Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Kindle? CHEAP READS!! As someone who is a voracious addicted reader, the ease of finding cheap reads to feed my frenzy is amazing. There are tons of books I’m willing to pay top dollar for (and even top Euro for). I actually bought the hard back of Stephen King’s The Dome. I think it weighed more than my head. I bought the hardback of Le Carrè’s latest three. But for someone who reads as much as I do, that way lies disaster.

And voilà, the Kindle! There is, of course, quite a lot of dreck among the self-published cheapo reads and I’ve downloaded my share. The kind of awful, semi-literate unedited crap that on page three you’ve had enough. Note to self: if there is only one review and that is an enthusiastic five stars by a reader who shares the same surname, step away from the keyboard. Lesson learned.

However, the degree of remorse for having bought a crappy at three bucks (the price of an espresso since the dollar’s so cheap) is entirely different from the remorse of having forked over €25.

And boy, I’ve had some entertaining reads! Fun and fast. Joe Konrath, for example. We all read his blog and for his service to humanity and to writers we should be reading his books, too. I’ve read a few–Draculas, Origin, The List (a little bloody for my taste) –come to mind. Enormous entertainment for hours for maybe 4 bucks a pop. Eisler’s shorts–The Lost Coast and Paris is a Bitch–were delightful. Craig Di Louie’s Tooth and Nail and The Infection. How did that guy not get snatched up by legacy publishers? Bella Andrè’s sweet erotic stories.

And you know what the best thing is? Those authors got just as much from me in royalties, earned just as much, as if they’d gone through the meat grinder of New York and I’d had to pay through the nose.

So wade your way through the dreck, it’s worth it. Happy reading!