Brian Guy

Free Kindle eBooks

October 23, 2020 by Brian Nelson Leave a Comment

My new favorite thing is to watch for free Kindle eBooks. As you may recall, I’m still getting used to the idea of buying eBooks instead of buying the actual book. We’ll call this a happy middle ground.

Where To Find Free eBooks for Kindle

I’ve long been a member of such deal hunting websites as Slick Deals and GottaDeal among others. Lately, GottaDeal isn’t really doing much for me, and I feel like it might be time to go on the hunt for another deal website. On the other hand, I’m not interested in buying from “out there” vendors when I can get pretty much anything I want with Amazon Prime and a few others.

Which, brings me to Kindle eBooks for free. As it turns out, from time to time, Amazon makes certain Kindle eBooks free. All you have to do to get Kindle eBooks free is go to the specific marked down eBook website and choose to “purchase” it for $0.00, and pick which device you want to download it to.

Boom! Free eBook!

Amazon Prime Reading

Buying free eBooks is different than the other way to get free eBooks from Amazon. Amazon Prime Reading also offers various eBooks for Kindles for free on an ongoing basis. However, the major difference is that you have a limit of 10 free Amazon Prime eBooks at a time.

Now, I don’t need to be reading more than 10 things at a time, but what I do like is having the option to read something weeks or even months from now without having “save” them somewhere in my list of 10 things. When you buy a $0 eBook it is yours in your library forever, no limit. That leaves your 10 free Amazon Prime Reading selections open for whatever new freebies come up.

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For the most part, I’m not generally all that interested in the book selections Amazon Prime Reading offers me. What I am interested in is at least one or more of the free magazine offers they have available. My favorites are the cooking magazines but I’ll catch an issue of Vanity Fair or the local 5280 magazine for free.

Free Kindle eBooks Without a Kindle

Here is the best part. You don’t even have to have a Kindle to take advantage of free Kindle eBooks. Amazon makes a free Kindle app for just about any device you might already have laying around, including your cell phone. Reading a book on your iPhone may not be the best situation, but it’s not too bad. If you have a bigger tablet laying around that works just fine, even if it’s a few years old.

The Kindle app doesn’t require a lot of computing power once it has loaded up. So this old Samsung Tablet I got used from the school I used to work at works just great as a faux Kindle for me. Sure, it’s thicker and slower than a real Kindle and you can’t read it in the bright light outside, but those things are easy enough to work around.

Get a Cheap Kindle

Of course, if you actually get into reading free Kindle eBooks you’re eventually going to want a Kindle. Obviously, the easiest choice here is to just head over to Amazon and buy the latest Kindle, but if you still aren’t ready for that kind of equipment, keep your eye on those same deals websites where you find the free eBooks, or check out Woot for refurbished, used, or otherwise discounted Kindles. You can also watch the Amazon Epic Deals for a sweet Kindle discount deal.

Plus, Amazon puts Kindles on sale all the time. If it’s the right time of year, keep an eye out on Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and any time around Christmas.

I’m probably ready for a real Kindle. I’ll need to do some research to figure out what I do an do not need features wise. I don’t know the difference between an Oasis Kindle and the others. I also don’t know what paperwhite is, so I guess research is in order.

In the meantime, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for more free eBooks for my Kindle app.

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Why I Don’t Buy eBooks

September 10, 2020 by Brian Nelson Leave a Comment

So my sister has maybe a dozen different Kindles. She’s hooked my dad too. But, for me, I just can’t quite get into reading eBooks.

It doesn’t make sense really. I’m very much into technology. I love gadgets. I’m constantly being accused of being on my phone too much, where, ironically, I’m usually reading something. But, when it comes to actual books, I find it hard to get on board.

eBooks Are Too Small

Sometimes, the problem is that eBooks are just too small. When I buy a big technical book, I get a big technical book. The pictures are big, the example code is big, and any charts are big. Sure, I can zoom into the pages on an eBook, but then I end up messing with the eBook instead of reading it, or typing in the examples.

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Also, regardless of what features they add for tracking, marking, or searching through an eBook, none of them are useful when you can kind of remember that one thing, but not enough to remember what you would have named the bookmark, or what it would show up as in the index. In that case, you can pick up a real book and flip through it quickly. I sort of remember it was about 2/3 of the way back, and there was this color picture on the right side about half way down the page…

eBooks Cost Money

Maybe my biggest problem is that eBooks cost money. It’s not that I’m not willing to pay for books. As a fellow writer myself I understand the value. It’s that if I’m going to pay $23 for the eBook, I’d rather pay $23 for the real book.

Occasionally, there is the option to rent an eBook, but the length of rentals and price seem deliberately set to push you into buying the book instead. I mean $6 to rent a $14.99 book for one month? How can that possibly be worth it to anyone? I might as well buy it, except I didn’t want to buy it.

You can get some eBooks from the library. However, publishers deliberately make expensive for libraries to offer eBooks so there is often a lengthy period until your electronic hold comes in. Even in the case of older books, it can still take forever to get, if it’s even available, because the library doesn’t stock them due to low demand. Sometimes, it isn’t even available as an eBook because there isn’t enough demand to process it into electronic format.

For public domain books there are options, but they aren’t always great. I got one that was apparently auto-scanned and some pages are cut off along the side. I guess I can guess what the author meant.

eBook Value

One of the times being against eBooks works against me is while traveling. Carrying several books (I’m not sure what I’ll be in the mood for) instead of a single eReader device is much heavier and bulkier. I could get books just for the trip, but them I’m back to that feeling of if I’m going to pay for the book, I’d rather have the real book.

Someday, I’ll find the right combination of price, portability and ease of use, but for right now. The eBook just isn’t my jam.

Not Today

April 29, 2019 by Brian Nelson Leave a Comment

What do we say to the God of Death?

More Tupperware

March 22, 2019 by Brian Nelson Leave a Comment

“The answer isn’t always more tupperware.” – My wife.

OK, technically that is correct, but only because the plastic storage bins we are talking about here, aren’t actually tupperware. Otherwise, it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

The problem with organization in storage in our basement comes down to the fact that a great deal of the items we store down there are onesie-twosie type things. You can put away a box of stationary, or photo frames, or college yearbooks, or whatever.

But, what if you have one baseball glove, one basketball (OK three…), one soccer goal, and, well, you get the idea. Placing those items on a shelf takes up a ton of room and makes the shelf inaccessible for other items.

Check out the review of Credit Karma I wrote.

The issue in my basement is that I have not purchased the storage bins with the shelving in mind. Thus, many of the bins are too tall. The others are too long so that they only fit sideways. Others are so big, that filling them up makes them too heavy to lift up onto, and take down from, the shelves.

The solution?

More tupperware.

This time, I got storage bins that were smaller. Sure, they don’t hold as much each as the older ones, but they fit on the shelves, the narrow way.

The result?

Maybe not so much “more” tupperware, as the right tupperware.

An organized storage room where a bin full of sporting goods sits next to a bin full of the kiddo’s robotics and TSA supplies, next to a bin of craft stuff, next to a bin of computer and electronics cables.

I bought the bins on sale, and used Ebates while they were having some sort of higher than usual bonus cash back, so they came pretty cheap. — Check out my review of Ebates that talks about how bonus cash back is the way to go.

In a dose of double brilliance, I got see-through bins. Now, I don’t have to label them to know what is in them, which is great for a couple reasons. One, I don’t have to find the labeler every time I put up a bin. Two, I don’t have to relabel if I switch up the contents, and most importantly, I don’t have to guess if the external hard drive is in the bin labeled “Computer Stuff” or “Electronics Stuff” or “Office Stuff.”

Roadside Emissions Testing Colorado

February 20, 2019 by Brian Nelson 1 Comment

In Colorado, most vehicles have to pass an emissions inspection prior to being able to renew license plates. Going to the actual emissions inspection stations is a pain and can be time consuming, especially, if you can’t plan around weekends, lunch breaks, and standard work hours.

Fortunately, there is a way to skip emissions testing in Colorado at the emissions testing locations.

Check out my review of Credit Sesame.

Rapid Screen

There is a way to test your emissions without going to the emissions testing place. Simply drive past a Rapid Screen station twice in the year before your license plates are due and get a passing score.

There are two catches. First, you have to have both passing scores at least 60 days before your license plates are due. That means you have to be thinking about emissions BEFORE the notice for license plate renewal shows up in the mail. The second catch is that you have to actually drive past one of the Rapid Screen locations to get tested. Depending upon where you live and drive, this might happen for you automatically. For others, you may never drive past a remote, roadside emissions testing van without deliberately doing so.

Fortunately, the location of the Rapid Screen test locations is not a secret. You can look them up on the RapidScreen section of the Air Care Colorado website. It tells you not only where the stations will be this week, but the following week as well. If it’s still 60 days or more until your license plates expire, you should look up where the stations are and plan to drive past one or more a few times.

Remember, you need two passing scores, and sometimes things can interfere with your scores, such as wind, other cars, or other factors beyond your control. So, make sure to drive by one more than just two times to take into account any problematic tests.

Skiing at 40

January 7, 2019 by Brian Nelson Leave a Comment

I used to ski a lot. We’d get 50 day seasons easy back in college. We always talked about taking a year off and getting a 100 day season, but I never did.

Of course, this was back when it really snowed in Colorado. I mean, REALLY snowed. Bases at Wolf Creek well over 100″. A solid 50+ inches in Summit County by January. Man, those were the days. Whether it’s global warming, or just a drought (it’s both), we don’t really get ski seasons like that any more.

Anyway, I haven’t skied much in the last 10 years. No particular reason, just adult life comes with a lot more opportunities, and without the student discount, the season pass really costs A LOT of money, like trip to Vegas money for the me and my wife.

Fast forward, and I have kids, and they want to ski. So, we grab some rentals and take some lessons. The older one is down and picks it up pretty well. The younger? Not so much.

So, here we are again, a few more years later and a snowboard lesson, and it looks like the kids are in, which means we’re in. No need to worry about season passes though. With school and activities, and sports, and… and… and… there’s no way we’ll get up to the mountains more than once or twice a month. At that price, we’re better off grabbing other discounts like the 4-Pack at Loveland Ski Area.

The 4-Pack from Loveland is one of the best ski deals in Colorado because it’s just four discounted lift tickets. Use them any way you want, any time you want, including mixing and matching who uses them. So, if it turns out it’s just me and one of the kids, or all four of us, or whatever, we just keep using these until we run out.

At a lot of other areas, the four packs are person specific, as in I have to use my four tickets, and each of them has to use their four tickets, and so on. That’s a lot of being pretty sure about how often, and where you want to ski.

Anyway, I’m sore today, which has never been a problem in the past. Part of it is being older, but a lot of it is being out of shape, which is something I should be working on anyway. One more motivation, eh?

If I can swing it, we’ll ride the Ski Train up to Winter Park this year. That’s always a fun deal when you get the chance. I’ll have to see if it fits into the schedule and isn’t already sold out, and won’t cost as much as going to DisneyWorld….