Free books!

[vnatale]

I think the average American reads four books a year?

From the discussions here I have to assume that the average forum member here reads many more than that a year? (Some day I will do a poll but not now.)

Therefore what could be better than free books!!

For years and years I've been getting a daily email of free books.

Today's email had this Subject: "144 Free Kindle Books, 2 Free NY Times Bestselling Author Romances, 2 USA Today Bestsellers, 33 Kindle Book Deals"

I go through all the ones in the Nonfiction genre section every day and choose my free ones from that section only.

You too can get your daily free email by going here to sign up: http://forms.aweber.com/form/89/886102289.htm

There are some high quality books that you can get for free, like textbooks that normally sell for $60.


But that is just a long preamble to why I created this topic. The purpose of this topic is for us to let each of know of any available FREE books that you believe that based upon discussions in topics would mean that others here would likely to be interested in a certain books.

I will start it off with this one:

The Socialist Trap: Why The Leftist Utopia Will Destroy America Kindle Edition
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M9H1YFH

Would I read this book? Yes. Is it high on my list of next books to read? No.

Note: For many of the books I will be putting here they may only be free until midnight of the day I am putting them here.

Vinny

[Mark Leavy]

When I give shit away for free, it is because:
1) I screwed up.
2) Loss leader.
3) I’m struggling for a foothold.
4) I’m test marketing.
5) I’m pandering.
6) I’m advertising.

[vnatale]

When I give shit away for free, it is because:
1) I screwed up.
2) Loss leader.
3) I’m struggling for a foothold.
4) I’m test marketing.
5) I’m pandering.
6) I’m advertising.

How about you want to improve your standing on the Amazon scale as to where you rank sales-wise? Seems that could work? That has always been my assumptions about why it is being done. Particularly when it is free for only one day.

Vinny

[Mark Leavy]

When I give shit away for free, it is because:
1) I screwed up.
2) Loss leader.
3) I’m struggling for a foothold.
4) I’m test marketing.
5) I’m pandering.
6) I’m advertising.

How about you want to improve your standing on the Amazon scale as to where you rank sales-wise? Seems that could work? That has always been my assumptions about why it is being done. Particularly when it is free for only one day.

Vinny

6) I'm advertising

[Kriegsspiel]

All of my books are free. I get them at the library. I think I've mentioned that before.

[vnatale]

All of my books are free. I get them at the library. I think I've mentioned that before.

Except that they either have to be owned by the library or if owned by the library not taken out by someone else.

You have to spend time going and back forth there for books made out of paper.

You can only do so when they are open.

Some libraries will charge you fines if you go not get them back in time.

I know that an extremely large percentage of my quite large book library will not be found in any libraries, even using the inter-library system.

I regularly buy books that were former library books and I am oftentimes amazed at how many books get discarded at such a young age, leading me to believe that particular book is no longer available at that library.

I love getting books to read from the library that I pick up from merely browsing the available new books. But I'd not count on being able to get a book I really am after.

Vinny

[Kriegsspiel]

All of my books are free. I get them at the library. I think I've mentioned that before.

Except that they either have to be owned by the library or if owned by the library not taken out by someone else.

So what?

You have to spend time going and back forth there for books made out of paper.

You can only do so when they are open.

No factor, I can walk there in 10 mins. This might matter to me if I chose to live somewhere far away from a library or something. Also, libraries have ebooks for loan.

Some libraries will charge you fines if you go not get them back in time.

Don't all libraries do that? Anyways, no factor, I just call them and renew it if I don't finish it in time. Or pay $0.40 in late fees; that's a lot less than the book would cost to buy.

I know that an extremely large percentage of my quite large book library will not be found in any libraries, even using the inter-library system.

Ok, I can see buying those books. But I find it hard to believe you have a lot of books that you can't get from a library. I've found an incredibly small % of the books I want to read can't be procured by my libraries. But again, just buy those ones. It seems dumb to buy books you can just get at a library for free.

I regularly buy books that were former library books and I am oftentimes amazed at how many books get discarded at such a young age, leading me to believe that particular book is no longer available at that library.

Yea, I've been just grabbing free books when I go to pick up books at the library. I've been able to stock up my home bookshelves with some interesting books for free that way. But I'm fine with letting the library system store them for me.

I love getting books to read from the library that I pick up from merely browsing the available new books. But I'd not count on being able to get a book I really am after.

Ok.

[vnatale]

Not a FREE book but still a book....so a semi-appropriate place to put this.

I've been listening to this:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?473859-1/ ... llenberger

JULY 28, 2020

After Words

Michael Shellenberger

Michael Shellenberger, founder and president of Environmental Progress, offered his thoughts on what he calls “apocalyptic” environmentalism and provided some solutions on how to address environmental issues of today and into the future. He was interviewed by Andrew Revkin, author and Columbia University’s diirector of the Earth Institute Initiative on Communication and Sustainability.

This is his book:

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Never ... l_huc_item


I do want to read the book but all versions are above my price point for a book which is neither a studying or reference book.

Therefore, for this one I will actually pursue getting if from the library. As soon as I finish this email I'll see if I can get an ebook version of it. I'll report back as to my success or lack of success in securing one from the library. I do have access to ALL the libraries in the state of Massachusetts!

Below is a description of his book from the Amazon page.

Vinny


Climate change is real but it’s not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem.

Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions.

But in 2019, as some claimed “billions of people are going to die,” contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong environmental activist, leading energy expert, and father of a teenage daughter, he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.

Despite decades of news media attention, many remain ignorant of basic facts. Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas.

Curiously, the people who are the most alarmist about the problems also tend to oppose the obvious solutions.

What’s really behind the rise of apocalyptic environmentalism? There are powerful financial interests. There are desires for status and power. But most of all there is a desire among supposedly secular people for transcendence. This spiritual impulse can be natural and healthy. But in preaching fear without love, and guilt without redemption, the new religion is failing to satisfy our deepest psychological and existential needs.

[vnatale]

In all of western Massachusetts there is this:

Available copies
1 of 9 copies available at All C/W MARS Libraries.

Current holds
7 current holds with 9 total copies.

There seems to be one available that I could have sent to any library of my choosing. But that would require me making a special trip when they are open to get it. And, that might not fit when I want to get it. That then makes me go to the next stop to see if I can find an ebook version of it anywhere in the rest of the state. There are no ebook versions of it available in Western Massachusetts.

Vinny

[vnatale]

Maybe I'm not using the Advanced Search correctly? I have a difficult time believing that all the the available are in Western Massachusetts and NONE in the Boston area?

Available copies
1 of 9 copies available at All C/W MARS Libraries.
0 of 0 copies available at Non-Members.
0 of 0 copies available at MA Certified Library.

Current holds
7 current holds with 9 total copies

I will keep trying to do the proper search.

But this is yet another reason why I prefer to buy a specific book I do want to read (as opposed to finding books I want to read when I'm just browsing the physical books at the library).

Vinny

[vnatale]

I was successfully able to get into the Boston Public LIbrary system using my card information.

DId my search and all it came up with one audio book version? No paper? On ebook versions? For a book that came out in June 2020 and was a national bestseller?

If I properly valued my time I'd have broken down and bought the book rather than spending all this time trying to find it at a library and coming up with nothing...

Vinny

[vnatale]

Final update on this one.

After laboriously signing into six other library systems in my state and redoing the search in each one of them I found one ebook version in one of the library systems.

I was able to put a hold on it.

I was #5 in the hold line to get the book. That will be soon enough as it is not urgent to read it (though I would have started reading it tonight if I could have obtained it from one of the libraries).

Difficult to believe that in the entire state that there is seemingly only ONE ebook version in the entire state.

I guess I should not be surprised when I saw that The entire Boston Library system had less than 80,000 Kindle versions of books. It is 2020!!! Not 2010!!! That is a tiny, tiny, tiny portion of all the books available from Amazon in Kindle version!

Vinny

[Tortoise]

Yes, it is irritating that libraries don’t have infinite funds with which to purchase multiple copies of every ebook in existence so that everyone can find and read every single book they could possibly want without ever having to leave their home or talk on the phone with another human being.

Vinny, dude... just spend the five minutes or less that it takes to fill out the library’s book purchase request online or pick up the phone to request the purchase verbally. It’s not nearly as difficult or time-consuming as you’re making it sound.

[vnatale]

Yes, it is irritating that libraries don’t have infinite funds with which to purchase multiple copies of every ebook in existence so that everyone can find and read every single book they could possibly want without ever having to leave their home or talk on the phone with another human being.

Vinny, dude... just spend the five minutes or less that it takes to fill out the library’s book purchase request online or pick up the phone to request the purchase verbally. It’s not nearly as difficult or time-consuming as you’re making it sound.

A. First the library has to have the book.

B. If you live in a rural area you have to spend not a small amount of time getting back and forth from the library plus get there only when they are open, which may mean a special trip for you.

All in all, the above is why I buy most of my books.

It's far easier to buy them and have them available to me all the time and when I want to read them.

I understand why the library works for a lot of people. Does not cost them anything and getting and returning those books fits into their schedules.

I can well afford to buy all the books that I do, which then saves me time.

Vinny

[Tortoise]

A. First the library has to have the book.

That's the purpose of contacting the library (either online or by phone) to request that they purchase it. That was the whole point of my previous post. If the library doesn't have the book you want, you ask them to purchase it, and they usually will.

B. If you live in a rural area you have to spend not a small amount of time getting back and forth from the library plus get there only when they are open, which may mean a special trip for you.

Then ask the library to purchase an electronic version of the book you want (ebook). That way, you won't have to be inconvenienced with making a special trip to the library.

But if buying most of the books you read still works better for you, even after considering what I just wrote, that's fine. To each his own.

[vnatale]

A. First the library has to have the book.

That's the purpose of contacting the library (either online or by phone) to request that they purchase it. That was the whole point of my previous post. If the library doesn't have the book you want, you ask them to purchase it, and they usually will.

B. If you live in a rural area you have to spend not a small amount of time getting back and forth from the library plus get there only when they are open, which may mean a special trip for you.

Then ask the library to purchase an electronic version of the book you want (ebook). That way, you won't have to be inconvenienced with making a special trip to the library.

But if buying most of the books you read still works better for you, even after considering what I just wrote, that's fine. To each his own.

I missed the point of asking them to buy it. I thought you were telling me to ask them to find it for me somewhere. Do they always buy a book you request?

I do use the phone when it is most efficient. But too often it is quite inefficient. Especially when you have to wade through menus, get put on hold until someone answers, get put on hold during the call. I went through that today with Vanguard and Social Security. Calls I had to make.

I'm in the midst of doing my final 2020 tax planning for the year. While doing that I update and review all my spending for the year, whether tax related or not.

I went wild in book buying this past year. I spent $2,300 on books this year. Almost all of them are used from Amazon and I try to see a limit of $7.00 for a book. Preferably no more than $6.00. At that low price that means I bought a ton of books this year. I went completely wild on Amazon Prime Day this year.

I am a true bibliophile and for several of my niche interests there are no libraries around that can rival what I own in some of those niches. There is a used bookstore about a mile from my house. Its personal finance is about a foot wide. I have somewhere between 500 and 600 personal finance books. Baseball books? Their collection is tiny compared to mine. And, so on.

Vinny

[vnatale]

Diary of an Early Retiree: How You Can Do It Step by Step Kindle Edition

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VGVD1F2

[Hal]

Well, a free summary
The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham
https://novelinvestor.com/notes/the-int ... in-graham/