Another book roundup

This being yet another rundown of books I have purchased lately!

Ebooks:

  • Kingdom of Shadows, by Greg F. Gifune (horror)
  • No Control, by Shannon K. Butcher (romance, replacing physical copy)
  • Silent in the Sanctuary, by Deanna Raybourn (mystery/romance, replacing physical copy)
  • Wild Thing, by Doranna Durgin (romance)
  • WebMage, by Kelly McCullough (urban fantasy)
  • Trick of the Light, by Rob Thurman (urban fantasy)
  • On the Edge, by Ilona Andrews (urban fantasy)
  • Child of Fire, by Harry Connolly (urban fantasy)
  • Unfallen Dead, by Mark Del Franco
  • The Serpent and the Scorpion, by Clare Langley-Hawthorne (mystery)
  • Bright Hair About the Bone, by Barbara Cleverly (mystery)
  • Fledgling, by Octavia Butler (SF)

Physical books:

  • Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead, by Steve Perry (self-explanatory ;) )
  • Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (hee hee hee)
  • Doubleblind, by Ann Aguirre (SF)
  • Spectre, by Phaedra Weldon (urban fantasy, although I actually took this one to Third Place so I can buy the ebook instead)
  • Dreadful Skin, by userinfocmpriest (horror)
  • Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami (not at all sure how to classify this one!)

This for a grand total of 18, to bring me up to a total of 138 books purchased for the year. Do note that a few of these ebook purchases are re-buys, since I’m winding up replacing a notable number of physical books with ebook equivalents.

I bought the Priest and Murakami on the strength of store credit from Third Place, yay! These being authors that I do actually want in print. Meanwhile, the Gifune horror ebook I picked up to enter a contest being held by the folks over at Horror Mall, since they’re launching a new forum about digital horror books and I figured what the hell, couldn’t hurt to enter. Might get a good read in the bargain.

And of course Fictionwise still totally has my number. It’s worth mentioning though that I’ve poked around a bit on Barnes and Noble’s ebook store, and I note with interest the following:

  • B&N is pretty much selling files in the same format as Fictionwise and eReader: i.e., PDB format with DRM on it.
  • B&N is also using pretty much the same reader programs, only branded differently. Same functionality both on the iPhone and in the Mac-side app you can download. Which means that I can at least read all of these files in the same program.
  • B&N gets points for also letting you download purchases directly to your computer.
  • They do not however get points for the fact that my B&N membership apparently doesn’t apply to ebooks. Which means Fictionwise is still a way better deal for purchasing ebooks. I may however occasionally resort to B&N if they have something in electronic form that Fictionwise doesn’t–because Fictionwise does tend to lag on getting new releases posted, and B&N seems to be aiming for competive pricing with the Kindle. And that means that if I want something that’s out in trade paperback I can get it cheaper on B&N, probably, than I can on Fictionwise. This will require mulling.
  • Last but not least I’ve actually also snurched three free books from B&N, but I’m not counting them in the list above since they were freebies and I’m tracking number of books actually purchased this year.