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Comment by HardwareLust | Hacker News Reader

Good timing, the Kindle version is $1.99 right now.

I think the dynamic pricing algo is on to us - I see $13.99 at Amazon and clicked on a Google Play Books link for $1.99 that then became $13.99 magically, same for Apple Books.

Please don't 'buy' digital items from Amazon, because you won't actually own them. Pay extra, support your local bookshop and get a physical copy which you will actually own.

This disregards the benefit of a single device that is easy to carry. Love where this is come from so maybe do both if you can.

It's a trade-off. I love the convenience of ebooks, but not owning my books is just categorically unacceptable to me. I want my daughter and anyone else coming after me to have free access to them, not to have to jump through Amazon's hoops (if such hoops even exist) for access.

I have a Kobo that I use to read the non-DRM ebooks I'm able to acquire. One such source is downloads from the Kobo store, when publishers make the non-DRM file available.

I use a kindle but I have never bought a book on the kindle store ever (been using it for 10 years). Totally doable and not hard to avoid... especially since the smaller stores not only have better sales but the author typically gets more money too.

I own a kindle and use it daily. I just borrow all my ebooks from public libraries. I buy the books I want to keep, in physical form.

Amazon allows EPUB downloads for publishers that have chosen to go DRM-free.

First I'm hearing of that, is there an easy way to tell that's available?

It usually says somewhere in the description I think. E.g. this one (good series, btw): https://www.amazon.com/Shattering-Peace-Old-Mans-Book-ebook/...

> At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Not sure how universal that is, but I've seen similar language on several other books.

Oh wow, that's hidden. Thanks.

Wait, OMW book 7? Wtf? Thank you even more! That'll be up next after my Hyperion re-read (RIP Dan)

It's an enjoyable read, hopefully it's the start of a whole new arc in the series with more to come. My only real complaint is it's short and I want more. If you never read his other Interdependency series, it's also great.

I think I read all of his series, yeah. Interdependency was great.

They used to allow downloads of all books, which you could then rip the DRM from, but they got rid of that last year. Huge disappointment, and is why I don't buy books on Kindle anymore.

This particular book does not seem to be sold DRM-free.

I'm more interested in rewarding utility because that gives me better things.

I basically always start with digital, if the book is good I always buy a physical copy for my shelf.

I do something similar - but I'm quite picky with books I buy due to limited physical space.

I borrowed it from the library.

Support your local library!

I really appreciate that sentiment, but on the other hand 98% of the books I buy I won’t read a second time (because reading a new book will almost always trump rereading an old one), so I’m actually fine with not owning most of them, especially at $1.99 prices. The few that I deeply care about I buy a physical copy of.

Alternatively[1], for those of us who have enough clutter: Buying it digitally means you've paid for it. The author gets their cut, and you can now seek out unencumbered formats that best serve your usage with a clear conscience.

[1] this is not legal advice...

I'd love to support the author more directly and "actually own" the ebook, but I have absolutely no interest in physical/printed books.

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