e-buk, ini mau diletak di mana ya?

This is not a goodbye post. I'll write that later.

Anyway I am going back in two days time and like any student studying abroad(really?), there are numerous shopping "process to be done". Honestly though I don't know about everyone else but for me it is like ritual to buy things - foods, electronics, books etc- in Malaysia before going back oversea since the price is much cheaper and the options are much, much more. Contohnya, kat sana takdak sos cili beb. Sadis gak nak makan sos tomato setahun, nak beli kat kedai asia kadang takdak, selalu mahal. Hence the frenzy shopping for me.
However in order to shop with a clear conscience(clear lah sangat), I decided to log in and check into my account bank to see its balance. Somehow the password is wrong. It seems I have forgotten the passwords or mix up the sequence, hence I cannot see my balance. I still remember my www.amazon.de though, where I usually do most of my shopping online. oh, Irony.

Local shopping in preparation to go back aside, I began browsing amazon.de. After all, it's been two monts since I logged in and most of the catalogue seems to change, plus it wouldn't cost a thing right to do a bit online window shopping, right? Right? RIGHT?? I'll leave that to individual preferences. So anyway I browse through amazon and if you've been on it recently(i.e past two years), amazon has been pushing its kindle device and all the e-books so agressively, that one article said, "short of changing its name, Amazon has tried everything to promote its Kindle."

Here's what a Kindle looks like

The reason Amazon is promoting Kindle and its e-books, is mostly because of the advance of portable device and decreasing interest in buying paper books. I know people who would swear they would print the entire book than reading it in digital form but the majority prefers convenience, hence the popularity of e-book.

E-book is convenient.

It can be bought and read within minutes, can be carried through the air, has almost no weight burden. And it is cost efficient, so it is cheap. Wait, I crossed that out because e-book is NOT cheap. Actually, its price is preposterous(unless you download illegally, but that's a different story)

"Really?" one would ask. Is it that expensive? 

Yes. Lotsa talks is useless. Here's an example.

the kindle price is the topmost, while the taschenbuch is the 3rd. 

kindle 5.99 euro

paperback 5.60 euro. 

wtf anyone?

eh, apsal ambik contoh twilight. dem!

okay, okay, here's a comparison of one of my favourite book, The Godfather.

Kindle 5.89 euro

Paperback: Amazon: 6.60 euro, 3rd party: 5.76 euro

well the kindle is slightly cheaper but for a 30 years old classic, it's still dissappointing. Really, it seems to be such a rip-off.

It is almost the same in other publications such as Guttenberg and what-not, most of which I surveyed charged expensively for an e-book. The reason I say expensive is logically the book has skipped the part where it has to be printed on paper and post to the readers. Yes I know the servers also cost money and the digitalization of old books is not magical, still the cost would be covered with multiple purchase as the cost per unit is almost neglible, unlike paperbooks.

If the royalty is said to be the factor, one would accept if it is not free, since even e-books sold by unknown authors on amazon cost that much, but what reasons can it be when famous e-books such as above are sold more expensive than their paper counterpart?

What I really made me turn off by these e-books sold by amazon is that they have the same price with paperbooks yet they cannot be shared or lent. Let say if I buy an e-book, I have to lend my account if I want my friend to read it(strictly legal speaking, that is). For a paperback, I can lend it to anyone I want, gift it to a friend or famil, donate to library, even sell it back as second hand books. 

If you buy an e-book, you DO NOT own it. Of course in paperbook you do not own the writings and idea but at least you get something for the money. With e-book you do not. Amazon even have the right, which it did on one book, to pull the book from your library.

Such a nuisance. conveniance turned into nuisance, such is the corporate manipulation. 

And all that for the same price(or even higher) of an ebook to the paperbook.

Well, that is my babbling for now. At least it stopped me from buying anything from Amazon and keeping me distracted long enough that I can now go shop physically to bring back to Deutschland soon.

Thanks for reading(and helping me save)!

p.s. sapa nak pesan sos cili?