WetGeek It surprised me that, although Red Mars cost a typical $3.95 (for an ebook), Blue Mars was $12.95 (!), and Green Mars $5.95. Still, just about $25 for all three, which I still consider a bargain.

Now you got me intrigued and I wanna read those Mars books. I read a lot online, but books not that much lately. I am just about to cancel my kindle unlimited subscription. Would have been much cheaper to buy the 3 books I STARTED to read than pay like 11 € per month. And off course, most books I wanna read aren't included in unlimited anyways. Same for the Mars trilogy. All 3 cost about 18 € as e-book for me. I really would like to know why they charge 2,99 for the first, 4,49 for the second and 9,99 for the third.

      Yesterday we had like 26 degrees celsius and 9 hour sunshine here in the very western part of Germany, near the Netherlands. And now we are down to 13 and not so much sunshine for the next 10 days or so 🙁

      Sebastian I really would like to know why they charge 2,99 for the first, 4,49 for the second and 9,99 for the third.

      I wish I could answer that, too. Maybe because the first gets you wanting more, and by the time you finish the second, there's just one more in the series, so there's strong temptation to buy it regardless of the cost.

      We're obviously in two different markets, so it's likely that our costs for things like ebooks will be different. But I thought I'd mention that the Nook app is free, and it's a great library manager and ebook reader. If you have a Barnes and Noble store available to you, you might find that Nook books are a reasonable alternative to Kindle books. And it's possible that more books that you want are available from there. It's worth a look.

          Sebastian Yeah, I do more long distance running. Trying to be super fast over 5km never feels very fun to me.

          The only way to get better at running is to run 🙂, never too late to start.

            WetGeek If you have a Barnes and Noble store available to you, you might find that Nook books are a reasonable alternative to Kindle books. And it's possible that more books that you want are available from there. It's worth a look.

            Yay. I found a german Web-Shop where I could buy the complete Mars trilogy in english as epub for 9,42€.
            Am able to read it on my kindle now 🎉

                Sebastian I could buy the complete Mars trilogy in english as epub for 9,42€.

                Wow! Congratulations - that's quite a bargain. I'm going to start on it as soon as I finish my current mystery novel. I'm at chapter 29 now, so surely it can't be much longer. 🙂 I originally read that trilogy so many decades ago that it will be like reading it for the first time again.

                  There is by the way a very interesting talk of Richard Stallman he gave 2001 at MIT about Copyrights and eBooks where he explains how publishers use eBooks to take away and restrict rights you had with a paper copy.
                  Like, you could lend it to your friend, sell it, or easily copy it. In fact, that's how books got distributed in ancient times: by manually copying them.
                  The talk is absolutely worthwhile listening.

                  I actually remember how I listened to the talk in amazement some 20 years ago.

                    I'm going to buy a new computer here soon. I'll go with AMD GPU instead of Nvidia for the first time (if you don't count TNT and Voodoo in that equation). I was thinking a AMD 7700 for gaming and other stuff. But I have no idea how AMD GPUs perform on Linux or in general.

                      davidjharder I see only good things for you! LOL... That trilogy is NOT the End All, Be All, (close tho) but its a great place to start. Robinson also has the Science in the Capital series, Three California series, and numerous stand-alone novels and short stories. I really like the contents of his head, and if he isnt political, then he is certainly adjacent and readable. I would be interested to know who ends up being your favorite charactor once you finish the trilogy!

                        Sebastian I actually remember how I listened to the talk in amazement some 20 years ago.

                        I'm quite happy to give up those advantages for the ones I get with ebooks. I have about 3,600 books on each of two 10" tablets, one upstairs by my bed for reading myself to sleep, and one downstairs for continuing a story I've started elsewhere. That one's handy for doctors' waiting rooms, etc. And when I start the downstairs tablet, I get a prompt to move to the page last read in the upstairs tablet, before I put it down and went to sleep. They're connected to the same wi-fi network, you see, so they can talk to each other, and they do.

                        Although the bookstore is nowhere near my house, after I've made an online purchase, like yesterday, the books are almost immediately available in my library. I don't need to drive somewhere to buy them, pick them up, and cart them home, or pay extra to have them shipped here.

                        My granddaughter is a fan of the same sci-fi and mystries that I enjoy, and B&N makes it easy to move books I've read from my library to hers, so they can be lent. When she's done with them, they're moved back to my library, so they remain mine.

                        Many authors of ebooks - even bestselling ones - like to make the first ebook in a series available for free, in order to attract readers to the universe and characters of that series. I've gotten many very interesting reads for free, and many times I've gone on to purchase other books from that series, so it works well for both authors and readers. And if I can't get "into" a story, or don't appreciate a new authors writing style, that first look has cost me nothing but a bit of time. And the books that I do buy typically cost $2.99 to $4.99 each, instead of $12 to $25 as bound books. I believe I once read that B&N has 50,000+ free ebooks to choose from, but it's probably far more than that by now.

                        If I had to store my 3.600 volume library in physical space in my home, it would require many bookcases. And they would be mostly full of books I'd never care to read again - even the ones I'd enjoyed very much. Instead, my library fits on a thin tablet with room to spare. I can easily carry the entire library with me (those millions of 1's and 0's don't weigh much at all), and the reader software makes it easy to find and select a book that I may have acquired years ago, and am just now getting around to reading.

                        The tablet provides its own reading light, so when I read myself to sleep at night, I can do so without keeping my wife awake. And I adjust the brightness and backlight color to values that don't keep me awake, either. Reading for a while - usually a chapter or two, depending on the book - allows me to relax and drift off to sleep without any drugs. It's the best answer I've ever found to insomnia.

                        I'm sure I'll think of other advantages to ebooks as soon as I post this, but I'm pretty sure I've made my case by now. And much as I admire Richard Stallman, his opinions about ebooks may have evolved quite a bit during the last 23 years.

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                          • Post #26
                          • Edited

                          No food photos in this thread. 0/10

                            SethStorm666 At last the weather is summer-ish in Denmark.

                            The weather is still wet-ish here in the US Pacific Northwest, after a rather dry-ish winter. The snowpack in the mountains is nowhere near as deep as it should be, and local governments are talking about a coming draught. Fortunately, that's mostly what comes of it - talk. But indoors, it's been very pleasant. There's been no need to turn on the air conditioner so far.

                            It's been said that we don't have weather here, instead we have climate. And our climate is the origin of "WetGeek." He's a software engineer from a place where it's been said to rain all the time. That's an exaggeration, of course. It just rains during fall, winter, and spring, not all the time.

                              Staudey Uhh get this Martina Mariea Schiff and I was born in same hospital
                              but I was two years early...lol

                                I finished the mystery I was reading, so Ii finally got a chance to start on Red Mars. I'm glad to be able to say that so far, I remember nothing of the story, It's been long enough since I read it originally, that it's very much like reading it for the first time. I'd forgotten how long the chapters are.

                                Tomorrow I need to take my wife to get a CAT-scan, and I'll take my spare tablet to keep me company in the waiting room.

                                  WetGeek Happy for you! Nothing better than starting a new binge knowing you have a couple thousand pages between you and your next major literary decision!

                                  Wish I could do a tablet, as they make all the sense in the world.... but i cant comfortably hold them, and I read fast enough that turning pages distracts and annoys me. I am too attached to the rituals of the legacy book I suppose.

                                    Phheew, I have been working hard with Inkscape the last couple of days, but it's so addictive. So I've actually been sitting infront of the screen while the spring weather screaming at me to go out. 15 degrees Celsius and lightly clouded.
                                    Anyway we have a dinner club where I live, where people meet from the neighborhood to eat and socializing - which is every month big event for me 🙂