Ahira's Hangar

Bought a Sony Reader today at the little store at work. It was marked down to $149.99, and since it is a federal government store, no sales tax. Just in time for my beach vacation. First time I can go on a long beach vacation without packing a backpack filled with books.

Good for you, Duchess! Which model did you get?

I'm sure I'll have to replace my Sony 505 at some point. And now there are about a billion devices to choose from... I'm kind of hoping this one lasts 'til the market shakes out.

It is the Pocket Edition (not sure of the model number). I have downloaded a bunch of old stuff - some of the Oz books, and Tarzan books and H.G. Wells stuff, histories by ancient Romans and Greeks etc. to read on the beach.

Very cool!

Love the little thing. Gave it very heavy use and it only ran the battery halfway down. Doesn't strain my eyes, and I have over 150 free books loaded on it, which means it has pretty much already paid for itself.

Yay, another convert! I bought the last Liveship Traders book as an e-edition, after having set the Reader aside for awhile. Now I'm back to dead-tree books for a bit. Damn, the transitions are killing me.

They have Outlander for free at the Sony Reader store right now.

Really? I'll have to grab it -- free is my favorite price. I either bought all the Outlander books from the used bookstore and sold them back, or borrowed them from the library. Except for the last couple, which I've had to pay real money for.

The Reader Store also has Clan of the Cave Bear for $1.99. Or maybe that was at the Borders e-book store. I haven't bought anything yet from the Borders store, but theirs are all in EPUB format so they should work just fine.

I wish they would bring out a lot of older titles for cheap prices like that. You figure many/most people have already bought those at least once in paper, so why not try to make another sale (even at a very low price) in another format? Especially with a new book coming out in that series -would love to buy the older ones (which I already have bought once in paper) for my Reader.

Seriously - with older titles that people can buy used for under a dollar - why not release e-copies for $2.50 or $5.00, or some other low price so people will buy them from the publisher rather than buy a used copy for a penny plus postage from Amazon? At least they can make a small profit that way, which is better than no profit.

(I can see charging more money, up to the paper-bound price for a newer or rarer release where a publisher is not competing with the used market).

I think the publishers would totally agree with you. The problem is with negotiating new author contracts. Most or all of these books came out long before e-editions were imagined, so the rights were never sold. Now -- at least in SRD's case -- the publisher that holds the rights to the dead-tree books wants to buy the e-rights as well, and the terms are unacceptable. (I suspect they want to buy them cheap....) It didn't help in SRD's case that he has no love in his heart for Ballantine anymore.

I suspect Gabaldon's book is free as a come-on for the latest volume, which is a graphic novel version of the original Outlander. Clan of the Cave Bear is cheap now, obviously, because the final volume in the series is coming out, and the publisher is looking for new readers to buy all of them.

So we may see the older books eventually, but only if the publisher can negotiate the rights with the authors *and* if the publisher can figure out a marketing hook. Otherwise, we're stuck waiting for Google to digitize every book ever in print....

The authors are slitting their own throats if they turn down cheap contracts for cheap e-books. It gives them money they otherwise would not be earning without the e-book sale - and possibly even bring them new fans. Again, better a buck or two from a cheap e-book sale than nothing for someone buying old used books. With the economy the way it is, I am sure that a lot of people are buying used books instead of new ones - if they are buying books at all (if you have to choose between paying your arrears mortgage and buying books, guess which wins?). Many people can justify paying $5 or less, though, for a book even with the economy in a shambles. Even when dead broke people do want to be entertained.

I had not realized how very much I love my Sony Reader until the little guy died Sunday night (it is frozen up and nothing I can do gets it unfrozen - even the reset button does nothing - on my next day off work I might have to wipe its memory and start over... ).

I do not even want to pick up a paper bound printed book these days (though I will reluctantly tolerate free ARC's from Amazon)...just want to use my Reader.

Got the Sony Reader working again. In case this ever happens to any of you:

got a dreaded white screen of death while reading a little urban fantasy novel with the ironic title of Fade Out.

restarted the device, it froze up while loading the books (froze with the arrows frozen in place, if you have a Reader you know of the arrows of which I speak).

plugged it into the wall in case the batteries were low on charge

next day was still frozen. turned it on and off repeatedly, kept freezing in the same point in the process

hit reset button a few times (waiting in between each hit) - again, kept freezing up at same point

connected it to the computer - still frozen up in same spot when unhooked

connected it again and hit reset button while hooked to the computer - still froze up when unconnected

hit reset once more after unhooking from the computer, threw it in my purse and waited for morning

IT IS ALIVE!!!!!!!

Lol, I guess it needed a break.

Duchess, it strikes me as a strange coincidence that both your reader and cell should experience such issues the same weekend. Do you think perhaps both were hit by a power surge or something while being charged before your trip? Did the service people at your cell provider tell you what was wrong after they got your cell working again?