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Post by ripper on Nov 23, 2018 8:53:59 GMT
Clicked on this thread and saw the book and thought; 'Oooo must get that'. Then looked at the next post down... Now where the f*ck did I put that!? You're not on your own. Several times in the past I have purchased books only to have forgotten I already had copies.
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Post by ripper on Nov 23, 2018 9:02:20 GMT
It's a shame that the casual reader and the collector seem to be mutually exclusive more often than not. These days, I'm more inclined to buy an anthology of this type if the book is a nice thing to have in its own right. I quite like what the British Library is doing with its Tales of the Weird line. The books are very nicely packaged, I think, and the editors seem to get the contents right more often than not. Much to my surprise, I am now buying a higher proportion of Kindle books than I ever thought I would. I am still not a great fan of ebooks in general, preferring a physical copy, but due to their cheaper price I am more willing to take a chance. Also, by downloading a free sample I can check the contents to see how many tales I already have.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 23, 2018 16:32:07 GMT
Hi Ripper, same here re eBooks. Part of it is that I've had to travel more to spend time with my elderly parents in a southern state and the Kizmo (as I call it) is just so much more convenient when I am away from hme. Also, if I suddenly find myself intolerably bored with whatever I have in hand, I can bounce to one of my old fave raves. I've got stuff by everybody from Sarah Caudwell and Simon Raven to Colin Wilson and Mme Blavatsky on the thing.
I never had any interest in electronic editions--but then two lovely friends gave me as a surprise birthday gift a kizmo (the "paperwhite," for which one actually needs a light source--since it is not a glowing screen, it's much easier on the eyes). One of the friends did have a very slight ulterior motive since most of her own books are published as ebooks only now and she wanted feedback on her work (I like it a lot).
This morning I was contemplating the electronic collection of Lovecraft's revision work, The Horror in the Museum, as edited by Stephen Jones (who also seems to be the protagonist of the title yarn). The attraction of this collection is that the texts were carefully restored from the heavily edited versions published in earlier decades. Many of these stories do appear to be available online, however.
cheers, H.
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Post by ripper on Nov 23, 2018 20:30:59 GMT
Hi Ripper, same here re eBooks. Part of it is that I've had to travel more to spend time with my elderly parents in a southern state and the Kizmo (as I call it) is just so much more convenient when I am away from hme. Also, if I suddenly find myself intolerably bored with whatever I have in hand, I can bounce to one of my old fave raves. I've got stuff by everybody from Sarah Caudwell and Simon Raven to Colin Wilson and Mme Blavatsky on the thing. I never had any interest in electronic editions--but then two lovely friends gave me as a surprise birthday gift a kizmo (the "paperwhite," for which one actually needs a light source--since it is not a glowing screen, it's much easier on the eyes). One of the friends did have a very slight ulterior motive since most of her own books are published as ebooks only now and she wanted feedback on her work (I like it a lot). This morning I was contemplating the electronic collection of Lovecraft's revision work, The Horror in the Museum, as edited by Stephen Jones (who also seems to be the protagonist of the title yarn). The attraction of this collection is that the texts were carefully restored from the heavily edited versions published in earlier decades. Many of these stories do appear to be available online, however. cheers, H. I have been looking through some entries in what I believe is a Kindle-only series of ghost stories from Wimbourne called The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories and which runs to 10 volumes so far, each with 20 or so stories. There are many volumes which contain a high proportion of tales I don't have, and as they are selling for either 99p or £1.99, they are of serious interest to me, particularly as I am very fond of ghost stories from the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are also a large number of entries in the 'Megapack' series, and they sell for usually under £1. I do find having a Kindle it is very convenient as a handy way to carry around a large collection of books on the go, even though I don't have the same sense of actually owning the ebooks as I do when I have physical copies.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 23, 2018 21:59:40 GMT
Thanks for the tip about the Wimbourne series. They look interesting--old chestnuts mingled up with material I've not heard of.
I do have a couple of the "megapack" books on the device. I think the last one I loaded on was a Frank Belknap Long anthology. That was maybe a year ago. I periodically delete material off it as I know at some point I will approach gridlock. I think I recently figured out how to check and see just how much space is left on the thing.
Now I'm hearing the late Hermione Gingold intoning on one of her LPs, "isn't modern technology GHASTLY?" I don't think I'll ever stop feeling like a Luddite in recovery with all of it, even when I do find these new-fangled contraptions handy.
cheers, H.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 23, 2018 23:07:28 GMT
I do find having a Kindle it is very convenient as a handy way to carry around a large collection of books on the go, even though I don't have the same sense of actually owning the ebooks as I do when I have physical copies. I am buying more ebooks than print these days. They have their merits. Adjustable font, no shelf space needed, etc. But I have made the same observation. Ebooks are just a glorified file, and as such not worth the same as print. Therefore as a rule I don't buy editions which cost more or less the same as the print. I often browse my content page and detect books I already forgot I bought some time ago.
The biggest disservice Ebooks did were killing the art of the cover and lowering the standards. If I open a sample and see a dozen missspellings and grammatical errors on those first pages, I would be crazy to pay money for this.
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Post by ripper on Nov 24, 2018 10:13:36 GMT
I do find having a Kindle it is very convenient as a handy way to carry around a large collection of books on the go, even though I don't have the same sense of actually owning the ebooks as I do when I have physical copies. I am buying more ebooks than print these days. They have their merits. Adjustable font, no shelf space needed, etc. But I have made the same observation. Ebooks are just a glorified file, and as such not worth the same as print. Therefore as a rule I don't buy editions which cost more or less the same as the print. I often browse my content page and detect books I already forgot I bought some time ago. The biggest disservice Ebooks did were killing the art of the cover and lowering the standards. If I open a sample and see a dozen missspellings and grammatical errors on those first pages, I would be crazy to pay money for this.
Yes, a problem with Kindle books is that they can vary quite a bit in quality, and I agree that I would never buy an ebook that is near the price of its print equivalent. To be honest, I am loathe to pay more than a couple of pounds for an ebook. One good thing about Kindle books, however, is that you can use various devices to read them, such as a dedicated Kindle, Kindle Fire tablet, Kindle for PC app and the Kindle app on a smartphone. That gives me more confidence that I will not suddenly lose my ebooks due to a device breaking. Several times in the pre-Kindle past I have purchased ebooks that had to be downloaded, only to have a hard drive failure and losing them.
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Post by ripper on Nov 24, 2018 10:29:25 GMT
Thanks for the tip about the Wimbourne series. They look interesting--old chestnuts mingled up with material I've not heard of. I do have a couple of the "megapack" books on the device. I think the last one I loaded on was a Frank Belknap Long anthology. That was maybe a year ago. I periodically delete material off it as I know at some point I will approach gridlock. I think I recently figured out how to check and see just how much space is left on the thing. Now I'm hearing the late Hermione Gingold intoning on one of her LPs, "isn't modern technology GHASTLY?" I don't think I'll ever stop feeling like a Luddite in recovery with all of it, even when I do find these new-fangled contraptions handy. cheers, H. It is difficult to keep up with technology. Just think how much things have changed in the past 20 years and what it could be like in 2038. We now have a generation growing up who will find it difficult to understand how we could have lived with no internet, no smartphones, no GPS and so forth. I, myself, don't have a smartphone, and quite often I sense the increrdulity when asked for my mobile number by a CSR and say I don't have one.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 25, 2018 0:27:47 GMT
I only buy an eBook now after doing the "look inside" thing to make sure I don't spot any hellishly egregious typos in the first few pages. I did buy a couple earlier on where I must have failed to check. Those were the result of scans that had resulted in a bitter harvest of typos in one case.In the other, much of the text of a late 19th century American esoteric work had been somehow turned into gibberish by the computer. I deleted both off the device and regarded this as a learning experience.
H.
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gilmore
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 27
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Post by gilmore on Nov 26, 2018 12:19:01 GMT
Much to my surprise, I am now buying a higher proportion of Kindle books than I ever thought I would... Same here. It's nice to see some vintage pulp making its way onto the Kindle now. I was able to read Henry Seymour's Infernal Idol at long last after hearing Jonathan Rigby talking about it on the DVD of Craze. Thinking I would never find a copy, I was amazed to discover the eBook on Amazon for 99p (under the name of Henry Hartmann). Similarly, I have been able to plug the gaps in my Nick Sharman reading with some very nice eBook editions of his work from Crossroads Press, after previous discouragement at the incredibly high prices the paperbacks seemed to command. Black Heath have some interesting stuff available under the heading 'Black Heath Gothic, Sensation and Supernatural'. My favourite in this line so far has been Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low. All the Black Heath releases are 99p and are very good quality. However, I wont be entirely content with the Kindle until Amazon produces a version capable of reproducing the smell of a 1970s paperback.
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Post by ripper on Nov 26, 2018 17:23:42 GMT
Much to my surprise, I am now buying a higher proportion of Kindle books than I ever thought I would... Same here. It's nice to see some vintage pulp making its way onto the Kindle now. I was able to read Henry Seymour's Infernal Idol at long last after hearing Jonathan Rigby talking about it on the DVD of Craze. Thinking I would never find a copy, I was amazed to discover the eBook on Amazon for 99p (under the name of Henry Hartmann). Similarly, I have been able to plug the gaps in my Nick Sharman reading with some very nice eBook editions of his work from Crossroads Press, after previous discouragement at the incredibly high prices the paperbacks seemed to command. Black Heath have some interesting stuff available under the heading 'Black Heath Gothic, Sensation and Supernatural'. My favourite in this line so far has been Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low. All the Black Heath releases are 99p and are very good quality. However, I wont be entirely content with the Kindle until Amazon produces a version capable of reproducing the smell of a 1970s paperback. Yes, I agree about Black Heath putting out some interesting stuff at good prices. I just checked out Nick Sharman on Kindle. I was hoping that Childmare would be there, and hey-presto so it was, at £3.05, as opposed to the print version at £233.99.
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