My wife is getting her double masters in American Studies and Literature. She will be done in December, so needless to say we buy tons of books, but this one summer class she is about to start may break the bank- we're talking about out-of-print books that cost $300 a pop. We looked on half.com and the total cost is going to be around $800. So I need to know if there is a good book torrent site out there. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Thanks LP. This site may have what we need.. but lots of her books aren't textbooks. Just to be safe, any other sites out there?
BOOOOOO!!!!!! As a published author that drives me nuts. I understand it goes on, but I have serious ethical problems with downloading books (and obviously personal financial reasons). You might try questia.com (I worked there years ago) or another online research company. They have bought legal rights to a large number of books and post them in full-searchable form. They're pretty much designed for people in school, and everybody gets paid their share.
I wouldn't usually download books. In fact, my downloading days are largely over, since I'm trying to raise my son up with some high moral standards. My wife and I buy well over 100 books a year (not counting her school requirements) and we're building a nice library. Heck, I hate reading books digitally- nothing will ever change the experience of a good book in your hand. But $800 for one class...I think anyone would agree that it's a bit high. I wouldn't mind paying a small fee to read them online, if it came down to it. ♦ Hey, I had my share of breaking my knuckles on people's heads when I was younger. It doesn't mean I can't like books too. You forgot this:
I hear you on that. Sorry I see "bittorrent and books" in the same sentence and it raises my hackles a bit. The market for out of print books is a different matter than contemporary books still on sale at most bookstores. At that point, the author and the publishing company are no longer receiving their share of sales. The only people making money are collectors. I've been on the seller side of this a few times. My wife is a chef and keeps an eye out for cheap out of print books that she could sell for several hundred on e-bay. It's amazing what half price books will sell for 7 or 8 bucks. Back to the subject, though. If a book is out of print, I can see the desire to download it, and I guess I really don't have a problem with that. The whole subject of college books is another matter. They are usually artificially raised in price because the schools have a tight control over their market. You can always buy used, but that's still expensive. I had some luck buying some books from external sources to have some money, but you have to get your reading list early and ship them quickly. I also have a real problem with profs who photocopy a bunch of articles, bind them, and make you buy from them (happened a few times). However, that's all still legit. I hate the way the schools control the supply side and jack prices, but it's still the publisher's property you're stealing if you download the book. I hate that gasoline is expensive, but I'm not going to start driving off from the gas station without paying. I don't think you can make the comparison to checking a book from the library. Libraries usually have a small number of texts available for general research. They're not designed to replace commerce of books. Is downloading music the same as checking a CD out from the library? No, for several reasons. You get to keep the material. If a local library has a waiting of 500 people list for the 1 CD they bought and all 500 people decide to download, they're exceeding what the library has purchased the rights to. Maybe that's a fine point, but it's a personal one for me. I'm pretty optimistic about my next book getting some good run from a publisher. It terrifies me that a digital copy will get out there, and people could just download it for free. I would like to write full time, but that depends on me making enough money to support my family. I've put a huge amount of time, effort, and creativity into this effort, and I don't want to lose a bunch of money because people decide it's okay to download it instead of buying it new, buying it used, or checking it out from a library. Sorry for the rant. Just trying to talk about the other side of downloading.
I'm a college student. Is it really the school's that jack up the prices or the publishers in the USA? My friend who visited India bought several books for anywhere from $20-30 each while it costed $100+ for me to buy them in the USA. I simply do not understand why this is the case - I understand that maybe there's some currency discrepancies, but 3-5 times the amount? I don't even buy from the school bookstore, I go to surrounding bookstores and search for the best price. Spending $500+ a semester on books only to resell them for like $200, if you're lucky, motivates plenty of college students who already steal music to steal books as well. Regardless, I still tolerate letting my wallet get raped twice a year...
It's the bookstore companies that jack up the prices to insane levels. They're in cahoots with the textbook companies to release new editions every 2-3 years. And finally, there's the professors who sign off on new copies or get royalties from co-writing credits. Colleges are a huge industry, and books are a big part of that.
I was gonna do that but I didn't want to scare any of the nerds here, even though he does eventually become a burping force for good. (Although I do not acknowledge that film's existence normally)
I noticed that too. My last few years in college I purchased all my books online. International version would cost $20-40 while the U.S. version would cost $100+ and the only difference between the two was usually the cover.
I could be wrong, but I thought libraries pay a premium for the books they stock, so the publisher and author get somewhat compensated for the continual use.
My first novel is called "The Ghost Hunters". It was a ghost story\mystery set in the Old West. I don't normally read Westerns, but the main story got in my head. From there, I decided it would be a good first novel to write. I learned a ton from it, and it was a great process overall. I'm undertaking a much larger task now. I'm working on a novel called "The Sun and the Swan", which is the first book of a multi-book series. I've spent about 3 years on research and storyboarding the overall plot. Tackling a series is so much different in scope than a single book, and I'm trying to avoid many pratfalls that I've encountered in other series. I really have a solid gameplan for the whole story, but I've got the characters developed enough that I can give them some room to take the stories in some different directions within the overall framework. I'm aiming to have someone reread the first book after they've read several more books and have characters and scenes take on a different context because the reader has a clearer sense of the background of certain things as well as knowledge of where the plotlines are going. The writing is going well, although it's been a bit slower of late with a seven-month old daughter, but I'm starting to adjust to the new schedule now. Hopefully I'll have the first draft completed by the end of the year.
I think I recall you talking about this before. It's a fantasy work, correct? If you need someone to read it, I'd be happy to, or pass it along to my wife.
Not quite fantasy, although it does have magical elements to it. However, the goal is to have this be more of a story and character driven series with the magical elements more of a backdrop. This is set in the modern world though (Seattle). The 4 main characters are a brother and sister in high school (16 & 17), their grandfather (a WWII Vet), and another WWII vet who met the grandfather in Germany towards the end of the war. I appreciate the offer for test reading, but I've quite a base of readers already on the project. Believe me, when this sucker is ready to go to print, I'll let everyone on this board know. I've mentioned it before, but Scribo Ergo Sum is the name of the publishing company I started to print my first book, although I want to go through more traditional channels with this novel. Distribution and marketing are hard to do on your own, and this book is much more marketable to publishing houses than a Western hybrid novel. I'd rather let them use their own infrastructure to handle those aspects.
