April 13th, 2011

Calvin: Faces

:sigh:....Some days....

Called McCoy's yesterday...and they couldn't find any record of my purchase. :bangs head: Called back today....."OOOPS.....um...it was a mis-communication. We're going to go...go get them today, and we'll deliver 'em free of charge to you tomorrow, if that's all right...." :sigh: Yes, it is, but I really wanted them TODAY so I could get the barn all spiffy-fied. :sigh:

Himself is already comfortable with basic Algebra. He's got a good handle on it...so we may not need to do the Intensive Practice pages. We'll see. Today we read about Moses and the Exodus (good timing, huh? Passover begins Monday evening....) and he started building the Wilderness Tabernacle.

I did 3 loads of laundry, got them hung on the line, and did some Work-work. Also spent some time downloading (legally, for free!) most of the 1632 sequels. (I think I now have all the 1634 ones, and the 1635 ones, plus the 3 Gazettes, the 2 Ring of Fires....I think's that it. Baen put out CDs...and they've been uploaded for people to download. Can't wait to start on them!

I have a problem with DRM.......I understand it, I really do, but.......why is it OK to borrow paper books from a library, or to buy paper books from a resale shop, but it's not OK to borrow e-copies? I mean......OK. I have a LOT of paper books. LOTS. Most of them I bought from Half Price - let's face it, I can't afford my reading habit if I have to pay full-price. I DO buy some books new - when I have the funds, or if I have a good coupon, or if there's a sale (like at Borders that time....:whew:) but I simply can NOT afford to buy all my "fun" books at full price. The local libraries SUCK, big time - honestly, *I* have more knitting/weaving/spinning book then both of them put together, and I probably have more SF books then them, too. (Which are my 2 favorite genres). So....the libraries are out for *me* for fun reading. (Don't even bring up ILL - I've been waiting a good 4 years now for a spinning book I requested - I ended up finding it on eBay. They STILL haven't gotten it in at the library!)

And....most (not all, granted) of the e-books I have, I ALSO have printed copies. Jean Auel? Got all but the newest one in print. Ditto Diana Galbadon, and Neil Gaimon, and Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein, and and and....if it weren't for "lending" libraries of e-books, I'd be broker than I already am, having to buy digital copies of all of them. :sigh: (I will confess that I don't have any hard copies of Eric Flint's books - yet. I haven't been to a bookstore since I discovered him! :lol: And yes, I'll end up buying a few of his in print, just for the principle of the thing.)

I just.....I can't buy 2 or 3 copies of each book - like, say, for the kids, for school. Amazon won't allow you to put it on more than 1 device (and that's assuming they'll sell it in a format my reader can handle, or that Calibre can re-format)...so either 1 kid can haul the ebook around while the other is chained to the 'puter, or I have to purchase 2 copies. That's not right......I mean, with a print book I can read it, hand it to Himself, who can read it and hand it to Herself, and so on.....but with DRM, we're stuck.

I'm not trying to cut the author's royalty payments...but I don't understand why libraries aren't getting the same flack. It's...the same thing, really - 1 copy that hundreds of people can read. I'm not sure, even, why Half-Price doesn't get zinged - I mean, they're profiting on re-selling books, and I haven't heard any publishers whine about *that* (or garage sales, or thrift stores....I mean, really. What's the difference???)

:sigh: For the moment, I'm hunting free sites, and I try to avoid the obvious non-legal ones. I'm not sure what a real solution would be - again, I don't want to hurt author's royalty streams, but.......I dunno. I'm rambling, instead of cleaning.

Guess I need to go clean something.....