Sunday 30 January 2011

Final post from the blog

Your weekly newsletter is here once again but I regret to inform that there is sad news as this will be the final post from Great Kindle Deals for several reasons:

1. Amazon provides no statistics to blog owners for UK subscribers meaning I have absolutely no idea how many readers I have - it could be anything from one to over 1000. Only reader emails provide some sort of indication - though one or two emails a week provides no indication of how many total readers there are.
2. Amazon provide no information, and have just removed the little they did provide, on the money the blog was bringing in. They were keeping 70% of 99p a month meaning just 29p per subscriber - plus I have no option to see how many subscribers I have meaning I have no idea what I am making - there have been no payments and I have no idea when there would be one. I was not doing this for the money but no statistics means no feedback and no info for me to keep motivated.
3. The UK Kindle audience is far too small at the moment - this is probably the reason that there are no other (as far as I am aware) UK-centric Kindle blogs.
4. Finally, and perhaps most importantly - real life and work has caught up with me meaning very little time for reading, let alone writing a blog every week.
5. Some readers are extremely discouraging - when the blog was publishing I achieved only 1 review of 5 stars, as soon as the blog did not post for 2-3 weeks, there was two or three 1 and 2 star reviews which have not been changed since which is extremely discouraging as a sole writer.

So what happens now?
This blog will be deleted from the Kindle store when this post is sent. The blog will stay up at greatkindledeals.blogspot.com for archival purposes. Please cancel any subscriptions you have to the blog in your Amazon account though these should be cancelled with my removal of the blog.

If Amazon does provide detailed statistics to blog publishers in the future I may consider restarting the blog provided real-life conditions allow it.

So, I'd like to apologise to you, my readers. I thank you all very much for subscribing and hope you enjoyed the last six months of updates. I will be removing this blog from the Kindle Store.

Meanwhile for your Kindle fix please take a look at the links on the right hand side of this blog: http://www.ireaderead.com/

If you do have any comments, the email is greatkindledeals@gmail.com

A sorrowful farewell,

Giovanni Costa
Great Kindle Deals

Monday 24 January 2011

Great Kindle Deals - 24 Jan 2011

Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Great Kindle Deals - there's news in this issue, as well as cheap books and a few freebies too. Apologies for the slight lateness of this newsletter - it should have been with you yesterday.

News:


1. Top 1,000 titles loaned 40m times in 2010 - The bookseller reports: "Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol was the most loaned book in 2010, according to data from Nielsen BookScan' panel of libraries. The Lost Symbol was loaned out an estimated 183,000 times, putting it ahead of two Lee Child novels, Gone Tomorrow and 61 Hours. In total Nielsen estimates that the top 1,000 most-loaned library books were checked out more than 40m times in 2010."

2. Campaign to save libraries - The bookseller has launched a website dedicated to saving local libraries around the UK due to budget cuts and the need to save them for the local community. Take a look at http://bit.ly/fight4libraries for more info and to help save your local library.


3. Amazon buys Lovefilm - Although not directly related to Kindle, I thought it would be apt to mention that Lovefilm is now owned by Amazon - hopefully this will mean more streaming movies without the need to received DVDs in the mail and a better service for everyone.


Free books:


1. Uprising (Vampire Federation) 
Rated 4 stars average from 14 reviews
Synopsis: "For millennia, the vampires walked the earth undetected, feasting on humans in keeping with ancient tradition.In the Information Age, vampires realised they must be more careful to avoid detection. In the late 20th century they created the global Vampire Federation to police vampire activity, with special agents like Alex Bishop authorised to hunt down her own kind who break the laws. The old traditions are history.But not all vampires bow down to Federation rule. When rebel vampire Gabriel Stone declares war against them, Alex and her team are plunged into danger.Police inspector Joel Solomon, haunted by a secret terror of vampires, discovers a series of corpses left behind by Stone's bloodthirsty gang. As he and Alex are drawn together in an unlikely alliance between human and vampire, the race begins to destroy the evil Stone before his uprising tears their world apart."

2. Shadow Project, The
Rated 4 stars average from 20 reviews
Synopsis: "Ex-SAS soldier Ben Hope is enjoying life at Le Val, the facility in Northern France where he trains others in the dangerous art of hostage rescue, until a chance incident forces him to take on the role of bodyguard to the Swiss billionaire Maximilian Steiner.The victim of a recent abduction attempt, Steiner believes that a neo-Nazi terror group are bent on seizing a prized document from his personal collection - one that could support claims that the Holocaust never happened.But what initially seemed like a straightforward VIP protection job is turned upside-down by the appearance of a mystery woman from Ben's past. Could he be right about her, or is he losing his edge?On a quest across Europe, Ben finds himself embroiled in a deadly kidnap intrigue and a sinister project that has lain dormant since 1944. The stakes are global - and this time Ben is also fighting to protect the people closest to him…"

Cheap books:

Rated 4.5 stars average from 40 reviews
Synopsis: "Hard Landing is the first book in the best-selling Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series. Former SAS trooper Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad he has lied, cheated and conned in order to bring Britain’s most wanted criminals to justice.But when a powerful drug baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes, Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top security prison, a world where one wrong move will mean certain death.As Shepherd gambles everything to move in on his quarry, he soon realises that the man he is hunting is even more dangerous than the police realise. And that he is capable of striking outside the prison walls and hitting Shepherd where it hurts most – his family."

Rated 5 stars average from 8 reviews
Synopsis: "Real estate agent Toni Matthew's problems begin when her fiancé, Scott, is murdered. Having to bury the man she loves on the very day they planned to be married is almost more than Toni can take. Dealing with her loss becomes even harder when Scott's estranged brother, Brian, contests the will, threatening to take away her home.

After learning Brian is in deep financial trouble, Toni suspects he may be the one who killed Scott. Determined to find the truth and frustrated with the police, she begins her own investigation. Toni soon realizes she didn't know her fiancé quite as well as she had thought. Scott had been keeping secrets. Secrets that make Toni the killer's next target."

Rated 4.5 stars from 5 reviews
Synopsis: "A humorous portrayal of a naive working-class family’s attempts to fit in after emigrating from Liverpool to apartheid SA.

Set in 1988, BUT CAN YOU DRINK THE WATER? uses subtle observational humour, with an underlying pathos, to portray the upsets, hurt and changing family dynamics that emigration brings. 
It will appeal to fans of Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, and to expats, and potential expats worldwide."



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Thanks for subscribing, I'll see you next week.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Great Kindle Deals - Issue 59 - 15th January 2011

Hello, hope you're having a great weekend and welcome to another edition of Great Kindle Deals filled with lots of news this week, reader emails and great kindle deals. Remember to send me your comments, suggestions and ideas to greatkindledeals@gmail.com - or if you've found a bargain email me too!

News:
1. Kindle book lending club - Although Kindle lending is not yet available in the UK, the US have had the feature enabled now for a couple of weeks and a Kindle lending group has been created by Catherine McDonald. "The Kindle Lending Club" at http://www.kindlelendingclub.com/ is a fantastic start up which aims to match up kindle borrowers and lenders. The site hopes to make money from referral fees if users buy a book. There is no charge to be a member or to lend or borrow a book, select a book that you wish to lend or borrow, enter  a email address and you're done! The website's Facebook page has over 5000 "Likes" in less than a week. Hopefully something similar, or this very website, will be around when lending finally reaches the UK. The same restrictions are in force by Amazon - users may lend a book once to one person for up to two weeks. After the two weeks the book cannot be lent again. What are your thoughts on the idea? Is it stealing from the writers and publishers?

2. Tesco's book sales rising - Although specific figures for books have not been revealed, Tesco said: "we saw strong category growth in toys, books and gaming." Total sales increased by 4.2%, with like-for-like sales up 0.6%.

3. 18.9% of number 1 seller digital - HarperCollin's number one seller "Shatter the Bones" has proved the potential of the e-book market, as almost 18.9% of sales were digital copies. The e-book was priced at £4.99 whereas the paperback with an RRP of £14.99 sold at an average price of £7.37.

4. UK Kindle store passes 530,000 books - This week the UK kindle store passed 530,000 ebooks making it larger than ever, however it is still trailing behind the US store which at the moment has over 800,000 books - 50% more than the UK store.

5. Three Kindle million selling author - The third Kindle book to sell 1,000,000 kindle copies has been anounced - Nora Roberts. Her 74 books has sold an average of 13,500 copies each amounting to over 1 million sales. The other two authors were Stieg Larsson with just 3 titles and James Patterson who also happens to have 74 titles - maybe that's the magic number?

6. Amazon UK non-lighted covers causing problems: 

David Ludlow from expertreviews writes:
"Amazon customer services in the UK have told us that the Kindle leather cover problems, which cause the eReader to reboot and do other strange things, is caused by the plastic clips on the standard case.

The lighted leather case, which uses metal clips in order to conduct power from the Kindle to the light is immune to these problems...

As such, Amazon.co.uk will credit affected users with the £50.99 required to buy the Lighted Leather Cover (UK US) instead.

From our experience, the process is a painless one.  Just make sure that you phone the UK phone number, as the US site will attempt to refund in dollars instead of pounds."



7. Kindle apps updates - Kindle apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad have been update with new features:


  • Instant word lookup
  • Finish downloading a book in the background
  • Support for some non-Amazon book files
  • Zoom has been improved
  • A new book indicator


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Reader email:
Some emails are edited for brevity.
"Hi,

Glad to see you are up and running again!

You mentioned Waterstones in this week’s news...I thought you would be interested in what I read in the Times on Sunday 9th Jan.
They reported that according to Bookseller magazine that Waterstones’ book sales fell 0.4% in the 5 weeks to Christmas (their biggest problem is clearly the HMV side) but are at risk from the downloading and internet book sales. Amazon apparently have about ¼ of the British book market, neck and neck with Waterstones. However Amazon’s growth has vastly outstripped the high street rivals recently. The former owner of Borders said that the e-book revolution is only just starting to have an impact. Supermarket chains are also hitting them hard.

I must say I am surprised; with all the doom and gloom around Waterstones I thought the situation was  more terminal but clearly the potential growth is nil and must reduce. I was also surprised that the Amazon market share isn’t greater and Waterstones MUCH lower. And surely the supermarkets and independents can’t cover the remaining 50%-nor would I  have thought book clubs would take up a huge percentage either!"                                                                   --Caroline Sanders



That's some very interesting news and interesting to see that Waterstones is still doing remarkably well, but as you say potential growth is very low, I expect to see Amazon's market share increase rapidly in the coming years especially with more people going online and the proliferation of e-readers. Thanks for your email Caroline.

NB: A report from June 2010 says profits were down 70% to £2.8 million. Waterstones is estimated to have lost £2million in sales from the snowy conditions over the Christmas period. 20 Waterstones stores will shut this year.
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Free books:
A few more free Kindle book have been added this week for your reading pleasure:
1. William Walker's First Year of Marriage
Rated 4.5/5 stars average from 22 reviews
Synopsis: "William Walker has just married Isabel, the girl of his dreams. The happy couple live in a small flat in north London while William labours away at his magazine job, revelling in his recent promotion from a column for which he was required to taste different brands of cat food to more dignified reportage. So far, so perfect.But William has a Bridget Jones-ish knack for messing up the happiest of situations – he can’t help shouting at the obnoxiously precocious work experience girl and has an embarrassing tendency to forget names of women he has previously tried to sleep with. It doesn’t help that Isabel’s creepy best friend Alex is very obviously in love with her. Nor that Saskia, a vixen-ish old flame of William’s, has just moved in downstairs. As Alex slithers his way into Isabel’s heart, Saskia seems intent on resuming relations with William – or at least giving Isabel that impression.Increasingly beset, increasingly unlucky and increasingly hilarious, William battles his way through a series of comic disasters that threaten to destroy his relationship and reduce him to a state of sad bachelorhood – a fate, he soon realises, worse than death."

2. A lesson in Passion
Rated 5 stars, 1 customer review
Synopsis: "Ginny has a successful career, nice home and good friends. The only thing she's missing is love. Her past attempts at dating always seem to end badly, until a friend recommends some romance novels. Meant to be instructional, Ginny laughs off their usefulness.
Ian is a powerful Scottish laird, living in Medieval times. As the new leader of his clan, he is honor bound to make decisions that benefit his people. Tough, but fair, Ian has made a name for himself among the clans of the Highlands.
A freak accident leaves Ginny in a world within herself, the world of the romance novel heroine. Fighting off an evil band of Lowlanders, Ginny meets her hero, Ian, powerful laird of the clan McKenna. Ginny soon realizes she is in the body of an Englishwoman and is being forced to live with the McKenna clan.
Ginny assumes she must fall in love to move out of this world and back into her own. So before her hero can marry another, she schemes to win him back and hopefully reach her goals."
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I hope you enjoyed this edition of the newsletter, see you next week!

Sunday 9 January 2011

Great Kindle Deals - 8th January 2011

Hello, and welcome to yet another edition of Great Kindle Deals. Thank you for all your emails to greatkindledeals@gmail.com saying how glad you are that the newsletter is back and for all the comments and suggestions. From these emails, I have determined that some more general book news around the UK may be of interest to you - such as other ebook stores opening, big retailers making announcements and that begins in this letter with some (unfortunate) news regarding Waterstones. Of course, the latest deals and free books are all still here - you just get more content in every newsletter.

News:
1. Amazon announces tablet Kindle apps - "Last year, Amazon tailored a Kindle app specifically for the size, look and feel of the iPad and it has become a top ten free app for iPad. Today, Amazon announced that Kindle apps will also be tailored specifically for Android and Windows based tablets to enable customers to access the Kindle Store, and with it the largest selection of the books people want to read.  Like all Kindle apps, the new Kindle apps built for Android and Windows tablet computers will let customers “Buy Once, Read Everywhere”—on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices.  For more information about the free Kindle apps, go to www.amazon.com/kindleapps."

2. Kindle comes to Windows Phone 7 - Those of you wish a shiny, new Windows Phone 7 device are in luck as Amazon has now released a Windows Phone 7 Kindle App. For the moment it seems that you are only able to read books and not magazines or newspapers, but it does show that Amazon is working hard at its "Buy once. Read everywhere" philosophy.

3. Kindle prices raise due to VAT - VAT in the UK has risen meaning that the Kindle is now slightly more expensive than it was before. The TV ads have been updated to reflect this and so has the website, the Kindle Wifi now costs £111 and the Wifi+3G Kindle costs £152. In my opinion, the price at £109 seemed so much more attractive, in the same way that a 99p item psychologically seems cheap. Let's hope that Amazon doesn't lose any sales through this slight increase in price.

4.  Kindle 2, DX and DX Global get update - Those of you with the previous generation Kindle, and I know there are some, will be interested to know that there's an update, which supposedly improves the 3G connection. - Here's the  Kindle Update page. It is also the same upgrade for the DX and the DX Global Kindles.

Commentary:
This week I thought I'd add something a bit different to the newsletter allowing me to get my opinion on the Kindle and other book-related news across to you and allowing you to contribute and share any tips or comments you have. If you have any comments or tips you'd like to be published email me at greatkindledeals@gmail.com. This week's topics are the Kindle's battery life and the Kindle DX:

Over the past month I've been so busy that I've found it almost impossible to find time to read, resulting in me reading half of "Wuthering Heights" on the Kindle and not much more. With wifi off this has been a real test of battery life and seeing how well the Kindle 3 can conserve battery life when not in use. The result has been that despite reading about 1500 locations' worth of content and leaving the Kindle alone for three weeks, only about 20-25% of the battery has been used. This shows the amazing potential for the Kindle, potentially meaning that the battery could last for up to six months if not being used. Amazon has clearly done a great job at conserving battery life. When reading with Wifi off regularly, I find that I can usually get over 4 weeks' worth of reading when reading every night for around half an hour. How do you find the battery life on your Kindle?


On the subject of the Kindle DX, I find it really disappointing that it is still not available in the UK and internationally at a reasonable price - it costs $379 at the moment - thats £260 + 20% VAT = £312 + Shipping = £350. That's over 3 times the price of a standard wifi Kindle for a screen that is around 2 times bigger in area. Personally, I can't see the use of it for me unless it were colour allowing me to carry around encyclopedias, and for students textbooks, but at least making it available in the UK would probably boost sales - provided it were at a reasonable price.

Cheap books of the week:


1. Dancing in the Moonlight (Silhouette Special Edition) - £0.01 (1p)
Rated 4 stars average from 1 review
Synopsis: "Lieutenant Magdalena Cruz had come home…And though all she wanted was to be alone, infuriatingly handsome Dr. Jake Dalton—of the enemy Daltons—wouldn't cooperate. And she needed him to, because the walls around her heart were dangerously close to crumbling every time he came near.…

Jake had spent most of his life trying to get closer to Maggie, with little to show for it. But she was the woman he'd always wanted, and no injury in the world could change that. Now if only he could convince her that the woman who stood before him was beautiful, desirable, whole…and meant to be his.…"

2. Hard Landing (A Dan Shepherd Mystery) - £0.49
Rated 4.5 stars average from 31 reviews
Synopsis: "Hard Landing is the first book in the best-selling Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series. Former SAS trooper Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad he has lied, cheated and conned in order to bring Britain’s most wanted criminals to justice.But when a powerful drug baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes, Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top security prison, a world where one wrong move will mean certain death.As Shepherd gambles everything to move in on his quarry, he soon realises that the man he is hunting is even more dangerous than the police realise. And that he is capable of striking outside the prison walls and hitting Shepherd where it hurts most – his family."

3. The Hanging Shed - £1.00
Rated 5 stars average from 13 reviews
Synopsis: "Glasgow, 1946: The last time Douglas Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a dashing young warrior in a kilt. Now, the war is over but victory’s wine has soured and Brodie’s back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Donovan was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returned was unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Donovan keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect...

Donovan claims he’s innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one-time friend. Working with Donovan’s advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls both the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of church, police and Glasgow’s deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark secrets. As time runs out for the condemned man, and the tally of murdered innocents rises, Brodie reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It’s them or him…"







Free books:
1. House of Dark Shadows (Dreamhouse Kings Series, Book 1)
Rated 3 stars average from 4 reviews

"When the Kings move from L.A. to a secluded small town, fifteen-year-old Xander is beyond disappointed. He and his friends loved to create amateur films . . . but the tiny town of Pinedale is the last place a movie buff and future filmmaker wants to land.

But he, David, and Toria are captivated by the many rooms in the old Victorian fixer-upper they moved into--as well as the heavy woods surrounding the house.

They soon discover there's something odd about the house. Sounds come from the wrong directions. Prints of giant, bare feet appear in the dust. And when David tries to hide in the linen closet, he winds up in locker 119 at his new school.

Then the really weird stuff kicks in: they find a hidden hallway with portals leading off to far-off places--in long-ago times. Xander is starting to wonder if this kind of travel is a teen's dream come true . . . or his worst nightmare."

2. The Blood That Bonds
Rated 5 stars average from 6 reviews
Synopsis: "Two is trapped: hooked on heroin, held as property, forced to sell her body to feed the addiction. Time brings her ever closer to what seems an inevitable death and Two waits, uncaring, longing only for the next fix.

That’s when Theroen arrives, beckoning to his Ferrari and grinning his inscrutable grin. He is handsome. Confident. Eager to help lift her out of the life that’s grinding her down.

The only problem? Theroen is a vampire.

His blood can cure her addiction, grant her powers she has never had, change her forever into something greater than she was. But when he sinks his teeth into her neck, Theroen also thrusts Two into a world of danger, violence, madness and despair. The powerful, twisted elder Abraham will use her arrival to shatter the uneasy peace that exists in his mansion, bringing an end to the dark game he has been playing for centuries."

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Thanks for reading this week's newsletter, see you next week!

Saturday 1 January 2011

Many, many updates - 1 January 2011

Hi everyone,

First I'd like to apologise to all those readers who have stuck with us without any updates for the past three weeks - there have been some terrible problems at my end but I've now managed to get it all sorted out and was unable to get a newsletter up for the last while. However, I can now guarantee you more regular updates and more information. Thanks to everyone who has written in asking if everything is OK. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and have a very Happy New Year where all your dreams come true! Welcome to all the new Kindlers who have just got a Kindle for Christmas! Now, let's get into the news:

News:
1) 1.6million shipments of the Kindle - Suppliers have leaked information stating that Amazon has shipped over 1.6million Kindles to customers in December, as much as the Apple iPad. Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Equity Research stated that "Kindle is going to mass market from niche market" and that "iPad cannibalization of Kindle is not obvious." This undoubtedly means that Amazon must be enjoying fantastic sales of the Kindle and investing more into a newer version of the Kindle- we'll keep you updated with news and rumours of the Kindle 4 as soon as we have them.

2) Amazon enables book lending - Amazon has enabled Kindle book lending for its customers in the US, meaning that they are able to lend a book to a friend for up to 14 days while not being able to read it during that time. 14 days does seem to be a bit low to me especially for longer titles and there is yet another caveat - you can only lend a title to a single person ever, meaning that if you have a book that you wish to lend to two people you can only lend it to one of them ever. This feature is not available outside the US at the moment and not all books are eligible.

3)

Free commercial Kindle books:
Some publishers periodically make their books available for free on the Kindle store and we like to keep you updated on these. Here are the latest free commercial Kindle books:

1) Painless by Derek Ciccone
Rated 5 stars average from 1 review
Synopsis: "A fast-paced thriller mixed with a heartwarming story of redemption. A series of ominous incidents make Billy Harper realize there is something very different about Carolyn Whitcomb. But when a rogue organization called Operation Anesthesia learns of Carolyn’s “gifts,” Billy must risk everything to save the life of the little girl who taught him to live again."





2) Wish by Alexandra Bullen
Rated 4.5 stars average from 7 reviews

Synopsis: "For broken-hearted Olivia Larsen, nothing can change the fact that her twin sister, Violet, is gone... until a mysterious, beautiful gown arrives on her doorstep. The dress doesn't just look magical; it is magical. It has the power to grant her one wish, and the only thing Olivia wants is her sister back.With Violet again by her side, both girls get a second chance at life. And as the sisters soon discover, they have two more dresses-and two more wishes left. But magic can't solve everything, and Olivia is forced to confront her ghosts to learn how to laugh, love, and live again.In a breathtaking debut from Alexandra Bullen, WISH asks the question: If you could have anything, what would you wish for?"


Rated 4 stars average from 8 reviews
Synopsis: "Called to North Carolina to consult on the case of an area serial killer, Bowers finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Cunning and lethal, the killer is always one step ahead of the law, and he's about to strike again. It will take all of Bowers's instincts and training to stop 
the man who calls himself... the Illusionist.
Thrilling, chilling, and impossible to put down, The Pawn will hold you in its iron grip until the very last page."


Cheap Kindle Books:
Many publishers have made their books available on Amazon for £1 or less for the new year and holiday season - in fact Amazon is running the 12 days of Kindle with popular books available for only £1.00!
You can find the "12 days of Kindle" full list here which includes 54 books all priced at just £1 until 6th January. In fact, at the moment Amazon has done a fantastic job of rounding most sub-£1 books up as they are the bestsellers - take a look at this list here on the left and see for yourself some of the fantastic deals that are available.

Remind of thousands of free books on project Gutenburg:
Many publishers are trying to make money selling out of copyright books on the Kindle store for under £1 - you can get the complete works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen or read WUthering heights for under £1! It sounds like a bargain, but in fact you can get all these, legally, for free by visiting Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org -  in fact there's over 33,000 books and they list links to other sites which total over 100,000 free books. To get the books on your Kindle find a book you like, click the download tab, download the Kindle version and email it to your [kindlename]@free.kindle.com email address (you can find this in your Amazon.co.uk account until Kindle management) as an attachment with the word "convert" in the subject line. Switch on wifi on your Kindle and hey presto! There's a free book for you within minutes.

Get free samples:
If you're new to the Kindle, or even if you're not, you may want to know that you can usually read the first couple of chapters on your Kindle for free! Navigate to the book you want on Amazon.co.uk and click "send sample now" to your Kindle. Connect your Kindle to Wifia and 3G and the sample will appear within seconds.

Kindle 2 cases:
This one was a request from one of our readers which I am sure will interest those of you with a previous (not latest) generation Kindle 2. There are still a few cases available at quite reasonable prices - DURAGADGET has a case at £3.99 (reduced from £29.99) + £4.50 shipping which looks very nice. CRAZYPRICESHOP has a case for £6.99 + £4.25 delivery which looks like a simple leather cover which is also nice, and finally there's the more expensive (and in my opinion less practical) Proporta case at £19.99.

That's it for this week - see you next weekend, or earlier if there's some breaking news! With the Consumer Electronics Show next week, let's hope for heaps of e-reader news. See you next weekend and Happy New Year!