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Cardiac posted:You say like it's a bad thing? 
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Oct 22, 2016 19:29
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Cardiac posted:You say like it's a bad thing? Well, if I hadn't chosen a path through education and work and family which meant living in an area where housing is kind of expensive, and instead taken over my childhood home out in the sticks... eight or nine "bedrooms", three living rooms, and a whole barn as well to store stuff in... I guess I'd have room for enough bookshelves then. As it is, no.
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Oct 22, 2016 21:29
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Khizan posted:I'm the other way around. gently caress paperbacks and gently caress hardbacks. I am only interested in buying an ebook and I will gladly pay a few bucks extra as a convenience fee for it. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Oct 22, 2016 |
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Oct 22, 2016 23:38
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coyo7e posted:I totally felt this way as well until I stopped paying for my audible subscription for a couple months and then realized that I needed to drop $9.99/yr just to have access to the poo poo I already loving paid thousands of dollars for over the last 5-10 years. Yeah, I never tried Audible because it looked way too pricey. Good thing we're talking about ebooks and not audiobooks.
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Oct 22, 2016 23:58
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Because there's no way that amazon might do to one format, what they've done to another format  How're your itunes purchases from the early 00's, working out for you?
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Oct 23, 2016 00:32
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coyo7e posted:Because there's no way that amazon might do to one format, what they've done to another format Yep. Because you can re-download purchases in a higher bit-rate and no DRM. Also, since they use the open AAC format almost any media player can play them with no issue.
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Oct 23, 2016 01:03
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coyo7e posted:Because there's no way that amazon might do to one format, what they've done to another format I mean, you can bulk strip drm out of essentially every amazon e-book in your downloaded Kindle library with simply a click and drag.
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Oct 23, 2016 01:48
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coyo7e posted:I totally felt this way as well until I stopped paying for my audible subscription for a couple months and then realized that I needed to drop $9.99/yr just to have access to the poo poo I already loving paid thousands of dollars for over the last 5-10 years. ?? Audible is expensive but you keep access to your audiobooks even when you're not currently subscribed to one of their plans. Every audiobook I own on the service has been through one of their free month / free three months promos , or the discounted months I get by threatening to cancel, plus the free scalzi preorder thing somebody posted about a few months ago. I've never had a problem accessing them and I repeat listen to my favorites frequently with no active sub. andrew smash fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 02:03
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Soooo after getting pushed back to like March of next year, the release date for the new Rivers of London book has been changed to November 3rd. Looks like it might actually be coming out this time as it seems like people have gotten ARCs that they posted reviews on. That's good news. I had figured that Aaronovitch must be so busy writing the comics we were never going to get the next books. Which reminds me I still haven't gotten around to reading those River of London comics. Can anyone tell me if they're any good?
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Oct 23, 2016 02:13
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andrew smash posted:?? Audible is expensive but you keep access to your audiobooks even when you're not currently subscribed to one of their plans. Every audiobook I own on the service has been through one of their free month / free three months promos , or the discounted months I get by threatening to cancel, plus the free scalzi preorder thing somebody posted about a few months ago. I've never had a problem accessing them and I repeat listen to my favorites frequently with no active sub. In light of the fact that he seems to think iTunes music files that were purchased in the dark days of DRM are still locked with DRM, I'm absolutely not surprised he's completely wrong about this as well.
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Oct 23, 2016 02:40
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Cardiac posted:You say like it's a bad thing? This is how I felt until I realized that I had stopped buying books because I didn't have space for any more books on my bookshelf, didn't have any more space in my room for another bookshelf, and then I had to move to a different apartment and realized that moving boxes and boxes of books is super lovely. When I moved across the country, I donated the vast majority of my collection and never looked back. When I'm a homeowner, someday, I'll build up a physical collection again. But that's years away still.
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Oct 23, 2016 03:53
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Coca Koala posted:This is how I felt until I realized that I had stopped buying books because I didn't have space for any more books on my bookshelf, didn't have any more space in my room for another bookshelf, and then I had to move to a different apartment and realized that moving boxes and boxes of books is super lovely. When I moved across the country, I donated the vast majority of my collection and never looked back. I went through a two year period where I spent evenings and weekends skimming books at B&N because I couldn't fit anymore. I bought maybe half a dozen books over that period. Then I got a Kindle app on my phone and never bought another physical book again.
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Oct 23, 2016 04:03
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Less Fat Luke posted:Storage and transports costs definitely add up Yeah, this is what finally got me to move entirely to e-books. I didn't have a crazy library or anything, but it was still a huge hassle to move them every few years. Now I just have a Calibre library that fits on a USB drive. 
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Oct 23, 2016 05:49
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Groke posted:Well, if I hadn't chosen a path through education and work and family which meant living in an area where housing is kind of expensive, and instead taken over my childhood home out in the sticks... eight or nine "bedrooms", three living rooms, and a whole barn as well to store stuff in... I guess I'd have room for enough bookshelves then. As it is, no. So you made the wrong life choice then? I have a shitload of books I need to find a new storage space for once number two arrives, so I perfectly understand. But I just find books to be so much nicer to read than my Kindle
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Oct 23, 2016 06:10
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While you can easily strip the DRM from Kindle books, doing so is illegal. I mean it's incredibly unlikely anyone would ever come after you for it unless you started up a truly massive and blatant  operation but technically those ebooks are not yours. You can't re-sell them, or donate them, or give them away. There's limited capacity for lending them to friends now but it's two-weeks only; you could always re-lend I guess (I guess?) but that limitation is a bother and I believe it's Kindle-to-Kindle only. Or Amazon might just outright delete things from your own device. These are significant limitations and of course keeping that library relies on Amazon continuing to exist. Don't laugh. Used to be in the day if you wanted something delivered to your house you mailed a check to Sears & Roebuck, and where are they now? I don't think Amazon is in trouble or going away soon, but I am wary of having something valuable of mine in private hands that can simply disappear if the stock market goes bad enough. As well, if you get your Amazon account banned for some reason like this guy you're in a bit of a pickle with no recourse. I have a pretty decent-sized Kindle library and I intend to keep expanding it--I enjoy reading it, I find it easier for some more cramped reading situations (standing on train) but I also still like the feel and presence of a physical book. Modern trade paper books are so nice! The production values really make them pleasant to own, for me. Of course, like everyone else in this thread, I don't have any more space for books and need to get rid of some before I have to move again. Basically, I like having both options, but the downsides of ebooks shouldn't be ignored.
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Oct 23, 2016 12:56
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occamsnailfile posted:While you can easily strip the DRM from Kindle books, doing so is illegal. I mean it's incredibly unlikely anyone would ever come after you for it unless you started up a truly massive and blatant Unless the law has changed, it's not illegal to bypass DRM. It's illegal to make available the methods to do so. For instance back in the day DVDCSS cracking wasn't illegal in itself, but hosting the lib for download was.
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Oct 23, 2016 18:04
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Also he kinda came out of nowhere with the filez talk. I'm still trying to figure out what prompted that post.
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Oct 23, 2016 18:21
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WarLocke posted:Also he kinda came out of nowhere with the filez talk. I'm still trying to figure out what prompted that post. I mentioned that you could make the ebooks that you pay for 'truly yours' by stripping out drm back when Coyo7e was complaining about Itunes or something halfway up the page. I assume his post was motivated by mine. There is literally no downside to an ebook provided the world we live in still has computers and electricity to run them. If that no longer becomes the case, then I'll break out my paperback copy of Wolf and Iron. Drifter fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 18:27
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I'm like halfway through Death's End (maybe a little less) and I kind of don't like this latest plot point. It's super sexist. You know, the lady instantly fails at the job that a man had been doing for fifty-four years bit. Because that's what it boils down to. I'm not going to stop reading! The book is good. But this is bullshit.
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Oct 23, 2016 19:20
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I'm like halfway through Death's End (maybe a little less) and I kind of don't like this latest plot point. It's super sexist. You have no idea whether she failed or not at this point in the book. Read on! Possible major indirect spoiler under the tags, so hover at your own risk.
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Oct 23, 2016 19:40
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flosofl posted:Unless the law has changed, it's not illegal to bypass DRM. It's illegal to make available the methods to do so. For instance back in the day DVDCSS cracking wasn't illegal in itself, but hosting the lib for download was. You're wrong about what the law was back then (at least in the US) as well as current law. Circumvention of copyright control mechanisms is illegal (17 USC 1201 (a)(1)(A)), and distribution is (separately) illegal (17 USC 1201 (a)(2)(A)).
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Oct 23, 2016 23:05
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:You have no idea whether she failed or not at this point in the book. Read on! Possible major indirect spoiler under the tags, so hover at your own risk. (haven't gone any further than that, but I will soon and maybe I'll see what you mean)
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Oct 24, 2016 00:17
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Posted in the just finished thread before it occurred to me that we have a SFF thread, oops. I just finished Codex Alera book 1, and I'm about fifty pages into book 2. Does it maintain strong interest throughout? It feels like it's moved rather quick for being a six-volume set, and I'd hate to get three books in before I find out Jimmy ran out of strong plot. Also, the Amara + Bernard thing is pretty weird e: wow hit the wrong button on Awful americong fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Oct 24, 2016 |
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Oct 24, 2016 00:31
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americong posted:Posted in the just finished thread before it occurred to me that we have a SFF thread, oops. Book 3 and 4 are pretty great. You can stop after that.
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Oct 24, 2016 00:53
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Yea, it keeps your interest rolling. The ending is sort of a wet fart though. It's... eh, it's not terrific or particular well written or amazing, but gently caress, it's pokemon and ancient rome which is basically just fun to read.
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Oct 24, 2016 02:30
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Yea, it keeps your interest rolling. The ending is sort of a wet fart though. I was willing to give it a chance on implausibility of premise alone, it owns
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Oct 24, 2016 02:56
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Was just given a collection of Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John short stories. Need to hunt down the novels at some point, but the writing is surprisingly good for pulpy fantasy - it's nice to see rural Appalachian myth used as a backdrop and driving force behind stories, and the connection to the ballad tradition was good. Anyone here read any of the novels from the series? While I'll likely hunt in a couple of used bookstores, I'd like to know if it's worth it. Related, but Manly Wade Wellman is one of the best names for a pulpy author I've ever seen.
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Oct 24, 2016 05:05
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Why are arguing over the legality? Buy your goddamn books so the author makes some money, Christ, not that hard.
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Oct 24, 2016 07:37
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The argument wasn't about piracy or stealing books, it was about the legality of buying a Kindle book and then stripping the DRM off of it after you have purchased it.
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Oct 24, 2016 07:40
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So uh, I've been reading Blindsight and it may be once again my bad for not being an English speaker but.. I can't understand poo poo? I mean I'm like on page 120 and I can't understand anything, I don't know what characters he's talking about, what they're doing, I get the main plot (they're the third wave of a series of four(might or might not be four, could be some diplomats behind them) responsible for establishing contact with a huge ship they discovered after taking off to a gas giant nearby a signal emitting object) but regarding everything else I just feel a huge "woosh" as everything goes way over my head after every single page or sentence. Is this just a "thing" with this book? I had some difficulty reading The Quantum Thief but when I really wanted to I managed to read it and love it. This one just takes that technobabble and turns it up to eleven, making it an unreadable mess for me, so far. Does it get better?
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Oct 24, 2016 14:06
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I'm just about finished Blackout by Connie Willis and I have not enjoyed it. Unless the ending has some payoff to make up for endless pages of "Maybe the retrieval team will come on Friday. If not, then they will probably come on Monday" I do not intend to read All Clear.
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Oct 24, 2016 15:54
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NotWearingPants posted:I'm just about finished Blackout by Connie Willis and I have not enjoyed it. Unless the ending has some payoff to make up for endless pages of "Maybe the retrieval team will come on Friday. If not, then they will probably come on Monday" I do not intend to read All Clear. It doesn't and you shouldn't.
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Oct 24, 2016 15:56
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I mean, they literally relocated all of humanity to Australia and she doesn't have the thingy anymore, so... Turns out everyone's just an idiot. The only person who made good decisions was the murderous psychopath, and I think it was more coincidence than him actually being smart either. Like, seriously, at almost every point the worst possible decision was made by whichever human the camera was focusing on. World was great. Would love to read more of Cixin Liu's stuff as it gets written. But the characters were so drat stupid.
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Oct 24, 2016 16:12
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americong posted:Posted in the just finished thread before it occurred to me that we have a SFF thread, oops. The mid two or three are great, if only because the various minor villains from the first book who spin the whole "I'm loyal to the crown, not Emperor So-And-So, the realm needs a strong ruler etc etc " end up actually following through with it, and (briefly) put aside their petty squabbles to fight the zerg
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Oct 24, 2016 16:47
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Finished the book. I'd personally have been happy to leave it at the end of book two. But other than that yeah I also finished Death's End recently and have been puzzling over what the author actually meant. I do think it's no coincidence human history is sorted into eras like crisis, common, deterrence, etc. It looks like a deliberate mirror of the trisolaran stable/chaotic era cycle. The idea being that if the trisolarans can't handle a three body problem with their suns, then how the hell can humanity or anyone else handle a trillion body problem like a paranoid galaxy trying to kill you. That approach would explain to me why the end went into such insanity. The suspension in time at the very end in particular felt straight out of Douglas Adams in a way. The galaxy is vast and bizarre and the best you can hope for is that someone remembers you tried. Even the dark forest isn't a hard rule, with the one race cheerfully broadcasting to absolutely everyone they they've broken the universal mass limit. So the message is nihilism and make-the-best-of-it-ism?
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Oct 24, 2016 19:13
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Strategic Tea posted:Even the dark forest isn't a hard rule, with the one race cheerfully broadcasting to absolutely everyone they they've broken the universal mass limit. Not that I have any idea what it is they did beyond that. e: Also, I wanted way more of Singer. Best character.
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Oct 24, 2016 20:30
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The one and only problem I have with ebooks is you can't just hand a novel over to a friend and say "you have to read this".
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Oct 24, 2016 20:35
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A lesser issue with ebooks is that you can't flip them for a profit. Not that you can flip most physical books for a profit, either, but when you can, it's usually a pretty nice chunk of change.
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Oct 24, 2016 20:50
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^^^ - like 2-6 bucks a pop usually. I guess it adds up if you do it. I've never resold books, I've just given books I no longer want over to goodwill or a school library. Resale, in general, has been a small factor when I consider ebook pricing, however. You kinda want it low enough to encourage people who would only buy used items to bite on an ebook, too.a kitten posted:The one and only problem I have with ebooks is you can't just hand a novel over to a friend and say "you have to read this". 
Drifter fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Oct 24, 2016 |
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Oct 24, 2016 20:50
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Drifter posted:I would never loan a book to a friend. I might buy them a copy, but everybody I know always fucks up the spines and poo poo of books. Or you never get them back .
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Oct 24, 2016 20:52
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