According to a good friend, and probably a sentiment shared by many traditionalists, converting from a page turner to an ebook reader is equivalent to going to the dark side.
It is said, that once you accept it, the darkness is with you forever. While I know my Kindle will last a long time, and my reading list will be stored in the Amazon.com cloud forever, I’m not sure if I’m sworn off holding a real book for good. What I do know is, every book I want is cheaper as an electronic item than it is as a published, hardcopy, page turning version.
Here are just five of the books I’ve read and loved recently that are under ten dollars.
Thief of Hope, by Cindy Young-Turner. Keep an eye on this author. Her debut fantasy novel is the first in what should prove to be an entertaining series featuring Sydney, a pick pocketing woman unafraid of breaking the law, if necessary, to survive and protect her friends. Her quest is a noble one. Her friends are magical in more ways than one and her encounters with the Tuatha are told in vivid prose that captures the imagination. Young-Turner is getting well deserved multi-starred reviews.
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. At under $5.00, you simply can’t find better entertainment. This is Survivor meets The Lottery in a struggle to the death that brings out the best in Katniss Everdeen. I read this book on a rainy Saturday afternoon and couldn’t put it down. When I finished it, in the wee hours of the morning, I immediately downloaded book two. The instant gratification of being able to move on to the next book in a series made me love my Kindle even more! This three book series is bound to end up in a movie someday with good reason. The page turning action and vivid characters are not to be missed.
The Name of the Wind: Kingkiller Chronicle Day One, by Patrick Rothfuss. The first book in the series is under $10.00. If you want to read the rest of the series -- and you will -- you’ll have to fork out almost $15.00, but you’ll want to read Day Two and will wait impatiently along with the rest of the fans for Day Three to come out at some unknown date in the future. An entertaining story voted one of the best in March 2011 on Amazon.com.
The Second Ship: The Rho Agenda, by Richard Phillips. Self-publishing has its bright stars as well as an abundance of dim attempts at glory. The Rho Agenda series is definitely a heavenly light in the self publishing SciFi genre. You’ll want to immediately download the second book, Immune and will wait along with the rest of us for book three to come out, which shouldn’t be too long from now. I’ve read an early draft of Wormhole, and I can tell you that fans will not be disappointed.
Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, by Kevin Hearn. Atticus is a thousand year-old, wise cracking druid in a handsome, twentysomething body, who conducts witty and thoroughly entertaining conversations with his dog, Oberon, and can whip together a band of paranormal friends, like vampires and werewolves, to battle Gods and demons. You might as well download Hexed and Hammered while you’re at it. No sense in waiting. All three books will cost you less than the price of one hardcover bestseller at your local bookstore.
Bottom line is, if you like to read as much as I do, chances are you spend a great deal of discretionary income on books. Like it or not, you get more bang for your buck with ebooks than you will with traditional publishing. In these days, when we’re all looking for ways to cut back on expenses, you can’t ignore the fact that it’s simply cheaper to forego the paper product for the electronic one – especially when the books out there are such great reads.
M. L. Doyle has served in the U.S. Army at home and abroad for more than two decades as both a soldier and civilian. Mary is the author of The Desert Goddess series, an urban fantasy romp consisting of The Bonding Spell and The Bonding Blade. She has also penned The Master Sergeant Harper mystery series which has earned numerous awards including an IPPY, a Lyra Award and the Carrie McCray Literary Award. Mary is the co-author of two memoirs; A Promise Fulfilled; the story of a Wife and Mother, Soldier and General Officer (Jan. 201) and the memoir, I’m Still Standing: From Captive U.S. Soldier to Free Citizen—My Journey Home (Touchstone, 2010), which was nominated for an NAACP Image award. Mary's work has been published by The Goodman Project, The War Horse, The WWrite Blog and The Wrath-Bearing Tree, an online magazine for which she serves as a fiction editor. A Minneapolis, Minnesota native, Mary current lives in Baltimore. You can reach her at her website at mldoyleauthor.com.
3 comments on “Going to the dark side is…cheaper!”
Have to agree with you Mary. I am totally hooked on my nook 🙂 Have you read the Game of Thrones series? I had never heard of it until the HBO series (which I LOVE), so I started reading it. Now on book four -so great!! I have the all on the nook, of course, and I think they were 8.99 each (the new one may be more). Other than a clearance bin at Barnes and Noble, there's no way I could get them cheaper!
Hey Melanie!
I LOVED the Game of Thrones series...until book four. That book I found to be a struggle but I still had faith. I preordered five and it was automatically downloaded to my Kindle (another reason to love it) as soon as it was available. By the end of book five however, I was DONE with the series. I gave it a one star review. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it when you get there.
I would have put that series on my list, except for how disapointed I was with where the story is now...also, charging almost $15 for the fifth book seemed rather rotten. They could have charged $10 or $11 and still make millions. Why milk the fans for every cent?? Maybe because the publisher knew that they would lose fans after book five. Took Martin 10 years to come up with it so maybe there won't ever be a book six. In any case, I'll be tuning in for the second season on HBO without doubt!
Love the image, Mary! I'm joining you on the dark side, but I know the Kindle will never replace a paper book for me. I haven't actually read anything on it yet. I do have the first one on your list downloaded, though, so I could finally see it as an ebook. 🙂 The others you've mentioned sound great. I may have to check them out.