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Sunday, January 4, 2009

Kindle Bargain eBook Roundup


Brimstone $4.79, Dance of Death $5.59 and The Book of the Dead $3.71 by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Books 5, 6 and 7 in the Pendergast series and their stand-alone novel Thunderhead $3.99. The first two in the Pendergast series, Relic and Reliquary, are not yet available for the Kindle, but the rest of the series is available for $6.39 each: The Cabinet of Curiosities (now $1.67, as of 1/9/9), Still Life with Crows and The Wheel of Darkness. Cemetery Dance will continue the series later this year.


Death Dines at 8:30 $1.74 by Nick DiChario & Claudia Bishop, Eyes of Fire $4.68 by Heather Graham, The Bone Garden $3.75 by Tess Gerritsen and Almost Human - a paranormal vampire series - volumes 1, 2 & 3 $9.99 by Melanie Nowak. This last one is three volumes in one, containing Fatal Infatuation, Lost Reflections and Evolving Ecstasy, which sell for $4.79 each as stand-alone titles.


Hula Done It? $4.00 by Maddy Hunter is fourth in her series. Others in the Passport to Peril series are Alpine for You, Top O' the Mournin', Pasta Imperfect, G'Day to Die and Norway to Hide. Three Plums In One $9.59 by Janet Evanovich contains the first three in the Stephanie Plum series: One for the Money, Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly , but at less than half the price of buying them individually. The Scourge of God $3.33 by William, Dietrich and The Demon Inside: The Zone War, Book 1 $0.80 by Terry Cloutier (I have the DTB version of this - it's an incredibly heavy book, so I picked up this Kindle version, too, which is much easier to read).


The Thirteenth Tale $4.59 by Diane Setterfield, Suite Francaise $2.88 by Irene Nemirovsky, Dark Celebration $1.60 by Christine Feehan (for a limited time, the paperback is the same $1.60 sale price) and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History $3.83 by John M. Barry.

Accessorizing your Kindle

Just because you are uncluttering your life, doesn't mean you might not want a few accessories for your Kindle. In fact, the right accessories can help you declutter even more.

Like any paper book, you can't read your Kindle in the dark (unless you are a vampire or have the eyesight of a cat and a full moon). However, you can use any reading light already present in your house. For reading in bed or when not at home, though, you may want a reading light. There are many on the market, with older non-LED lights usually having the best light, but the worst battery life and expensive bulb replacements. Many older LED lights are so dim, even with several LED's, that you can barely make out the text on a paper book or the Kindle. Also, many older designs are made to slip over a few pages of your book (not the best design) and don't work well with the Kindle's cover. The light I use and the best seller amongst other Kindle owners is the Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Clip-On Light. This light has two brightness settings and you can read even with the lower one. The large clip grabs the cover securely, while sliding under the top edge of the Kindle itself. The only real complaint I've heard is the weight, which combined with the three batteries (I use rechargeables) can mean the Kindle is a bit top-heavy when reading in bed. However, the combination still weighs much less than a hardcover book (without a light) and is still easily controlled and read with one hand.

One of the first add-ons many Kindle owners purchase is an SD (or SDHC) memory card, for storing additional books and for any music or audio books they wish to have on their Kindles. The built-in memory may hold a couple of hundred books (less if they are in the Topaz format or have a lot of images), but it quickly fills up if you decide to copy over a few audio books or some background music to listen as your read. The Kindle officially supports only SD cards and those up to 4gb, but most users have quickly found that the SDHC cards work just as well, so long as you let the Kindle format them and create the initial directories. Just pop in a new card, then copy a book from the Kindle to the SD card. Once this process is complete, you can remove the SD card and copy to it directly from your computer or just leave it in the Kindle and use the USB cable to access it (this is probably the easiest solution). Prices on these cards varies widely (and watch for shipping on third party sellers); currently you can get a Kingston 2 GB SD Card for $7.04, the Transcend 4 GB SDHC for $8.59 or 8 GB SDHC Card for $16.29. I've tested all three of these in my Kindle and had no problems at all. I use the 8 GB SDHC Card just for audio books, as they are so large, but find the 2 gb card sufficient for holding a couple of thousand books (of course, at only a couple of dollars more, you might want the 4gb card instead - that extra space can be used for music, where the files are generally much larger than book files).

Update 1/14/09: Two of these are now available with Amazon's Frustration Free Packaging (no plastic containers to fight with): the Transcend 4 GB SDHC for $8.99 or Transcend 8 GB SDHC for $15.99. The Kingston 2 GB SD Card has dropped to $6.90. All three qualify for free super-saver shipping (I've seen the same size cards recommended for the Kindle at triple these prices, so be sure to shop around).

If you do much traveling with electronic devices or have more than one or two at home, you know what a clutter the chargers can make. And every trip means packing several chargers, as none of the devices seem to be compatible with the others. A few devices will charge via USB, but many notebook computers don't provide charging power on their USB ports (it would drain their battery too quickly if they were not plugged in), so often you must use an A/C to USB charger for those or carry the original A/C chargers (if there is one). Pack a notebook or netbook, the Kindle, your phone and ipod and your entire carry on can be full of chargers (don't check them -- your devices could all be dead or the trip completely over before any lost luggage is found). Luckily, there are at least two companies now making universal chargers that have interchangeable tips, allowing you to charge many different devices, including the Kindle, with a single charger. Gomadic has a Rapid Car / Auto Charger and a Rapid Wall / AC Charger (use the $24.95 International Wall / AC Charge if you travel outside the country and on some cruise ships) for $19.95, or the Essential Kit, which for $29.95 includes both the Car and Wall Rapid Chargers and a Kindle charging tip. You can even get Emergency Battery Charge Extender and use AA batteries to recharge your Kindle when in a remote area. Any of these is ready to go and would replace carrying the charger that came with your Kindle. All you need for any of your other devices is the appropriate Gomadic charging tip.

The second company with a universal charger is iGo. With this company, you purchase the charger and tip separately, so be sure to pick up both items (and test everything out before any trips). The iGo Everywhere Universal Wall (AC) and Auto (DC) Charger with Retractable Cable and the iGo Power Tip for Amazon Kindle will get you started; all you need to add is the appropriate iGo Power Tip for the other devices in your life and you can store all those other chargers away.

One last item some Kindle owners have sought out is a Replacement Battery. These have been out of stock for months at Amazon (Radio Shack did have some, but they went out of stock before Christmas as well). Speculation is that the battery is the main shortage behind the current two month wait for a new Kindle, as batteries have gone out of stock every time the Kindle shows a shipping delay. If so, don't expect Amazon to have more batteries anytime before March (if not later). The question is, do you really need a second battery? Unless you use the Kindle in a location where you can charge every couple of weeks, but not in between (or once a week, if you are an extremely heavy reader), a second battery may not make much sense. That Gomadic AA Battery charger may be more handy, in truly remote areas (you can buy AA batteries almost anywhere in the world and they keep their charge for months). Rechargeable batteries do lose some of their charge even when not in use, so must be recharged periodically. They also have a limited number of recharges (often in the hundreds of charges range), so you don't want to keep recharging a battery you don't use. And if you are worried about the battery not being available in later years, you can always pick one up later this year, when they come back in stock.

Unclutter your life

Exclusively on the Kindle, you can now purchase The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life by Lorie Marrero ($9.99), the author of The Clutter Diet Blog, also available as a subscription on the Kindle($0.99/month; this full feed includes all text and images). The book will be available as a print edition, possibly as early as mid-January, but until then it is a Kindle exclusive. And what better way to start out your decluttering effort than to get the ebook instead of the DTB that will take up space and need to be dusted from now on?

Applying just an ounce of the advice in this practical guide saves you enough time and money to pay for itself. You will learn: • The actual scientific law of nature that helps you get organized • The cure for procrastination • Ten types of “High Calorie Clutter” to avoid • Where to start and how to tackle your projects • How to successfully add new habits into your life Certified Professional Organizer® Lorie Marrero is the creator of ClutterDiet.com, an innovative program allowing anyone to get expert help at an affordable price. Her organizing products are sold online and in stores nationwide. Lorie has been a spokesperson for Brother label makers and FedEx Office, and she is a sought-after expert for national media such as CNBC, Family Circle, WGN News and Woman’s Day.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Undead and Unreturnable

Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson $1.50

Queen of the Vampires Betsy Taylor is in the middle of planning the perfect wedding to drop-dead gorgeous vamp Eric Sinclair. But all is not bouquets and bridal showers-Betsy is plagued by ghosts who demand her help in rectifying their past mistakes, and a serial killer is on the loose. With his victims all being tall, blond women, Betsy fits the profile exactly.