Murbella - Oh you mean specifically World of Books? They’re a company limited by guarantee, according to a quick search. Which means they’re essentially not for-profit, but for the the aims laid out in their founding document. (Actually they might even be a “Community Interest Company”, I’m not sure the search I’m using picks up on that)
(Also, there’s another reason that low value/damaged books get sold for a penny on some sites - they can try and sign you up to their mailing list, get more business from you, etc.)
Even when i had a nook, i used Amazon because their marketplace just blew everyone else out of the water.
I recommend using calibre to manage your device. It just makes life a lot easier. Even after all of this time, the OS used on e-readers and amazon’s kindle App are pretty crappy, so i only keep books that i plan to read in the near future on mine.
I guess it depends what you’re buying. About 75% of what I want is on Smashwords, 20% on the Baen site, and the other 5% is split between people’s own sites and Amazon. Also, it tends to be 10-20c cheaper on Smashwords, which adds up when you read as fast as I do :)
I’ve used Calibre for years. It’s great. (Well, not too keen on it’s reader, but I have EPUBReader in Firefox for that)
And yea, one reason I like my Nook is that it doesn’t crap out if you have 300 books on the device.
(I do admit I’m very interested in the Kobo Glo HD coming out next month - same screen as the Kindle Voyage, much cheaper and does ePub. If the touch screen’s good… (and I wouldn’t use 3G on an ereader anyway))
In an ideal world this is fine but the reality is something else.
I am an avid reader probably between 2 and 3 books a week. The other day I went in to a book shop in the uk and a standard paperback was either £8.99 or £9.99 thats what $15 for a paperback so that would be $45 or £30 a week on books that is just not affordable.
Amazon allows me a much wider choice at a much more reasonable price.
Going in to book shops all you can find is the latest top 40, 2ft of horror and 12ft of sci-fi and fantasy most of which is the same stuff by the same authors. If you want something different, different topics or themes tough luck.
Another thing that has changed for me is when I had to pay a lot for a book I read and finished it regardless, now days if it’s cheap or a freebie or on offer and it sucks I don’t mind and I dump it, it has definitely widened my reading as the worry of spending top dollar on something and not enjoying has passed.
