I have about 300 paper books here and about 1800 Kindle e-books. Is that a good idea? I think it might be a good idea for me but not for you. To me, alot depends on what buying, having and using a collection of ebooks means to the user. I like having the books right at hand. I admit there are more than I can remember buying.
I went to the library yesterday to attend a talk. Walking through the main room, I saw a display of books that the library is seeking sponsorship for. One of them is "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death". That sounded interesting and relevant to both my interests and those of my wife and some of my friends. Now, I have the book in my Kindle.
It takes about a minute to download a Kindle book from Amazon, once you get yourself an account logon and password. Recently, I found that some books have a download limit which means you can only download the book up to a given number of times. I haven't tried rigorously to find the download limit on my Kindle books. The one that had a limit which I reached was "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor. I don't know what the limit was but I got a computer message that I had reached it and needed to buy another copy if I wanted to put it on more devices.
I have a basic Kindle and use it as the default download device. But I do most of my Kindle reading on an iPad mini with the Kindle free app installed. With the right setting, that device is the fastest for quickly browsing the titles I have. If I know what I am after, the search feature is fastest. There are times when I have the title or author wrong and I can't find what I what. Then, I browse through the titles or use Amazon or Google to find the title or author.
My friend started reading the excellent Pema Chodron on "Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change." I thought I wanted the book and would get to it right after the five or so I am reading now. I went to Amazon and started to order the book. I got a message that I had purchased the book in 2013. That sort of thing doesn't surprise me. I am the guy who had a book for a long time that I hadn't read. Decided I might as well give it to the public library and did. They had a sale. I went to it and looked through the books available. Found a book I thought I would like to have and paid the $5. Took it home and started reading. On the inside cover was my name. I had donated it to the library! I had repurchased my own book!
This was not the first time I got a message that I already had the book. It is like my secretary reminding me of something. I appreciate the service and I don't expect myself to always remember which books I have. I also have more than 1200 books on a "wish" list in case I can't find anything to buy.
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