Kindle vs Just Buy The Book

[KeyWestPirate]

The solution is simpler if you live in the US.
But as I get closer to living full time in Nicaragua,, I need something that works there as well.

In many if not most instances you can find the discounted hard cover on Amazon for less money than the Kindle.
Couple that with free two day shipping, and you have a hard cover book in hand quickly.
Instant gratification

Often,, the hard cover will be less money than the Kindle.

Four comparisons of recently published best sellers:

Sapiens (this was a new paperback, the other three are hard cover) $5.38
Kindle: $16.99

51 Days: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza $8.60
Kindle: $9.99

Magna Carta $11.39
Kindle: $10.99

The Chosen Few $14.69
Kindle $17.99

Now, you could share the Kindles with another user,, (or more perhaps) halving the cost.
But, you'd both have to want to read the same book, of course.

I honestly don't know how many devices they will allow to download the book
The Kindles I order show up automatically on both my, and Shelley's, tablets.
There is a Kindle App that works transparently in the background.



I've been trying Kindle Unlimited for about a month now.
It's probably worth the $10/month price, but will not include a lot of books you want to read.
Kindle Unlimited allows you to have ten free books (from the Kindle Unlimited library) on your device.
When you choose a new book,, you return one of the existing titles.

And, Kindle,, surprisingly, does not include a number of conventionally published books.
I assumed that EVERYTHING would be available on Kindle,, as any book has to be a digital file at some point,, but that is not the case.

There is plenty of reading material available on Kindle Unlimited, some classics, some non-fiction, some Spanish language children's books.
A LOT of English language children's books.

Reading the books on Kindle has some advantages.
Another source of light is not needed. Print size can be set by a simple finger movement.

Like everything else in Nicaragua,, you don't get what you want,, but mostly,, what you need after a fashion.

[Little Corn Tom]

I recently, also, joined Kindle Unlimited and found out that it is not unlimited as expected and I do not like the 10 book max which does not seem to be noted before you purchase it. So far I am not so impressed with it.

Have you tried using it (downloading) in Nicaragua?

[KeyWestPirate]

I recently, also, joined Kindle Unlimited and found out that it is not unlimited as expected and I do not like the 10 book max which does not seem to be noted before you purchase it. So far I am not so impressed with it.

Have you tried using it (downloading) in Nicaragua?

Have not tried to download in Nicaragua. I signed up after I left.
Amazon also has the MatchBook program. Selected books are discounted from $ .99 to $2.99 after you buy the hard copy.
I had thought that ALL books qualified for this discount,, but they do not. You have to look for the MatchBook icon.

I had erroneously posted the contrary some time back, and believed it until I bought a digital version of The Chosen Few and was charged the full Kindle price.
Luckily, a pleasant person from India named Ankit quickly refunded my money via a chat session.
He (or she) managed it all in five minutes and linked me to a page where ALL the books I'd purchased since 2005 were listed if they were MatchBook eligible.

One of books I purchased in this lot is available for 99 cents, so for a buck . . .

Kindle Unlimited can be handy
I stumbled across the director's cut of Apocalypse Now for $5 (with the French Opium smokers and the PlayBoy Bunnies in the downed helicopter cathouse) so decided to re-read Heart of Darkness.
Heart of Darkness was supposedly the inspiration for the movie's trip up the river.

I was able to instantly access it on Kindle Unlimited for free. Or, maybe I paid 99 cents,, I can't remember.
Kindle Unlimited gives you free magazines too, I have three,, National Geographic, Wired,, and Ranch and Country Living.
I got a great blueberry pie recipe from the latter.


So impressive,, all this Amazon capability,,, if it wasn't equally scary.
Amazon's computers know more about me than I know about myself.

Reading on the tablet is handy.
I read and watch Fox News simultaneously, tuning out the frequent commercials and reading until they end.
It was a little distracting at first,, but eventually, the focus changes transparently.

The Kindle Unlimited site is a little difficult. I was a bit annoyed at first,, after thinking I was going to get everything for free.
You have to search specifically for what you want or your choices are thrillers and romances You can search categories with some success.

Amazon is clearly out to sell you more books.

[el duende grande]

I've downloaded kindle on at least 4 different devices with no problem. I have found used books from Amazon to be good, and they can be carried on carryon to not add weight to the maletas. Mostly this year I just watch youtube on my chromebook. I have found some other things for free like PBS phoenix, and some things they charge for which I haven't found time to bother with. When I get bored with youtube maybe.

Amazon prime has close to nothing, etc. a few teasers for travel. The rest are blocked because they don't want to pay for the licensing.
Netflix from the US is ok, but they block many of the recent tv shows and a lot of their movies are too lame to bother with. Some of the family members watch it. I signed up for the 2 tv plan and have no problems. I downloaded it on 2 chromebooks and one desk top and one tv and have not had a problem, I assume because it is never being watched on more than 2 devices at once.

I learned how to hook up the chromebook to the tv to have a have a bigger screen. If you do this you don't need the wifi tv and you have the easy controls of normal compu use. When I bought a wifi tv in the uS, using netflix or anything was a nuisance because I m/l had to know the exact title to watch it instead of just surfing a list. I had to log in, too, using a hunt and peck keyboard. Real pita.

Generally, I think kindle is just morphing into a monster. I really pick and chose, especially when the kindle price is so high. Remember when pay tv came in and we were told we would not have to watch commercials. How about commercial free PBS with lengthy thanks to its sponsors.

[Daddy-YO]

I like Kindle for the classics, practically (some are) free:
Kim by Rudyard Kipling ...........Paperback $3 39 Prime..........Kindle Edition $ 0.60
Victor Hugo: The Complete Novels ..........Kindle Edition $ 0.99
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.......Paperback $ 5.40 Prime.......Kindle Edition $0.00
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith .........Paperback $8.99 Prime ........ Kindle Edition $0.99
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money by John Maynard Keynes ........Paperback $15.95 Prime ..........Kindle Edition $1.00
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald........Paperback $16.99 Prime.......Kindle Edition $0.00
Republic by Plato ...... Paperback $13.00 Prime ............ Kindle Edition $0.60
The Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides ,,,,,,,,,Paperback $14.93 Prime ......... Kindle $0.99

I have been able to download Kindle books in Nica - have Amazon acc't. Moreover I can get most any book free (Kindle) for 3 weeks thru my local library when I logon from wherever (plus it allows me to watch Hulu movies). I watch NetFlix (too much really), but not downloading (do you need a special subscription?) - haven't noticed restrictions. Bought a DVR with 1 TB HD for OTA TV in US and Nica box-free cable. Commercials and ever-lengthening lists of PBS donors drive me to distraction.

We also bought a Smart TV and hauled it to Leon. Kind of disappointed, but mainly cause we don't have steady wifi. Don't mind the on-screen hunt-and-peck cause life slows way down in Nicaragua. Duende, I assume you're connecting a regular HDTV to your Chromebook with an HDMI cable. Any special app needed?

[KeyWestPirate]

" . . .I have been able to download Kindle books in Nica - have Amazon acc't. Moreover I can get most any book free (Kindle) for 3 weeks thru my local library when I logon from wherever (plus it allows me to watch Hulu movies). I watch NetFlix (too much really), but not downloading (do you need a special subscription?) - haven't noticed restrictions. Bought a DVR with 1 TB HD for OTA TV in US and Nica box-free cable. Commercials and ever-lengthening lists of PBS donors drive me to distraction.

This being a library in the US you are logging into? That's a good deal. More detail please.

Re your list above, I too have found way more than I can possibly read for free or for pennies on Kindle (and downloaded a few from your list)
And, I'm enjoying revisiting old friends that I read in high school or college, often read under the gun with a Cliff's Notes to one side.
The immediate gratification of Kindle has its advantages as well,, like in my Apocalypse Now story.

BUT, there is much that I want that I cannot access at a decent price.
I've been teased by the hints of the IndoChina conflict under the French ,, the composition of the French Foreign Legion (The Man Who Walked Out Of Isabelle)
All that Opium eating.
Plenty on Amazon but it's pricey.


Like the dog who won't learn a new trick, I still like the feel of a book in my hand, and the reassurance of the volumes on a bookshelf.

[el duende grande]

Yep, hdmi cable. I got initial directions on youtube, but mostly it is hook up the cable and go into setting for hdmi1 and then to "display-external " or something like that.

[Daddy-YO]

This being a library in the US you are logging into? That's a good deal. More detail please.

My county library system's website offers links for downloading ebooks, music, movies & TV, magazines, comics, and eAudioBooks. Under ebooks i can go to overdrive.com or hoopladigital.com or ebscohost.com, find my library on their list, give them my library card ID and borrow for 2 or 3 weeks by downloading a Kindle copy or pdf (there are other options). Hundreds of titles - mostly popular stuff.

I'm currently reading Stephen Kinzer's The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War - a real mind-opener. Foster was Secretary of State when Allen headed the CIA, under Eisenhower, who didn't have a clue as to what was really happening, but he knew it was something awesome, which led to his parting warning to the American people to beware of the growing power of "the military-industrial complex". But I didn't find this as a web-borrow. It's a hardcover that I borrowed on inter-library loan.

Not unrelated: anybody else watching Ken Burn's Vietnam series on PBS?

My little local library can borrow most any book it seems. Just a few weeks ago I got Building for Eternity: The History and Technology of Roman Concrete Engineering in the Sea. Totally fascinating, esp. the chapter of building tips written by Romans. Roman piers & docks have lasted 2000+ years, 10X what modern structures in the sea last. They made their concrete with volcanic ash, so I thought maybe Nicaragua . . . As the polar ice caps melt and seas rise we may need a long-lasting building material for coastal dykes.

[Jonh]

DY, you'd probably enjoy an hour with these four folks, talking about what Dulles hath wrought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAReCOhS10A

[KeyWestPirate]

So many possibilities,, so little time

Another good concrete book is Reese Paley's Concrete: A Seven Thousand Year History

Reese lived across the canal from me in Key West, and was truly a Renaissance man.
His books were as different as he was:

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...b0975efa6.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=rees...utf-8&oe=utf-8



He was old when I met him,, and finally passed away, I think at 96.
The boat he used for his multi-year circumnavigation was tied to the canal wall (as was my Jolie Fille)

It was slowly rotting away. He never took it out, but couldn't sell it. Too much of his soul in it.
He kept it clean, and aired it out. So many characters like him in Key West

[Little Corn Tom]

So many possibilities,, so little time

Another good concrete book is Reese Paley's Concrete: A Seven Thousand Year History

Reese lived across the canal from me in Key West, and was truly a Renaissance man.
His books were as different as he was:

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...b0975efa6.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=rees...utf-8&oe=utf-8



He was old when I met him,, and finally passed away, I think at 96.
The boat he used for his multi-year circumnavigation was tied to the canal wall (as was my Jolie Fille)

It was slowly rotting away. He never took it out, but couldn't sell it. Too much of his soul in it.
He kept it clean, and aired it out. So many characters like him in Key West

I met a guy like him in the Bahamas on Long Island. Name was John McKie. John was an ex- Canadian government accountant that dreamed of sailing and living in the Bahamas. John and his wife saved up their money over the years and built a steel sailboat in a barn behind his house. He also found some property (a few acres) on Long island during one vacation trip and built a house. This all took place about 40-50 years ago.

After sailing the islands, John and his wife settled down on Long Island, built a guest house and rented it out. Somehow, I found out about it and along with my wife and one year old son, flew down to Long Island in our Cessna 310. I stayed there a few weeks and grew to love the area.

The day before I left to go back to the US....I found John sitting in the back of his sailboat at the dock with a pump running. The sailboat was on the bottom and he was (in his rueful words) "pumping the ocean". We both knew that the sailboat was no longer sailing and that this part of his life was over. Turns out that a rusted out through hull fitting signaled the end.

Nice guy......lived his dream.......nothin better, eh John?

[Daddy-YO]

I ... along with my wife and one year old son, flew down to Long Island in our Cessna 310.

First time I recall reading that you had (have?) wings. Explains the non-Nicaraguan Aviation forum topic that always left me wondering. And reminds me of Jimmy Buffett (Not so much the tune, "I'm a treetop flyer, Born survivor") singing Jamaica Mistaica:

Some folks say that I've got the perfect life
Three swell kids, lots of toys and a lovely wife
I fly, I sail, I throw caution to the wind
Drift like a stratus cloud above the Caribbean

Come back, come back back to Jamaica . . .
we promise not to shoot you out of the sky


Such an experience is enough to push one to pick another Caribbean island, like say, Little Corn, Nicaragua.

[Little Corn Tom]

Oddly....Jimmy did crash his Grumman amphibian off Long Island (only this one was the New York,the Long Island one). Had to swim out of an upside down aircraft in the water.....no thank you......ruined his fishing trip.

The poetic license he takes in (all) his songs is incredible.....who else can title a song....."Jamaica Mistaica"

Never met Jimmy personally but had some business dealings with a friend of his, Guy Harvey.....super guy and artist.

[Jonh]

Didn't know Guy Harvey was a friend of Jimmy Buffet's. I went inside Buffet's Albatross at Sun N Fun one year and came away with a souvenir guitar pick with his name printed on it. Woo hoo.

A book on the history of concrete would need a lot of sex scenes before I'd consider reading it.

[Little Corn Tom]

A book on the history of concrete would need a lot of sex scenes before I'd consider reading it.

LOL!!! I actually thought it would be interesting....

[Jonh]

You're an engineering nerd!

[bill_bly_ca]

A book on the history of concrete would need a lot of sex scenes before I'd consider reading it.

That is a pour excuse.

[KeyWestPirate]

That is a pour excuse.

Love it.

" . . . Nice guy......lived his dream.......nothin better, eh John? . . "


The problem here comes when you begin to confuse your dreams with reality.
Or is it a problem ?

Everyone here has some nutty dream, or is actually living it.
It's almost a prerequisite for posting on the site.

Which reminds me,, we haven't heard from Kevin lately . . ..

[Daddy-YO]

The problem here comes when you begin to confuse your dreams with reality. Or is it a problem ?
Everyone here has some nutty dream, or is actually living it.
It's almost a prerequisite for posting on the site.

"Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind
Ain't life unkind? . . . . . . . Goodbye Ruby Tuesday"

As I read these posts here today sitting in Kohl's while the little woman shops, musical refrains punctuate my daydreams. I even dreamed I heard some of Ravi Shankar's woven chords as I contemplated the Kamasutra History of Concrete. But Kohl's muzak is soft Country.

TRN-induced dementia? I guess.

[el duende grande]

Perhaps in the Concrete Patio Furniture Section somebody could do a write up of Sex in the Garden?
Leave out the zancudos, let the rube dreamers dream on...

[KeyWestPirate]

Perhaps in the Concrete Patio Furniture Section somebody could do a write up of Sex in the Garden?
Leave out the zancudos, let the rube dreamers dream on...

El Jardin Secreto
Yes, Zancudos could be a special problem. Repellent would help, if you could get it on all the relevant places.
Sooo,, that dengue carrying mosquito bit you WHERE ?

Sorry, Miss, that is NOT a dengue rash. Have you been on a tractor recently (famous Seinfeld episode)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ73NKS3B1c

More of a problem, would be the chaffed knees and bruised chapas from the concrete patio furniture.

[el duende grande]

Expats must be a tougher breed, who will sweat an occasional bruised kmee compared to all the other petty injuries of daily life?

Anyway, remember the article I posted on NL years ago about the guy in CR who got botfly larvae in his nuts?

[KeyWestPirate]

Yes, I remember.
I hoping that Phil lets the NicaLiving site go. I guess that I could ask him again for it.
I've done that before and it's really just thankless aggravation.

Thank you, Jonh

Fyl was trying to do with A42 what the Expat Exchange did.

[cookshow]

Offer him a few under age Latinas, he will jump on that offer.

[Mikeh]

Offer him a few under age Latinas, he will jump on that offer.

Check out where Phil has landed!

//casasderocio.com

"Rocio is Phil’s adopted daughter. She just had a baby ... More important for Phil, she has been his “cultural translator”. We continue to learn a lot from each other. Her learning style has been a real pleasure. She likes to learn by doing."

I bet her learning style has been a real pleasure for Phil.

Live like a Guatemalan.