It’s been a l-o-n-g time since I remembered to do a monthly round-up here at Get Rich Slowly. (Since January, in fact.) I’d like to get back in the habit. I think this is a nice way to recap the best discussions from the past few weeks.

Before I start, though, I have to confess a minor stupidity. Earlier this week, I was trying to re-label everything in my gmail inbox to “TEMP”, which would allow me to at least feel like I’d achieved Inbox Zero. Well, somehow I managed to archive all of that mail instead. I know that I can still read it in gmail’s “All Mail” folder. That’s great. But it doesn’t help me actually find which messages I accidentally archived. So, if you’ve sent me e-mail recently and need a reply, I’m afraid you’ll have to re-send it. I apologize. Even computer geeks make technology mistakes sometimes.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the best GRS articles from November:

November 4th: How to save: Putting “pay yourself first” into practice (by J.D.)

November 10th: Make more money: How to supercharge your income (by J.D.)

November 17th: Using the web to minimize distractions (by April)

November 22nd: Fantasy vs. reality: Paving a path to a promising future (by J.D.)

November 23rd: Wine on a budget: How to get good deals on wine (by J.D.)

November 24th: Christmas gifts that make a difference (by Donna)

November 29th: How to lower your heating bills this winter (by Sierra)

When Ebooks Are More (and Less) Cost Effective Than Physical Books

While many may prefer eBooks for the convenience they offer (or prefer paper books for the sentimentality), finding out which is cheaper isn't so black-and-white. Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly shows us how to save the most money when buying books.

Photo by Pen Waggener.

All other preferences aside, it looks like eBooks are cheapest then the books are extremely new or extremely old:

E-books are great for new releases. For new books, the electronic version is almost always the cheapest way to go. At a friend's house the other day, I noticed he'd paid $29 for the latest John Grisham book. $29!!! That's insane. That John Grisham book costs $16 at Amazon, and the Kindle version costs $10. In fact, most e-books cost between $10 and $12. When the cost savings is combined with the space savings, e-books are the clear winner for new releases.

E-books are okay for classics. Anything that's in the Public Domain (published before 1923) can generally be downloaded to your e-book reader for free. Sometimes the formatting is goofy, and there usually isn't any supplemental material (like essays and notes), but you do get the books at no cost. (Searching for free Kindle books? Here's Amazon's list of free eBook collections, and here's their best-sellers in the Kindle store, including free books on the right.) Of course, these books can usually be had for cheap (or free) in their dead tree versions, so there's not a huge savings here.

E-books suck for most titles published between 1923 and, say, 2008. Books from the past century are still priced between $5 and $10 in electronic editions. This is ridiculous. You can borrow these for free from your public library. Or you can go to a used bookstore, a garage sale, or a thrift store to pick them up for less than they cost in digital format. Plus, tons of popular books aren't evenvailable electronically. (A real-life, typical example: Cry, the Beloved Country costs $12 on the Kindle. A brand-new paperback copy from Amazon? $9. The mind boggles.)

It's a rather interesting pattern, though good to know if you don't particularly have a preference for one over the other. Of course, if you find eBooks are just too darn convenient and instantaneous (or you prefer to have the physical copy for sentimental, ease of lending, or other reasons), you can always stick to your preferred media and we won't yell at you.

Note that the above also doesn't take into account the cost of buying an e-reader, which only pays for itself if you read a lot of books, so unless you use it for other things anyway, you'll want to keep that in mind as well. Hit the link to read more, and if you've noticed a similar patter, share how you manage your book buying in the comments below.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

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When Ebooks Are More (and Less) Cost Effective Than Physical Books

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