01 I’m a fair weather friend of Audible. Occasionally they send a marketing offer like “Give us another try: 3 months & 3 credits for $6” or whatever. But I got suckered into the “$99 for a year, 12 credits up front” deal last month. $8.25/credit isn’t exactly a bargain, but I’ve been following a few serials, so that gave me the opportunity to catch up on the series. I guess that’s the risk of the daily deals… give you the first in a series for three or four quid, then your stuck for per book prices from there.
@ruouttaurmind
Before audible, a really cheap audiobook was perhaps $25-30 on cassette or CD. A normal one was $40-50.
Not only did they have to hire the narrator, producer, studio, sound editor, etc, they had a much much smaller potential market. (Pre-original iPod.
They could be a pain to play. I used to prefer cassettes because of the rev-ffd control. I still have some in cassette and CD.
Used to buy them from garage sales and HPB/Ebayn.
So most people used to rent them. Who could afford a personal library?
When audible came along I thought it was the bee’s knees. I now usually buy credits at 24/year.
The intro credit thing, is, as you pointed out, a teaser price for credits. But
"1 credit = 1 audiobook" is a bargain still.
Ok, someone could argue that downloadable media is a cheap format, once the original book or audiobook cost is covered.
But that also applies to e-books. Looked at e-textbook prices lately?
If I’m going to start protesting digital book prices, I’ll start with e-book prices.
Audible is still a damned good deal. Even with the recent rise in whispersync prices (which did cause me to cut way back on purchases.)
Remember, you might be able to get the audiobooks you want from the library for free.
@f00l At Cracker Barrel you could buy a book on tape, listen to it on your car trip, and return it at the next Cracker Barrel minus a few dollars. I don’t know if they still do that but it was pretty nice.
@sammydog01
That’s great. Had no idea Craker Barrel did that.
Audiobook went huge here in the 90’s. The economy was hot, people took jobs everywhere and had huge commutes.
There were these rent-one-book-at-a-time stores that did very well for a while. They let you reserve books that were out.
1st bad part: they would usually have only one copy of a given book. So if you were doing a series that needed to be done in order, and you were behind a really slow listener, then the reserve line could get long, and you would have to wait forever to get book #6 or something.
My friends got stuck this way, and wound up just buying and reading the paperbacks, in order to skip past the slow person.
2nd bad part:. The markets were for abridged books back then. Because of so many tapes or CDs.
And going to unabridged was a big ongoing hassle for the business, as with a 20-30 tape or CD unabridged book, it was pretty easy for a single tape or CD to get damaged or lost.
But the abridged prefs of that era made sense in a way. What with the pain of the media, and people listening mostly during commutes, that’s what people wanted.
I had portable cassette and CD players for this. I could sometime get unabridged from the library or eBay or one if these stores.
I’m ok with some abridgements for non-fiction, but I hate them for fiction. I figure either the book is worth doing in full, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, then it’s not like I’m about to run out of good books anytime soon …
Then audible opened up. You just needed a digital player. A computer, at first, for most.
And along came the iPod and similar.
Perfect marriage of media and player, before smartphones.
Then there stopped even being much of a sales market for abridged books. People could listen just anyplace; so they wanted the real book.
I still have a few on cassette and CD, for nostalgia. And there are a few books for which the e-media downloadable or streaming rights (to audible/BN/etc) have never been offered.
Incidentally, Sirius used to have an audiobook channel. I don’t know if they still do. It not for me, unless they upgraded the controls; I can’t listen continuously, as that would require.
@ruouttaurmind
I think the last day for audible’s end of year 2fer sale is today.
@f00l Thank you for the reminder. I pretty much exhausted the selection offered this time around. I found four to ad to my library. A couple more looked interesting, but I hate to burn credits on shorter books. I guess I’d rather spend a credit on a long book at everyday rate than 2 short books on sale.
@ruouttaurmind
I picked up a bunch of history. I’ll go back for a last look.
@ruouttaurmind
Expired
31 or 32 Kindle books are discounted today as the Kindle Daily Deal.
An hour and a half to go.
Includes
An Alex Cross book
^Beren and Luthien* (JRR Tolkien)
And some other promising ones.
It appears to be kinda a “best of the year sale”.
Take a look
https://smile.amazon.com/b/ref=sr_aj?node=6165851011&ajr=0
@f00l
Expired
New Year’s Day Kindle Daily Deal.
52 good or worthy or interesting Kindle books, on sale until midnight Pacific Time. many are classics.
A few of them:
JRR Tolkien
The Lord is the Rings
Been and Luthien
Viktor Frankl
Man’s Search For Meaning
Homer
The Odyssey
Kelly Barnhill
The Girl Who Drank The Moon
Ransom Riggs
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children
Christopher Hitchens
God Is Not Great
Malala Yousafzai
I Am Malala
Douglas Preston
Crimson Shore
Barbara Kingsolver
The Poisonwood Bible
(Transcribed from various Cats)
I Could Pee On This
David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Robert Penn Warren
All The King’s Men
William Manchester
American Caesar: Douglas McArthur
The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook
The sale includes history, bio, fiction, nonfiction, YA, cookbooks, various genres, and children’s books.
https://smile.amazon.com/b/ref=sr_aj?node=7788141011&ajr=0
@f00l I bought “The Way Things Work Now”
@f00l I found a couple to buy, thanks!
@f00l
Expired
@ruouttaurmind found a new audible-like digital audiobook site.
Details here:
https://meh.com/forum/topics/january-2018-deals-thread
Similarities: large catalog, slightly cheaper monthly subscription cost.
Have not explored yet.
This topic has become a bit oppressive and OOC in length. I propose (and will create) a January Book Deals topic. Please consider posting new deals there.
/giphy gone rogue
@ruouttaurmind Especially since the book deals expire, I didn’t understand the need for an additional thread outside of the monthly one.
@therealjrn We babble (some of us anyway) and were filling up the deals thread.
@sammydog01 Do whatcha feels.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t mind the chatty talk. Just more information for your file.
@ruouttaurmind
Each new book deals topic (imho) should link back to the prev one. In case people want to see the older book chatter.
Also, what about renaming these topics as a “MONTH/YEAR book deals and book talk” topic?
So that people will know to come there also just to talk about what they are reading?
Whaddya think?
@f00l Seconded.
Though I propose a modest modification, for brevity: “January 2018 Book Deals and Discussions”.
-also-
Linking both directions. Whoever generates the new month’s topic should create the new topic with appropriate title and link back to previous month’s topic, as well as “ending” the previous month’s topic with a brief announcement and link to new month’s topic.
@ruouttaurmind
You are nicely organized.
@sammydog01? Are you OK with all this?
@f00l Sure as long as you don’t expect any actual work out of me. I’ll stop by any threads you guys post. Maybe a “what I’m reading now” thing?
I love books.
@Barney Reading anything good?
@sammydog01 No, not really, but I’ve got 686 books queued up on my Paperwhite. Maybe I’ll find something exciting there? It might take me a while…
@Barney
Have you no ambition?
/image ambition purple
@f00l
/image purple books
@f00l
I think we need a thread for folks who don’t feel much like chatting it up–like "Book Deals MONTH/YEAR NO TALKING. And then mehbe one for “Book Deals MONTH/YEAR Just-a-little-chit-chat” for folks who like writing short missives. And a NO SPOILERS thread too!
/J/K
Do whatcha feels, it’s all our house, right?
@therealjrn I got a chat thread going.
@therealjrn
@sammydog01
Good deal.
@f00l And I screwed up the title.