Dailycheapreads’s Comments (group member since Feb 28, 2011)

Dailycheapreads’s comments from the Daily Cheap Reads Groupies group.

On my "old" Kindle 2, sometimes I'd actually touch the screen to try to pull up a book instead of using the five-way button.
So I was very excited about upgrading to the Kindle Touch with 3G.
Although its cousin the Kindle Fire has gotten most of the attention lately, this is one very nice piece of equipment.
The Kindle Touch is small and lightweight. It only has one button which is really a fine layer of fins that slide softly under your finger. Choosing a book is as simple as touching the title on the homepage, a nice step up from the five-way button. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally deleted a book on my old Kindle because of that.
 
Reading
The Touch gives two options for turning a page - slide your finger, reminiscent of flipping the page in a book, or tap the screen, which is what I usually do. Tap on the left to go back a page and at the top to pull down a menu. The screen is sensitive and I've often turned a page without meaning to, but no more so than with the button on the previous model. According to the users' guide, the e-ink page refreshes more quickly and it does seem to be a bit faster. The Touch is designed so you can hold it and turn pages in one hand. (I'd like to see paperback that can do that!) This works without a hitch for me.
The dictionary feature is one of my favorites on the Kindle. It works beautifully on the Touch - just tap the word you want to know and a full definition pops up. The highlighting feature, however, is more difficult to navigate. I've tried it a few times and instead of highlighting, end up turning pages. The font size button is easy to handle and has options for spacing.
 
Games
The Kindle Touch is a big step up for playing games. Only a few are offered free on the Touch, but those that do load quickly and are so easy to play that if it wasn't so nice to read books on the Touch, I'd be playing games all the time. If a keyboard is needed, it pops up on screen, so I don't miss the keyboard at all.
 
Special Offers
Special offers are the bomb! I got the Kindle 3G with advertising for $149, as opposed to $189 without the advertising. (The WiFi Touch is just $99 with special offers; $139 without.)
So worth the $40 savings in many ways. For one thing, it's $40. For another, the ads are only on the screen saver, so you don't really see them. For one more, the ads are more attractive than the portraits of petrified writers. And one last thing, the offers give really good deals. Click on the ad to respond and Amazon sends the offer to your email. I got a book for $1 on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
 
Cover
Not too many covers were offered in the Amazon store when I ordered the Touch. I picked up this leather one for $39. It's similar to a phone case in that the Kindle fits snugly inside. I was disappointed, because it was not as sturdy as I expected. Next time, I would order one with a strap that holds it closed. Also, the Touch only comes with a USB charger. If you don't already have one, I'd recommend a power adapter ($9.99).
Overall, I am very pleased with the ease of use and features on the Touch. It would be great for new Kindle users or old pros looking to upgrade. I tap the Touch a "thumbs up."

Today is my birthday. I'm not exactly happy about that, but I've found that trying to ignore aging doesn't make it go away. So since I'm getting older any way, let's make a party of it. I'm sharing some of my favorite books I've read in my life time. Join the celebration by chiming in the comments with your favorite books
Here are mine to get started:

I read Once Upon A Summer ($5.59) when I was about 11. It's about an orphan growing up with his grandpa, great-grandpa and Aunt Lou during the Great Depression. Janette Oke and her touching stories inspired me to be a writer and I was able to meet her at a conference last year. For you cheapskates, you can get the four-book Seasons of the Heart Series bundle with an updated cover for just $9.99. The bundle includes Once Up a Summer.

Once upon a summer of my own, I was so bored my mom convinced me to read a Zane Grey book. I got hooked and read the whole collection that summer. You can get six of his Western classics for just $1. It includes my favorite, Riders of the Purple Sage.
Click here to purchase The Greatest Hits of Zane Grey

As a journalist, I thoroughly enjoyed Rick Bragg's "autobiography" of growing up in the rural South and becoming a New York Times columnist. Later, some of Bragg's story was called into question, but it's still a good story, even if it isn't true and priced at $11.99.

Click here to purchase All Over But the Shoutin'

I just read One Thousand Gifts this summer. Life changing. The artistic writing style is beautiful and the message of gratitude goes deep. It's $9.99, but this book has made me richer.

In my old age, I'll probably be sitting at home, sipping tea and reading my Kindle a lot. The Sweetest Thing is on my "to be read" list at the strong recommendation of one of my writer friends. It is priced at $9.68.

Do you need an in-depth novel with many characters, an engaging plot with multiple sub-plots and twists and turns you didn't expect? Or do you prefer a story that you can read in less than an hour? I like both as each has an appropriate place in my schedule.
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Recently we have featured short stories and short story collections in our daily posts. We want to know how you feel about short stories, collections, prices, and your comments and thoughts on short stories. A new poll is in the right sidebar and we welcome your input and comments. Feel free to tell us about a short story or a collection you have read and want to share with us.
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Rachel sent us a note to tell us about a short story collection she enjoyed: Search by Leigh Smith, available for 99 cents. Rachel gave this review:

I bought it for Kindle on my iPhone. Really great themes and characters! All the characters are searching for something, but from all different points of view and experiences. Each story is a really nice slice-of-life/American zeitgeist type narrative. Highly recommended.

The romance thread in the first story is so realistic and not at all overdone. I could totally relate the the main character, Vanessa trying so hard to move on from her ex and not being completely honest with herself. Plus the description of the setting is great! Just like my office except I'm not a genius intern that attracts sexy older men.

The description and character development throughout is really well done, even given the limited word-budget in the short story format. You can tell some thought went into this, which is why I wanted to share it with the site.

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At the time of this post, Dave Zeltserman is traveling to New York City to accept a Readers Choice Award from Ellery Queen for 'Archie's Been Framed', which is one of the stories in the collection of Julius Katz Mysteries available for only 99 cents.
Julius Katz mysteries by Dave Zeltserman have delighted thousands of mystery fans since first appearing on the pages of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2009. Julius Katz introduced readers to Boston's most brilliant, eccentric and possibly laziest detective, Julius Katz, as well as his sidekick, Archie, a tiny marvel of whizbang computer technology with the heart and soul of a hard-boiled PI. Buy these three short stories in this collection for only 99 cents today.
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What are you going to give Mom for Mother's Day?
Mother's Day is less than two weeks away and if you haven't been shopping yet, may we suggest a Kindle Wi-Fi with Special Offers for $114 or Kindle Wi-Fi only for $139 or Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi for $189. You could even splurge and get her the Kindle DX 3G for $379.
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Amazon is making the deal even better on the Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi or the Kindle DX by adding a $25 gift certificate when you buy one for mom or anyone else. Read about the offer and the terms and conditions here.
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DailyCheapReads is going to help all of the mothers, grandmothers and anyone who needs summer reading material by having a 99 cent posting marathon beginning at midnight Central US time on Mother's Day (Sunday) night and posting a book every two hours Monday, Tuesday, and maybe even Wednesday.
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You can gift your mom some great cheap reads for her brand new Kindle you bought her. She will be so impressed with how frugal you are.
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Pre-order Kindle editions from a popular author
An attentive site user sent us a note recently. Julie Garwood, a popular romance author, currently has five books available for pre-order at wonderful prices. Unfortunately, the price per book exceeds $5. We have featured some of Julie’s books previously when offered at cheap read prices. Here are the books and you can decide if the price is right.
Pre-order for June 7 delivery:
The Bride $5.99
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Pre-order for May 3 delivery:
Castles $5.99
Guardian Angel $7.99
Prince Charming $7.99
For the Roses $7.99
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Cheap Reads from our jr. edition and more
We feature a wide variety of books on our jr. edition. Check out these 99 cent books and enjoy historical fiction, a humorous fairy tale, and the first book in tween/teen mystery series.


Here are three reads that we have featured previously. Each one is selling today for $1.99 - contemporary romance, Christian romance, and a mystery.

Where in the World Are You?

In this day of instant connectivity around the world we are becoming more a community of people who have common interests, values, and goals rather than communities in the same physical location as society has been structured for centuries.
As part of that growing community, we will introduce on our main site the United Kingdom's up-and-coming independent authors as we will post one book a day on this site in May in conjuction with features on the DailyCheapReads UK site.

As a community in the digital world, we receive very general information of where our site visitors are physically located. Most of us are in the United States , but other countries where we have a strong following are:

Canada
Australia
United Kingdom
Brazil
Saudi Arabia
Hong Kong
Honduras
China
Ireland
You are welcome to post a comment to tell us where you live and something about you. We welcome everyone from around the globe to visit the site and stay for a time.

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Just for fun poll: Name our new automobile

My husband Tiger is a deliberate thinker. He ponders long and deep to reach a decision. Me, not so much. Some time ago he determined we needed to purchase a new car. To make a long story short, this is the timetable of events:

18 months of searching and researching to find The Perfect Car
6 weeks to enjoy and drive The Perfect Car
1 nano-second for a deer slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island to jump in front of The Perfect Car, damaging it beyond repair

The ruination of The Perfect Car and the deer occurred the day after we received the devastating news of Tiger’s health. Thankfully we were unharmed by the accident. The deer, not so much.

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Much of Tiger's recovery time was spent looking for The Perfect Car 2. Several weeks ago he found it and we drove 1800 miles in 2 ½ days to retrieve it. When you are married, there are just some things you do. Would I do it again? Not so much.

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We name our vehicles and The Perfect Car 2 needs a name. Our other vehicles pictured below are Ebony, Ivory, Forest, and Kelly. Do you see the theme?



Here is The Perfect Car 2:

Cadillac Motors labels the paint color Thunder Gray. I think that name sounds more like a professional wrestler than paint. That aside, Tiger and I have bandied about a few names for the newest addition. Help us choose by voting in the poll on the right sidebar. Will it be:

Ashley
Grady
Grayce
Stormy
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Curling up with a book on a rainy spring weekend. . .
Here are some cheap reads we have featured before that have special pricing today:

Luminous and Ominous is selling for 99 cents: After hiding underground for a year, the last three survivors must brave the otherworldly infestation and travel through what used to be upstate New York struggling for their lives and their humanity.

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Ted Dekker's Circle Trilogy was $14.49 when we featured the set in December. The price today is $7.79 for the first three books in the series: Three novels. Two worlds. One Story. Enter an adrenaline-laced epic where dreams and reality collide. Black. Red. White.

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Choose your own adventure style e-book with 37 different endings and more than 100 choices The Adventures of Whatley Tupper is selling now for only 99 cents: Whatley Tupper is an A-grade janitor at a B-grade university about to become entwined in C-grade fiction! Yes, there is something in the air tonight... adventure; romance; carbon monoxide! The choice is yours.

The clock has ticked down to 0.00. The votes are in and tallied. Thanks to everyone who voted, cheered, and helped make our first book-to-book competition a success.
The winner in DailyCheapReads version of the Final Four is: Four Years from Home by Larry Enright. If you haven’t gotten the book, you can still buy it today for only 99 cents – supercheap!

Here’s what the fans had to say:

I love a good humor book – with or without ice cream. That being said, I really enjoyed Four Years From Home. So. . . . I voted for one of the three. –Judi

I’m enjoying Four Years from Home very much. almost done [with] it. –Thea

I liked this book too. Go for it! –Tim

I just finished a pretty good cheap one (99 cents) from Amazon called Four Years from Home by Larry Enright. –Jason

Growing up, Harry was always the shining star of the family, the model child. He was the one God, and Grandma Ryan, had called to the priesthood.
His path changed in seventh grade and he chose not to enter the seminary, not to honor his promise to Grandma Ryan on her deathbed, and eventually, not to be a Catholic anymore. It was a big change for all of us, going from living with someone on the road to heaven to enduring the unsettling life of a boy on an express train to hell. This went on throughout high school and when Harry left for school for his freshman year at college, he almost left without saying goodbye.
For four years, Harry never came home and no one went to visit him. He had completed the transformation into someone so completely different that he was unrecognizable as Harry to any of us. But it was Christmas 1972, Harry’s senior year, and he was coming home.
Buy it today for 99 cents.

Final Vote Totals:
1. Alone by Lisa Gardner (12.59%, 37 Votes)
2. Learn Me Good by John Pearson (20.75%, 61 Votes)
3. We Interrupt This Date by LC Evans (25.85%, 76 Votes)
4. Four Years from Home by Larry Enright (40.82%, 120 Votes)

Total Votes: 294

Final Four is almost complete
Three of the four have been selected and by Friday night, the fourth book for our version of the Final Four will be in place. So far you have selected Alone, Learn Me Good , and We Interrupt This Date. If you haven’t cast your vote for the top Other Fiction book, the poll is in the right sidebar. Several readers have left comments about their favorite book. You can read them here.
On our personal NCAA brackets, my husband Tiger and I have zero teams left. If you chose either Butler or Virginia Commonwealth in your personal bracket, you are amazing.
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Federal 2011 Economic Report of the President and Government Publications
Earlier this week the 2011 Economic Report of the President was made available for free download in the Kindle Store. I didn’t make a special post of the freebie because this has limited audience appeal. The file is large and will probably take about 10 minutes to download over a 3G connection.
Personally I am glad to see the government using technology to make this information available in a cost effective format. Anyone with a PC can download the Kindle app and read the report. One suggestion I would offer is that perhaps it should be divided into volumes as appropriate to reduce the file size. The Budget will be distributed soon and should be available free also. That is one publication that could really be useful in different volumes, such as Defense Budget, Health and Human Services Budget and so forth.
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Private Label Rights and You
In the Kindle Store you will find “authors” who sell books that have Private Label Rights or Master Resale Rights. That means that once the person buys the book, they also get the right to resell it as their own work. Some of these authors have more than 1,000 books in the Kindle Store through this method. You might find 35 versions of the exact same book and this explains in part how the number of books in the Kindle Store grew so rapidly. These books can be found in cookbooks, self-improvement, health, or general information type books. An example is here.
Illegal? Apparently this practice is legal as Amazon is continuing to allow the books in the store. Unethical? Arguments could be made either way. I’m telling you about this practice so you can be wise in your search for books.
What was once a wonderful resource of traditional books and breakthrough publications by aspiring authors has also become a place for less-than-scrupulous folks hoping to make money quickly from an unsuspecting buyer. If you find that you have been duped, call Kindle Customer Service within seven days for a full refund. Be clear with the representative why you are asking for a refund. If enough people express their dissatisfaction with the practice, Amazon may take action.
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Best Sellers Post
Our best sellers post for the previous month has been running on the first day of the month. February 1 and March 1 were very busy days with free books offered throughout the day. To help manage the volume, we will now post the best sellers some time between the 3rd and the 5th, depending on how the dates fall on the calendar. Look for the best sellers from March on Monday, April 4.
Speaking of best sellers, in the top 100 free best sellers in the US Kindle Store I found this:
12. When Darkness Falls: Free eBook Part 1
13. When Darkness Falls: Free eBook Part 3
14. When Darkness Falls: Free eBook Part 2
What's with this? Did some people read Part 1, decide to skip the middle and just read the end? For what it is worth, in the United Kingdom Kindle Store, the rankings look like this:
2. When Darkness Falls: Free eBook Part 3
3. When Darkness Falls: Free eBook Part 1
5. When Darkness Falls: Free eBook Part 2
Do the Kindlers in the UK read the end of the book and if that's good, then they will read the rest of the book?
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How about a book or two for the weekend?
Several previously featured books are now selling for only 99 cents. How To Meet A Guy At The Supermarket is rom-com (romantic comedy) described by one reviewer as "laugh out loud, head shaking, what-the-heck fun."
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Two of Catherine Chisnall's contemporary fiction books are available today. Descending and the sequel Surfacing follow Emily, the college professor, and her relationship with a student. If you would like both books in one file, Descending & Surfacing is selling for $1.99 today.

March Madness Continues
The field is taking shape! Thanks for casting your votes in the Mystery and Suspense and Non-Fiction categories. The Romance voting ends today; Other Fiction begins tomorrow. Beginning Monday, you can vote to narrow the top three from each category down to just one to compete in the Final Four.

Top three in Mystery and Suspense:
Alone by Lisa Gardner – 36 Votes
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kelleran – 33 Votes
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke – 27 Votes
Top three in Non-Fiction:
Learn Me Good by John Pearson – 42 Votes
Knitting for Dummies by Pam Allen – 14 Votes
Too Close to the Sun by Curtis Roosevelt - 7 Votes

In recent weeks we have received e-mail or comments from people who have very strong feelings about the books that we post.
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The only thing that DailyCheapReads controls in this environment is what makes a post. We cannot control prices. Amazon or the publishers/authors control the price of books. We cannot control what is offered free. The publishers determine when and what is offered free. We have chosen not to post free offerings of samples, limited chapters, or excerpts. We occasionally feature short stories, but for the most part it’s the book, the whole book, and nothing but the book.

We do support self-published and backlist (out-of-print) authors who are digitizing their books and placing them in the Kindle Store. We do this because: 1) these books are great reads; 2) these authors have supported DailyCheapReads by promoting our site to their readers; and 3) these books are priced reasonably. These authors are also the most gracious folks who appreciate that DailyCheapReads connects readers to their books.

We try to offer a wide variety of books when we find them at good prices, but in the end, we are a business. If a particular genre of book doesn't sell well, we won't feature that genre as often. On Sundays we post Christian fiction, religious non-fiction, stories of redemption, and self-improvement because these books are popular with readers. That’s our business model and it has worked well for us.

Get 'em Quick
Several books that we have featured previously are now at reduced prices:

For a limited time you can get Beyond Nostalgia for only 99 cents. This book has 11 five-star reviews out of 12 reviews posted. One reviewer described the book as "Heart rending, from its opening and gritty portrayal of New York street life, to the unexpected twist and the end of the book."

Perhaps .... Perhaps by Australian novelist LA Dale is also available for a limited time for 99 cents. A well-reviewed romantic suspense, one reviewer wrote this: "Author LA Dale uses a light and deft hand with the humour, some tongue in cheek and very funny moments. Above all else she makes us care about her characters. No matter what your gender, you can't help reading on."

If you enjoy family saga novels, did you see that Douglas Kennedy's Pursuit of Happiness is only 99 cents? The book is an epic story - over 10,000 locations - and is described a a great, tragic love story; a tale of divided loyalties, decisive moral choices and the random workings of destiny. The setting of the book in the beginning is Manhattan, 1945.