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Kindle - Wow!


Simon-the-censored
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Hello everyone.

In reply to another post. I have the cheaper Kindle, and 3 delivery addresses, first 2 for the UK, one for France. The Kindle was delivered to a UK one and brought over. Everthing is paid for with a French bank card. I've never had any problems. Is it possible to add addresses to your Amazon account?

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[quote user="cooperlola"]

Certainly, VAT is payable on Kindle "books" - but not relevant for hundreds of classics of course because 0% of £0.00 is.... 

Whether an increasing number of e-books will mean that UK government might review this is for them to decide.  I guess they are not in the business of lowering taxes at present though, for any reason.

Yes, R/H, the prices of best sellers is reasonable.  Some of the more obscure books, however, are not very differnent in price so I, personally, will continue to buy those in hard copy and probably won't bother with a Kindle version.

[/quote]

 I think ( I seem to have read a lot about Kindles)  I have read that the VAT question has gone to the Office of Fair trading to review, I guess it all hinges on the definition of 'book'.

There seems no rhyme nor reason to the pricing structure either, for instance some books are cheaper on kindle and some more expensive - its weird [8-)][8-)]

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It's publishers who feel threatened who have forbidden Amazon to sell ebooks abroad. (Nothing to do with 'French restrictions'. English books are available with no postage from amazon.fr).

I have no reply to 2 letters sent to their trade Association.

Penguin

MacMillan

Harper Collins

Hachette

Simon Schuster

Canongate

Wiley

Egmont

 are a few of the bigger publishers who are exercising this censorship. (Article in Sunday Times - which I can get online but not on Kindle!)

I plan to write to them all, and to William Boyd, who, in the same article, praised the Kindle.

As he lives just up the road from me near Monbazaillac, I wonder if he's found it impossible to get his latest novel for his Kindle? As I have.

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I think the prices for ebooks are ridiculously high. Not much different to regular books.

Like video and music, if they made it all much cheaper to buy (overheads will be low as there are no materials to produce), then there would be a lot less piracy, the authors are happy and the people are happy.

A Dvd to download should cost no more than £3. A CD, perhaps £2 and probably the same for a book. In fact a book should probably be more than a film. After all, a book can last for days, whereas a film you watch one or twice and that's only 3 or 4 hours worth of entertainment.
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English books are indeed available post free from Amazon Fr.  However, if you buy from the UK site they are often up to 50% cheaper, as are many other products including, and especially DVDs and CDs (neither of the latter two being available in the UK release versions.)  The UK site also offers free delivery to most EU countries on orders over £30 or so, but not to France.  That was my point and it clearly has nothing to do with publishers as it includes electronics, household products and indeed anything sold direct by Amazon (as opposed to Marketplace sellers).
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After reading all this posts I have been converted from a Kindle sceptic to  a - gosh I think I might try one .   My OH has been wanting to buy me one for ages as Im always reading and have got thousands of books all over the place but Ive alwas said no as  like others I really get pleasure from handling the actual books .

Well anyway - he is going to get me one for my next birthday( a special) one .  He wants me to let the kids know what books I want so that they can get a kindle version for me ( I think he thinks they are on a disc or something)  I have told him that they are uploaded ( by magic !!)and ones account at Amazon is debited .   But I wonder - is there anyway that they could buy a kindle book for me ???????

I have a list of books I am "looking out for " but none of them have a kindle version !!!

If somebody could let me know

Thanks

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Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend as the the closure of 200 Borders Stores with Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Personally it bothers me not at all whether woman read literary "pap" on paper or not. But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. I suppose a dumbing down of standards was inevitable.

http://brandon.patch.com/articles/readers-react-to-pending-borders-closures-in-brandon-and-elsewhere

 

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Sadly, the problems for book stores started a long time before any of us heard of the Kindle. Less money is available generally,, even such places as charity shops take a share - I buy a lot of books from Oxfam etc.However, many of us with a Kindle will still be buying books - I for one won't be wanting to stray too far from real books!  [:)]
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[quote user="pachapapa"]Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend 

...

 But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. [/quote]

I'd have thought that going electronic would benefit authors with smaller readerships. No problems with minimum print runs and the like. In principle converting a book from the author's Word (or whatever) document to an e-book format is a fairly trivial process compared with printing, binding and lugging dead trees all over the place

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[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="pachapapa"]Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend 

...

 But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. [/quote]

I'd have thought that going electronic would benefit authors with smaller readerships. No problems with minimum print runs and the like. In principle converting a book from the author's Word (or whatever) document to an e-book format is a fairly trivial process compared with printing, binding and lugging dead trees all over the place

[/quote]

Most paper is produced in areas of the world with specifically planted arrays of fast growing trees, uruguay and eucalyptus is a fair example.The paper of poor quality for my multi-function is not expensive but the ink cartridges are.

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[quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="pachapapa"]Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend 

...

 But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. [/quote]

I'd have thought that going electronic would benefit authors with smaller readerships. No problems with minimum print runs and the like. In principle converting a book from the author's Word (or whatever) document to an e-book format is a fairly trivial process compared with printing, binding and lugging dead trees all over the place

[/quote]

Most paper is produced in areas of the world with specifically planted arrays of fast growing trees, uruguay and eucalyptus is a fair example.The paper of poor quality for my multi-function is not expensive but the ink cartridges are.

[/quote]

And what bearing does that have on my post? I didn't think even you were daft enough to buy ebooks and print them off with an inkjet.[8-)]

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[quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="pachapapa"]Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend 

...

 But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. [/quote]

I'd have thought that going electronic would benefit authors with smaller readerships. No problems with minimum print runs and the like. In principle converting a book from the author's Word (or whatever) document to an e-book format is a fairly trivial process compared with printing, binding and lugging dead trees all over the place

[/quote]

Most paper is produced in areas of the world with specifically planted arrays of fast growing trees, uruguay and eucalyptus is a fair example.The paper of poor quality for my multi-function is not expensive but the ink cartridges are.

[/quote]

And what bearing does that have on my post? I didn't think even you were daft enough to buy ebooks and print them off with an inkjet.[8-)]

[/quote]

I was endeavouring to make the point that the location of paper mills is close to the source of materials of production, hence the lugging of dead trees around the ecosphere is very much less than your largely unfounded fears. I hope my post will have reassured your anxieties on the tree lugging matter.

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[quote user="pachapapa"]

Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend as the the closure of 200 Borders Stores with Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Personally it bothers me not at all whether woman read literary "pap" on paper or not. But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. I suppose a dumbing down of standards was inevitable.

http://brandon.patch.com/articles/readers-react-to-pending-borders-closures-in-brandon-and-elsewhere

[/quote]

Am I missing something here... I read the article and I

can't see why you felt the need make the comment about women needing literary

"pap".  What prompted you to make such a comment or was it just

because it makes you feel good?

Of course it is possible book stores are feeling the pinch because books can be

purchased from sites like awesome books and supermarkets... and of course the

likes of Amazon?  I love books, love to keep them, love the feel of them

and I buy a lot... OH and son are the same.  However, we now buy from

Awesome... or other book sales... and we can find many a bargain for a pound or

two... but hey, that's just my opinion and as I do read a bit of

"pap" now and again it's possible I don't understand?

 

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[quote user="pachapapa"]

Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend as the the closure of 200 Borders Stores with Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Personally it bothers me not at all whether woman read literary "pap" on paper or not. But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. I suppose a dumbing down of standards was inevitable. [/quote]

And men of course only ever read serious, worthy tomes. [Www]  As an ex-librarian I can promise you that the consumption of pap is pretty equally spread between the sexes.....[:D]

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[quote user="KathyF"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend as the the closure of 200 Borders Stores with Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Personally it bothers me not at all whether woman read literary "pap" on paper or not. But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. I suppose a dumbing down of standards was inevitable. [/quote]

And men of course only ever read serious, worthy tomes. [Www]  As an ex-librarian I can promise you that the consumption of pap is pretty equally spread between the sexes.....[:D]

[/quote]

Rarely read but in french, Parthenay has an excellent mediatheque, currently "se Défendre en Justice" by Marie Saulis. One of the useful Déclic Droit Series. The last book I read in english was an excellent volume on Sharia Law which I found in the Leicester University Library,written by a Professor of Islamic Culture at McGill; a rivetting read, no less.[:-))]

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 I was reading a little feature in Waitrose magazine where various people name their favorite books, one of the books was listed as being 'out of print' I guess with e books that need never happen again (well the physical book will be out of print but the information/story will still be available )
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[quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="pachapapa"]Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend 

...

 But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. [/quote]

I'd have thought that going electronic would benefit authors with smaller readerships. No problems with minimum print runs and the like. In principle converting a book from the author's Word (or whatever) document to an e-book format is a fairly trivial process compared with printing, binding and lugging dead trees all over the place

[/quote]

Most paper is produced in areas of the world with specifically planted arrays of fast growing trees, uruguay and eucalyptus is a fair example.The paper of poor quality for my multi-function is not expensive but the ink cartridges are.

[/quote]

And what bearing does that have on my post? I didn't think even you were daft enough to buy ebooks and print them off with an inkjet.[8-)]

[/quote]

I was endeavouring to make the point that the location of paper mills is close to the source of materials of production, hence the lugging of dead trees around the ecosphere is very much less than your largely unfounded fears. I hope my post will have reassured your anxieties on the tree lugging matter.

[/quote]

So how far is it from Uruguay to my bookshelf in France? Those paper books are still made out of dead trees no matter where the processing takes place.

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[quote user="Russethouse"] I was reading a little feature in Waitrose magazine where various people name their favorite books, one of the books was listed as being 'out of print' I guess with e books that need never happen again (well the physical book will be out of print but the information/story will still be available )[/quote]

Dont worry Google has been digitalising good academic quality stuff from the best libraries in the world, in full colour to boot.[:)]

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In the next couple of weeks I am going to order my Kindle.

Has anyone done 'the right thing' and ordered it from amazon.com and not .co.uk (being a French resident)?

I am trying to find out what tax/import duty would be paid on it (I am assuming there is otherwise it is vastly cheaper from .com). If 19.6% is applied then it works out about 20€ cheaper to buy it from .com at todays exchange rates. Unless I register a credit card to get to the final page of ordering one from .com I can't see what the total price that I am going to be charged is.

Has anyone got any experience of buying from the .com site/contacting their customer services in the event of a problem? Would it actually be dispatched from the US?

I do have someone in the UK that I can get one sent to (I already have Kindle for Mac set up and have successfully downloaded loads of free books).

What would you do in my situation .co.uk or .com?

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