King Kong of a Price

When we think of great motion picture soundtrack composers today most of us probably instantly think John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and many others, but in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's one name was just as famous; Max Steiner. Steiner gave us such incredible scores that included King Kong, Gone with the Wind, Now Voyager, Since You Went Away, Johnny Belinda, The Caine Mutiny, Casablanca, and many more. His scores were nominated 18 times and he won three Academy Awards for his work. Learning more about this great film composer should be on any fan of film's bucket list. Learning more about Composer Steiner is on mine.

Surfing around on Amazon a few months back I ran across an extremely interesting book called Max Steiner: Composing, Casablanca, and the Golden Age of Film Music written by Peter Wegele. I got a sample of the book and found it very informative about Max Steiner and I wanted to purchase it. However, I noticed the price for the Kindle e-book was set at $71! I thought what a strange and outrageous price for an e-book but in some sense I can understand a high price for a book like this, due to the amount of research required in writing such a book, but $71 is not just a bit much, it is a HELL of a lot of too much!!

It is sad that I will have to pass on a book that I know is full of excellent information regarding this great film composer but for some reason, either the author, or the publisher feels the price of this book should be set at a King Kong of a price. For me I’ll pass on this seemly interesting work until some sanity takes hold on the pricing of this e-book.

Back in the Saddle Again

Wow, time really does fly, and life just seems to happen around you. I can’t believe I seemingly abandoned this blog, but I think it is time to reclaim it and fire it up again.

The e-book industry is still pretty much in the same state as I left it. E-book prices are still high and with the higher prices it seems the industry is seeing lower sales. Not sure why the publishing industry doesn’t get that lower prices means more sales!

As I refire up this blog I will continue to share some of the outragous e-book pricing I have found and throw in a review or two of e-books I have read recently. I am still reading e-books 99.9% of the time.

Not sure if anyone is still out there but I will start writing again and we can see what happens together.

Hypocrite Is My Name

On October 23rd 2011 I broke down and gave a publisher far more money for an e-book, then I ever should have, when I purchased Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I know I seem like a hypocrite after being blusterous on how I would NEVER purchase an e-book over $9.99 but the thought of not reading this book won me over. Of course I could have purchased the hardcover book for probably a bit less then the $16.99 I paid for the Apple iBooks version but then that would defeat my personal push to only read e-books. Am I happy I paid the big bucks for the book? No, not really. I felt pretty much forced into it; thanks greedy publishers!

So far the e-book is extremely interesting. Mr. Jobs was a very complicated person. Once I finish the e-book, I will place my review here.

*This post has been updated as of 9/8/2015 and the current price for Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is now $12.99. Still expensive in my mind.

Moon Rock Make Out Session Ends Badly for Thief - REVIEW

How could you go wrong with a title like ‘Sex on the Moon’? Okay to be fair the full title of the book is’ ‘Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History’. It just screams READ ME! Right? So, I did, and what a story. The book is written by the author of the ‘Accidental Billionaire’, Ben Mezrich, which was turned into the film ‘The Social Network’. In ‘Sex on the Moon’ Mezrich introduces us to another young up and comer named Thad Roberts who is ready to become the first man on Mars. Well that is before he gets the crazy idea to steal some Moon rocks from NASA and sell them over the Internet! Oh the crazy things kids do for love.

The story is engaging as we see Thad’s spirited nature come out during his time at NASA. He sneaks his way on to a shuttle simulation test and gains favor with many of the up and coming scientists at NASA. His future looks bright until he decides to try and impress a girl and make a little money for himself. As I mentioned the story is intriguing and Mezrich unfolds the story in a fairly logical and orderly fashion. However the style of writing is a bit sophomore-ish. Lines like ‘…as she touched his muscular chest while standing next to him…’ just screams cheesiness, and for me, took away all sense of believability at times. Really did this woman really think that, at that particular moment in time? Why does something like that even have to be mentioned in a non-fiction book like this? I picked up a non-fiction book to read not a romance novel!

Overall the book was a good and interesting read. I always remembered reading or hearing something about this story and had pretty much chalked it up as an urban legend. Now I know differently. How does the title fit into the book? Well I will let the reader find out for themselves. Those Moon rocks will never be the same.

60,000 vote for Top 100 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books

Last week NPR released a great list of 100 of the best Science Fiction and Fantasy books. Over 5,000 books were nominated and 60,000 people voted. The top book? 'The Lord of the Rings" was the #1 winner. I have to say I am happy with that choice. The runner up was 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', with 'Ender's Game' coming in at #3. I wonder how many are currently in e-book format. Might be interesting to find out.

There is a wide variety of books selected in the list. It is an interesting read. I found several books I have never heard of and now would like to read. Hopefully the list will spur others to do the same, or maybe, even do a re-read of an old favorite.

Cost of History on the Rise?

Does it seem to you that the overall prices for history e-books are on the rise? Most of the history e-books on my wish list are now ranging from $12.99 up to $19.99 with the average cost around $14.99. Are the publishers trying to push the overall non-fiction e-book price up past their recent $12.99 big 5 price point in a greedy attempt to make more money?

Of course we know that Penigun Publishing is in for the price gouging, but even Random House and Simon and Schuster have gone from $12.99 to the higher priced non-fiction e-books. Such a shame, there are so many other reasonably priced e-books out there to read (Amazon's recent Sunshine Deals proved that) that these higher e-book prices just keep many of us e-book readers away.

Here are a few of the e-books on my wish list that I will be avoiding due to their current pricing. *I just saw that the Ann Coulter e-book has dropped from $14.99 to $12.99 this last week.




And here is one that I have really been wanting to read for awhile now. The price has been up to $16.99 and is now $13.99. I am still holding out for a lower price! Sorry Random House, no sale!

Simon & Schuster Slaps Paris and Customers

David McCullough is a master at bringing history alive. I have always looked forward to any new release by him, however since I have gone exclusively e-book only these days I was once again appalled and shocked at publisher's Simon & Schuster's insane pricing for McCullough's latest, 'The Greater Journey - Americans in Paris'. Really Simon & Schuster's? $19.99? Have you gone MAD? Do you NOT want people to read this e-book? Heck the audiobook in abridged form is cheaper on Amazon then the e-book is!

I am seeing this a current trend by the big publishers with their non-fiction e-books. I have seen prices jump from $12.99 up to $14.99 and now we are hitting the $19.99 mark.

Thank goodness for Amazon's Sunshine Deals. I will reward the publishers and authors who have reasonable priced e-books with my business. There are plenty of other e-books in the sea!

Save Cash When Buying iBooks in June

Update - June 10, 2011 - Looks like Best Buy has extended their 15% off deal on iTunes gift cards out until June 18th, 2011!

Attention United States readers!!!!

Target is selling iTunes and iBook gift cards for 20% until Saturday June 11th. Best Buy is selling iTunes and iBook gift cards for 15% until Saturday June 11th. Staples will have a 'buy 2 $25 iTunes cards and get $10 off during the week of June 12th, 2011 - June 18th 2011.

What a great way to save some money if you purchase iBooks. Remember you can use either an iTunes gift card or iBooks gift card to purchase iBooks from Apple. Plus they make a great gift for grads and dads!

I also would like to point out that with the newest computer iTunes update you can now browse and purchase iBooks right on your computer. Before you could only browse the iBookstore on your iPad or iPhone.

Amazon Spreads Sunshine On Ebook Readers

I am sure many have already heard about or seen Amazon's hot new 'Sunshine Deals' offer but if you haven't head over to Amazon quick, the offers end June 15th, 2011. There are some great deals, on some terrific e-books, with prices starting at .99 cents up to $2.99.

I have already picked up several deals that I had on my wish list. Below are some of the e-books I purchased. Most were originally priced at around $9.99.

I hope publishers take notice and realize that lower e-book prices can generate more sales and create good-will towards their e-book customers! Now if we could get some of those crazy $19.99 e-book prices to come down! Yes Penguin Publishing I am talking about you!

'Foundation' is Key to a Great Sci-Fi Read

I have always been fond of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series. Like the ‘Lord of the Rings’ I have come back to the ‘Foundation’ books several times over my last 50 years. Although I have read the original trilogy I never finished the entire 7 book series. I am currently on ‘Foundation and Earth’ and am enjoying it so far.


My current excitement for the 'Foundation' series was re-energized this last week (May 9^th - 15^th, 2011) when the web site iO9 took an in depth look into the series. It is an excellent read, written by Josh Wimmer and Alasdair Wilkins, and I wanted to share it will all ‘Foundation’ fans.


Now since this blog focuses on e-books I wanted to also point out the current 'Foundation' books that are available in e-book format. Not all of them are unfortunately. Luckily the first 3 books are available in both Kindle and ePub format.

Foundation -

Foundation and Empire -

Second Foundation - 

'Foundation’s Edge' and 'Foundation and Earth' are both available in ePub format on the Apple iBooks store but I could not find Prelude to Foundation or Forward the Foundation in e-book format anywhere.  All e-book editions are currently price reasonable at $7.99.

Now here are the links to a VERY interesting take on all seven of the Asimov written 'Foundation' books. Enjoy!

Day one featured - ‘The Foundation’ - ‘Isaac Asimov’s Foundation: The little idea that became science fiction’s biggest series’

http://io9.com/5799655/isaac-asimovs-foundation-the-little-idea-that-became-science-fictions-biggest-series

Day two featured - ‘Foundation and Empire’ - ‘In which events take a generally darker turn: Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov’ - 

http://io9.com/5799689/in-which-events-take-a-generally-darker-turn-foundation-and-empire-by-isaac-asimov

Day three featured - ‘Second Foundation’ - ‘Mind games and mysteries abound in Isaac Asimov’s Second Foundation’ - 

http://io9.com/5799734/mind-games-and-mysteries-abound-in-isaac-asimovs-second-foundation

Day four featured - ‘Foundation’s Edge’ - ‘Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov: The end is the beginning is the end’ -

http://io9.com/5799785/foundations-edge-by-isaac-asimov-the-end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end

Day five featured - ‘Foundation and Earth’ - ‘Home again, home again, in so many ways: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Earth’ - 

http://io9.com/5800423/home-again-home-again-in-so-many-ways-isaac-asimovs-foundation-and-earth

Day six featured - ‘Prelude to Foundation’ - ‘In Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov delves into psychohistory’s sorta psycho history’ -

http://io9.com/5800631/in-prelude-to-foundation-isaac-asimov-delves-into-psychohistorys-sorta-psycho-history

Day seven featured - ‘Forward the Foundation’ - ‘In which a great work is finally completed: Isaac Asimov’s Forward the Foundation’ -

http://io9.com/5801963/in-which-a-great-work-is-finally-completed-isaac-asimovs-forward-the-foundation

Macmillan Lets A 'Brother' Down

This will be a short post. All I can say is - REALLY? Ah, and then I noticed it is being sold by Macmillan. Should have known. $9.99 for a book that is in the public domain. Wow! I wonder, do I get a kiss with this purchase too?

'The Shrike' Slashes On To E-book Format

I just discovered one of my favorite books, Dan Simmon's 'Hyperion', has finally made it to Amazon's Kindle and Apple's e-book stores! It has been awhile since I first read 'Hyperion' but it is indeed a CLASSIC as are the follow-up books to the story - 'The Fall of Hyperion', 'Endymion', and 'The Rise of Endymion'.

I am not sure how long these e-books have been out but if you are a sci-fi fan this is a must read. I have read, in some reviews of the e-book, that the conversion of the book to e-book format has many misspellings and has some formatting issues. Hopefully a cleaned up version will be release to address these issues.

I am VERY excited about this release and have already downloaded and purchased all of the 'Hyperion' e-books and will re-read them as soon as I finish Simmon's 'The Terror'.

Penguin Vs. 'The Bugs'

The other day I was surfing around the web site eReaderiQ.com and under the recently Kindized section I found Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" being offered at $9.99 US dollars. My first thought was REALLY 10 bucks for an almost 52 year old book! Pricing like this really has me questioning publishers pricing policies on older e-books. Then I looked to see who the publisher is for this latest outrageous offering and I should have known - Penguin Publishing strikes again!

It almost seems that Penguin Publishing purposely prices their e-books high to force a reader to go elsewhere. I can't remember the last time I even bothered purchasing any e-book from Penguin Publishing. In fact now I won't even purchase ANY book from Penguin Publishing.

Publishers need to realize there are hundreds of thousand if not millions of books to pick from to read and if a book isn't priced right or is priced outrageously, I, as a consumer, can easily just move on to something else, which is what I do whenever I now see something published by Penguin.

Now for anyone who hasn't read Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' try and find an old paperback edition or run to your library and give it a read. It is indeed a classic and highly recommended! It is a lot better then movie!! I would have loved to have given it another read on my iPad or Kindle but at the current e-book pricing I will sadly pass. The Penguin strikes again!

New Ad Support Kindle

Yesterday Amazon announced their new ad supported Kindle for $114 dollars. As much as I like the idea of a cheaper Kindle I was a bit surprised that Amazon only reduced the overall price for the ad supported Kindle $25 dollars. Of course I would have preferred a free Kindle if I am going to be bombarded with ads. Like many others I feel the best price point would have been $99 dollars. Although I am pretty much a full time iPad e-book reader these days I have to admit this ad supported Kindle does seem some what attractive to me. I guess the one thing I will want to find out is how intrusive the ads will be to the reader. If the ads are just on the screen saver screen and go away the instant I want to get down to reading then I won't have a problem with this idea at all. If however ads pop up while I am reading, which I don't think will be the case, then I would have a REAL big problem! I have to give a huge thumbs up to Amazon for trying different things to bring new users to the Kindle reader. I might be retiring my 1st generation Kindle very soon.

I'm Back!

Wow! I can't believe I haven't touched this blog since Nov. 2010. Insane! I guess between the holidays, family, work, and my little side app making business I let my poor e-books blog fade. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading and staying on top of the e-book world. I have read several e-books over the last couple of months and I will try and share the best of the best that I have read as the weeks move forward.

Today I wanted to restart this blog again and share an awesome link I found to help keep track of new Kindle e-books and price reductions for the Kindle. I have used this link the last couple of days and have found it extremely handy. The name of the website is ereaderiq. Check it out! I think you will find it very useful. I have already purchased several e-books I didn't even know were finally available on the Kindle.

iBooks Gift Cards - Don’t be Fooled!

I have been seeing in various stores Apple iBook gift cards (see the picture below). These cards look to be specific to the Apple iBook store but it needs to be noted that they are good for anything on iTunes; apps, music, videos, tv shows, and ibooks. You can still use regular iTunes gift cards and buy iBooks, as well as iTunes gift cards that you might get discounted from places like Costco, Sam’s Club, etc... (note - Costco has stopped selling the discounted iTunes gift cards, however some locations might still have a supply on hand).

Also be on the look out on Black Friday (Nov. 26th) here in the United States for many discounted iTunes Gift card offers. There is a pretty firm rumor going around that Best Buy will be discounting $50 dollar iTunes gift cards for $40 bucks! That is a 20% savings and can easily help take some of the sting of the higher e-book prices found in the Apple iBook store. As I hear about various deals I will pass them on here. Hope all have a great Thanksgiving!

Nook Color a MiniMe iPad?

Today Barnes & Noble announced their Nook Color e-book reader. The new version is priced at $249 and will begin shipping on or around Nov. 19, and is now available for pre-order. There is no 3G network connection but there is Wi-Fi. Overall the unit looks sexy and could be a real winner at the $250 price point. I personally think Barnes & Noble just hit a huge home run with this product. The pricing and color screen could really take a  bite out of Amazon and even iPad sales. I guess we shall see. What are your thoughts?

Interesting iBookstore Tidbits From Around the Web

Over the last week or so there have been several blog and news postings concerning the Apple iBookstore. Most pretty much say the same thing but I thought I would share some of the postings with my readers.

The iBookstore still doesn’t have a complete catalog of e-books. Amazon’s Kindle store has a far better selection. Plus in looking over the pricing in the top selling e-books in the iBookstore most of the prices are all $12.99 or more. There are not a lot of e-books in the $9.99 range. I actually don’t have a problem with the iBookstore. I enjoy reading e-books in both the iBook app or the Kindle app.

Here are the links to several interesting articles on the iBook store -

TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog had a good article called - ‘The iBookstore Six Months After Launch One Big Failure’

appadvice - had a good article called - ‘Report: E-Books Use Is Growing’

9 To 5 Mac - had a article called - ‘Little action at Apple’s iBookstore’

Would George Washington Chop a Penguin?

Penguin Publishing strikes again! The diabolical high priced e-book publisher just released another high profile e-book at an outrageous price; ‘Washington: A Life’ by Ron Chernow, is currently priced at $19.99 on all major e-book retailers. Not sure what to say about this except I won’t be buying this e-book. I am not sure what Penguin Publishing is trying to prove to their customers by these outlandish e-book prices. In my case they have just driven a huge wedge between me and their product offerings including their non-e-book products.

I was also a little disheartened last week to see that the other high profile Penguin Publisher’s release “Fall of the Giant” by Ken Follett had made its way on several top ten e-book lists. However as of right now it has fallen from somewhere around the #7 top spot on Amazon’s Best Selling Kindle e-books to now #12. Over on the iBook Store Top Charts it is listed at #7. So even though I am disappointed in seeing author Follett’s e-book not reaching its true potential, I am at least glad to see that Penguin can’t crow about record sales for this miss priced tome. Overall I am shocked that people would purchase an e-book at the price of $19.99, especially if they could get the hardcover cheaper. But I guess to each their own. Anyone have any insight into Penguin Publishing’s madness?

Principals or Cross the Line - Help Me Decide

Help! I have a dilemma. Oh it isn’t anything bad but I would like your opinion and help in deciding what I should do. There is an e-book I have wanted to read for awhile now but I have been sticking to my ‘I won’t purchase an e-book over $9.99’ principle. The book in question is ‘1812: The War of 1812‘ by Walter R. Borneman. The dilemma is this e-book is priced at $10.99. A dollar over what I vowed I would never pay. It is also important to know that the paperback at Amazon is selling for $10.87 so it is cheaper then the e-book, plus the book was originally published in 2004 so it it an older book.

I am very interested in the war of 1812. I have read several other books on the subject but understand that Mr. Borneman is considered a pretty good source on the subject. I have several other e-books to read (see my last post) so I am not desperate for something new to read. I had just saw that the e-book price had dropped for this particular e-book and for a dollar more I can either cross over the line I had drawn in the sand against the greedy e-book publishers or keep my buck and just read something already on my to read list. Perhaps I should just finish my fiction e-book ‘1812’ by David Nevin and just stick to my principals.

So help me decide. Stick to my principals or cross the line I have drawn in the virtual sand! Take my poll or leave me a comment and let me know!