Where can I buy ebooks? Help!

[frogbeastegg]

I desperately need a source of ebooks for my Sony Reader. Not free books, and not classics - I can find plenty of those. I'm looking for new and current titles in the following categories: fantasy, scifi, fiction, classical and medieval history.

I'm in the UK so I'm blocked from buying from all the American sites I have looked at, which I find disgusting. Restrictions on books is something I have always associated with repressive dictator states, and always will. Why can't I buy ebooks when I can (and often do) buy American mass market paperbacks?

The only UK site is waterstones.com. The ebook portion of the site is rubbish and user unfriendly, and is becoming more so as time passes and extra books go up. They're glacially slow at adding new titles. They're barely adding anything decent; the last month's worth of books consists almost entirely of soft porn and romance books. They have taken down most of the books I brought! Heaven knows what will happen if I want to download them again.

I love my Reader, and it all started so well, but now I've read most of the 60 odd books on it and haven't found anything new worth picking up in over a month. I've got 2 trilogies which are missing books and so are unreadable. What possessed them to put up books 1 and 3 of a trilogy?! Worst yet I have been waiting 2 months for the missing books to go up, and both titles are available on American sites. BTW, a good half of those ~60 books are free classics which came on a CD with the device, so don't get the impression waterstones managed to find 60 good books.

I've had the device for 2 months and I've watched it go from great beginning to verging on disaster purely because waterstones (or the publishers?) can't get their act together.

[/plea for help with semi rant mixed in]

[CBR]

Hm what sites are blocking you? I remember a couple of sites I have visited (but not bought anything from) Fictionwise and BooksonBoard.

But http://www.mobileread.com/ should be good site for info and discussions of sites and various readers.


CBR

[Hosakawa Tito]

I'm not familiar with how purchasing ebooks works, and don't understand why the UK is blocked from downloading such a file. Can someone in the US download an ebook and then send the file to you via email attachment or would the file be too big? I would be willing to try if it would work.

[Kekvit Irae]

I'm not familiar with how purchasing ebooks works, and don't understand why the UK is blocked from downloading such a file. Can someone in the US download an ebook and then send the file to you via email attachment or would the file be too big? I would be willing to try if it would work.

If it is something that has to be paid for, what you are suggesting is piracy.

[Ramses II CP]

Well, from a quick poke around it looks like Penguin is getting ready to make a big push in the UK ebooks genre:

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/u...uin/index.html

I didn't see too much of interest listed there (And the prices! You're getting gouged over there), but Penguin has a decent back catalog if a glance through my shelves has anything to say about it.

I don't quite understand why a book in English isn't just a %&$^ing book in English. What's the purpose in breaking up the market and making it harder to purchase these? Is this just yet another in the astonishing list of events where the publishing industry as a whole sawed off it's foot while desperately struggling to preserve it's toenail clippings?

[Kekvit Irae]

I don't quite understand why a book in English isn't just a %&$^ing book in English.

It's easier to carry around an iPod with 50 ebooks than it is to lug around 50 real books everywhere you go.

[Ramses II CP]

That's not quite what I meant (I read off my iPhone via Stanza all the time); I don't understand why the publishing industry continues to fragment itself into unsustainable little chunks while bleeding customers. Books, physical or otherwise, are dirt cheap to make and yet the industry only raises prices, only cuts author percentages, and kicks off meaningless ****ing contests between the various markets for no better reason than hoarding their ever diminishing circle of buyers. It doesn't take a genius to see a collapse of epic proportions on the horizon.

[frogbeastegg]

Hm what sites are blocking you?

The Sony US site shows me shiny pretty books and then laughs as I try to pick them up. I tried a few of the publishers' own sites with the same result. It's usually buried in the small print; it looks like you can buy until you try it, at which point you discover there's some 3 pixel high text buried three links down which says "This site is for users in the USA only".

Ebooks.com was touted in a few places; I went, found books I wanted, and couldn't get them because I'm not in the US or Canada. As it turns out that was misfortune on my part; prompted by the site you linked to I went back and had another look. They do have books which you can buy in the UK; the ones I looked at on my first visit were some of the region restricted ones. I can't get most of the books I want; I can get some. Better than nothing, assuredly.

http://www.mobileread.com

That site is so handy! Thank you very much. I've learned a couple of tricks from it already. I can use any books in the abode secure format because that's a forerunner of the abode editions format the reader can display, so they all work naturally. Ebooks.com has a large selection of titles in this format, and at least some of them are available to users in the UK. There's another site called fictionwise which does much the same thing, so I'll be hitting that one once I have finished clearing out everything I can get from ebooks.com.

There's a converter tool for microsoft format ebooks, so I can buy those and convert them into one of the formats the Reader can use. That opens up WHSmith's ebook site.

I'm not familiar with how purchasing ebooks works, and don't understand why the UK is blocked from downloading such a file. Can someone in the US download an ebook and then send the file to you via email attachment or would the file be too big? I would be willing to try if it would work.

The checks on the Sony site are:
IP address
PC library software version
Credit card.

You have to have an IP in the US, the US version of the software and a US credit card. Fail any one and tough luck. This includes US residents when they leave the states for whatever reason. AFAIK the UK store applies any checks, so US residents could buy from there should they feel the desire to enjoy our puny range and high prices.

Technically there is nothing to stop it. I could paypal you the money, you could download the book and send it on to me, and there we go. Realistically, that would use up 2 out of the 3 activations before I even get it on my Reader, and that means difficulty in the future.

I also buy books like other girls buy shoes. My record is 83 books in a single go. I did pity the postman ... but that's what happens when a frog gets an added 13% off on top of the usual online discounts. I still smile when I think about it. 83 books Imagine forwarding that little lot on.

Penguin

Believe it or not that tiny selection forms a good portion of the highlights over on waterstones ebook section.

They have been saying coming soon since I began looking, months ago. Admittedly there's been some progress; they didn't have a proper page before, just a small line of text saying "Coming soon".

It's easier to carry around an iPod with 50 ebooks

Not to mention oh so much easier to store. I long ago reached crisis point on book storage; I have two rooms crammed full. There are more books in my house then there are in the stockroom of my bookshop!

[Hosakawa Tito]

If it is something that has to be paid for, what you are suggesting is piracy.

Oops, clerical error. I meant that uh...hypothetically of course. Though isn't it ironic that I could buy the hardcover books and post them to Miss Froggy with no legal restrictions. If one could find a container ship large enough to handle such a consignment that is.

Not to mention oh so much easier to store. I long ago reached crisis point on book storage; I have two rooms crammed full. There are more books in my house then there are in the stockroom of my bookshop!

Well there sweetheart, you appear to be inflicted with the same chronic affliction as my dear departed first wife. My study is an extention of the Library of Congress, and much of it belonged to Marcy. I pray your significant other, and the Postman, is blessed with a strong back.

[||Lz3||]

don't your eyes hurt after reading for long periods of time on an e-reader?

[frogbeastegg]

Well there sweetheart, you appear to be inflicted with the same chronic affliction as my dear departed first wife. My study is an extention of the Library of Congress, and much of it belonged to Marcy. I pray your significant other, and the Postman, is blessed with a strong back.

It's not an affliction. It's a state of higher being.

I have my poor dear boyfriend well trained. He carries book bags without being asked ... most of the time. Occasionally he manages to look semi-interested when he asks (with a pained tone, naturally) what I've brought this time. Even better, sometimes he will, of his own accord and entirely sincerely, start saying my reading so much is a good thing and he admires it.

don't your eyes hurt after reading for long periods of time on an e-reader?

The Sony Reader uses an e-ink display. They are nothing like monitors or LCDs, and the end result does look exactly like paper. I've read an entire book in a single sitting without any adverse effects, whereas a monitor tends to make my eyes irritable after less than an hour.



OH, BTW, I got 11 books yesterday. I wanted another 7 but they were blocked to me. I'd have got 10 more from the WH Smiths site but I baulked at the checkout - they tried to tax me! There is no tax on books in the UK, electronic or otherwise. I'm in the UK, it's a UK site, and that was £25 of pure extortion. I refuse to pay it.

[LeftEyeNine]

bookbeastegg.

[frogbeastegg]

You don't know the half of it. I'm the manager of a bookshop. The only time I'm not surrounded by books is when I'm outside my house but not at work. :read:

[LeftEyeNine]

edit: bookbookbook.

[Martok]

edit: bookbookbook.

QFT.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Of course, I'm no better than she is....

[Kekvit Irae]

Books are my eternal bane. As bad as they may be, I'd rather watch a movie adaptation than read the book.

[||Lz3||]

how much did it cost you?

here if I were to try to find one , it would cost me the same than an xbox 360 <.<

[Husar]

Books are my eternal bane. As bad as they may be, I'd rather watch a movie adaptation than read the book.

I agree, I also find them a lot more expensive than, say, a game, liked to read as a kid but I went through books relatively fast and needed new ones which I couldn't nearly afford, I stopped and never really started reading books again.

[||Lz3||]

"television and cinemas are entertainments for the iletrated masses...
(that is the bunch of ignorant people that can't read)" -Carlos Ruiz Zafón

though I have to agree that sometimes they are a lil bit expensive <.<

[frogbeastegg]

how much did it cost you?

here if I were to try to find one , it would cost me the same than an xbox 360 <.<

In the UK the Sony Reader is £199 which makes it cheaper than the small selection of (IMO inferior) alternatives we're offered. That makes it more expensive than an xbox here too.

I agree, I also find them a lot more expensive than, say a game.

I own a few books which cost me a £100 or more. They're all history books. I don't know what is more frightening: that I spent that much on a book, or that I feel it worth every penny.



I barely watch TV or films, and it's been that way for years. There is very little out there which appeals to me, and those few invariably go bad or get canceled. Take Heroes. It was the first thing I watched since HBO's Rome finished, and I only watched it because my boyfriend insisted. I loved series 1, was mainly indifferent to series 2, and have sworn off ever looking at series 3 after 2 episodes. They have butchered everything I liked about it.

Books and games is the closer competition, and it's no competition at all. Tell me I have to choose one and I will go with books, albeit with regret.

Books and writing, they go hand in hand. Tell me to choose one and it's impossible.