Kindling

Sadly, Totnes comprehensive's selection of Russian literature consisted of Gorky, Gorky and more Gorky. Seemingly endless tales of peasants, poverty and potatoes; which put me right off Russian authors for many years. Until I read Dostoyevsky's semiautobiographical novel "The Gambler", which I enjoyed very much. Recently, I caught a film adaptation with Michael Gambon, and it piqued my interest enough to check out some of his other novels. So, I got myself "The Idiot", and "Devils".

But anyway, sorry for the digression... this isn't a post about my taste in literature. It's about the price of e-books. I got the books from Waterstones, for £1.99 each (postage free). Big chunky things made of real paper. Great. But to download e-books of the same titles would have cost me £4+

I don't get it? All of the other titles I looked at, by many different authors (ancient, historical and contemporary), were also more expensive for their digital versions. Is it just greed? Publishers cashing in, on a new technology? I'd have thought the cost of producing a digital book would be next to nothing. Especially, seeing as I download it, there is no postage, and no trees were harmed in it's manufacture. I understand why the author, or their "estate" would require royalties, equivalent to sales of the paper version. But why more than the paper version?

Never been tempted to buy myself a kindle, anyway. The £100 it costs, could buy a shelf full of paper books.. and then I'd be robbed for new titles?. Errr... No thankyou. When I was last in London, I saw lots of commuters and people on the tube with Kindles. It doesn't look as comfortable as reading a book. I don't understand it's popularity. Is it a "city thing". ?

Amazon Kindle Wiki