I’m in a pickle.
Not this pickle. For illustrative purposes only.
The old lament “So many books, so little time” is especially literal for me at present. My Kindle Unlimited subscription renews on June 11, and I’m planning to cancel on the 10th. I’ve enjoyed it and I’ve gotten my money’s worth from it, but I never intended to keep it indefinitely. I’ll soon bid KU adieu.
Of course, this means racing the clock with an elaborate reading plan.
Yep, color-coded and everything.
Is it weird that I wrote out my mostly-eBook reading plan by hand in a spiral bound notebook? With colorful gel pens, at that?
One convoluted aspect of my plan that I’m rather enjoying is that I need to read my paperback copy of Justice Delayed by Patricia Bradley, book one in the Memphis Cold Case series, so that I can take advantage of book two, Justice Buried, which is in Kindle Unlimited.
The asterisks are for books I’m reading a chapter or two at a time, and so I’m not worried about finishing those by June 10. Whew, pressure’s off!
You might notice a few titles squeezed in between the lines in the gold Kindle Unlimited section. Here’s how my best-laid-plans went agley this time.
Kindle Unlimited. Restraint severely limited.
First, Written in the Stars by Christina Coryell was in my plan. Its sequel, Written in the Dust, wasn’t–but the two are best read back-to-back (in my opinion). When I realized that the second book was available, that’s exactly what I did.
Second, my friend Carrie of Reading is my Superpower.org fame recently reviewed Her Place in Time by Stephania H. McGee, and it sounded like a time-slip (the time travel variety, not the letters-and-diaries sort) and right up my alley. It’s a novella, too. I’ll just read that real quick after dinner or something.
Third, I found out yesterday that Within the Veil by Brandy Vallance has just been added to Kindle Unlimited within the last few days. This is totally exciting because I crowed to everyone about her first book, The Covered Deep, and even bought a copy for my mom. So I don’t want to miss that one.
Thus, this weekend’s reads are going to be a little bit harried while I attempt to squeeze every drop of value out of my $9.99 subscription fee.
I know, I know. I’m not going to finish all of them. Who knows, I might change the plan some more before the weekend is over. You never know what might happen around here!
Price and Value
As an author, I really appreciate that Kindle Unlimited lets people try titles and authors they might not have otherwise (and ahem, shameless plug—Whispers in the Branches is a delightful option!)
As a reader, though, I do sometimes feel a little bad about deal-hunting for books and waiting for sales, since authors deserve to be paid for their efforts. (If you’ve ever wondered, authors are paid for page reads on KU borrows.)
I usually tell myself that cherry-picking deals lets me support more authors and that I buy more than I would if I only bought paperbacks at or near full-price. I spent $185.85 on books in 2017, and I actually read 41 books, which works out to about $4.53 per book. (Disclaimer: there are huge gaping flaws with this calculation, only starting with the fact that the books I bought aren’t necessarily the ones I read…)
The fateful conclusion
Anyhoo. My Kindle Unlimited conundrum isn’t that I can’t read all the books. (That’s more of an existential problem…) The truth is, I wanted to read enough books to feel that my money was well-spent. And after reading:
- The End Begins by Sara Davison
- Sway by Amy Matayo
- Dubiosity by Christy Barritt
- Disillusioned by Christy Barritt
- Distorted by Christy Barritt
- Come To Me Free by Leah Atwood
- Then There Was You by Kara Isaac
- The Silver Suitcase by Terrie Todd
- Written in the Stars by Christina Coryell, and
- Written in the Dust by Christina Coryell
–I can say with all confidence that the value far outweighs the price.
