# Have you ever bought a kindle book you already own a physical copy of?



## DH_Sayer (Dec 20, 2011)

I've done this a few times with books I wanted to give a closer read, like Great Gatsby. (The word search feature is a true godsend.)

But I also have physical books I wish I didn't buy because having the kindle version is so much more convenient. I noticed today that Gaddis's Recognitions and JR will be available next month, and for half the price I paid for the physical copies, which are still sitting on my shelf unread. I'm seriously considering just re-buying them since it would be such a nicer reading experience...I know it would make me read them faster, too! Anyone else go through this?


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I've bought quite a few ecopies of books I already own a paper copy.  Part of it was an intentional culling of my physical library to shrink it and part was a desire to have an easier to read copy of books I love.


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## slandon36 (Jan 24, 2012)

Sadly, yes.  I had pre-ordered several books by my favorite authors and when I purchased my kindle, I wanted to read the books on there.  So I set the books aside as they came in and bought them on my kindle.....PS...Don't tell my husband!


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

Absolutely, DW and I are both re-visiting series that we have enjoyed immensely. 
The paper copies are on the shelf but we've each bought Kindle copies of our respected series for re-reading on the K's.
We read a lot on our commutes and the K's are just so much easier to do that with.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Yes--I do it all the time. In fact, I have about four shelves of books I'd love to get Kindle copies of, but alas, I doubt I will ever find them.
I have a lot of old paperbacks that I love but they are falling apart and crumbling. Some are getting hard to read because of that. I have a weakness for the old Gothics of the 60's and 70's and the books just aren't holding up.

Unfortunately, I don't expect anyone to revive them and put them on the Kindle. Sigh. I wish they would as there were some books, particularly from Virginia Coffman, that I was never able to find and had always wanted to read (e.g. her Moura series).

Beyond that, I also am trying to reduce the piles of physical books lying around and one way to do that is to donate those to a children's home (they sell them and use the proceeds to support the children) and then "replace them" with ebook copies. It works all the way around.


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## AnelaBelladonna (Apr 8, 2009)

Many times.  There are books that I love to read over and over again but I can't bring myself to read DTBs anymore so I buy them for my Kindle.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Not often, but grabbed a few classics I've always meant to re-read. Unfortunately, I have SO many books I'm just not getting that done.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

At the moment, I'm going in the other direction and buying hardbound versions of books I already have on kindle to upgrade my physical library to just my favorites ....


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

I've never bought the e-book version after owning the physical copy, but I've done the reverse. I'm reading more e-books nowadays, and if I come across one I really like, I'll buy the physical copy too. Call me old-fashioned, but there's still something comforting about having a book that you can hold in your hands and flip through the pages.


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## KateEllison (Jul 9, 2011)

hs said:


> I've never bought the e-book version after owning the physical copy, but I've done the reverse. I'm reading more e-books nowadays, and if I come across one I really like, I'll buy the physical copy too. Call me old-fashioned, but there's still something comforting about having a book that you can hold in your hands and flip through the pages.


I'm the same way as HS. I'll read just about anything on my Kindle, but for a beloved favorite I usually like to buy the print version as well. And of course some books I like to have just so I can display them on my bookshelves (I have a floor-to-ceiling wall of them in my living room that we installed last year).


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## flipside (Dec 7, 2011)

Yes.

Physical books I usually loan to people. eBooks for myself.

But also recently, because the physical copy was too heavy/large to lug around:


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Frequently. I've been downsizing the physical book collection and replacing with ebooks. There are, however, a number of titles I purchased as ebooks without finding new homes for the print editions. A number of Harlan Ellison's titles, for instance. If their publishers worked up enough common sense to release ebooks of the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Don Robertson, Thomas Williams, Roger Zelazny, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Finney, or Tabitha King (to name a few), I'd buy them immediately or at least as quickly as the credit card balance would allow. And I'd hang on to the print editions of most of their titles as well.

And flipside, nice example of a book too heavy to lug around -- _The Weird_ is a terrific collection, but not something you can tuck comfortably into a jacket pocket; the ebook edition is a godsend, and well worth the price. Now if Tor would do an ebook of _The Dark Descent_ as well, I'd be happy.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

A few. My favorite book, The Stand...I already have several copies and 2 versions, but it is a brick so it's nice to also have it on my Kindle. Same for The Swan by McCammon and Footfall...also bricks, and found them very inexpensive for the Kindle. So much nicer to have them all wafer-thin! Some of my sci-fi paperbacks are ancient and crumbling and when and if I find them for reasonable prices in e-book format, I'll buy them.

I still buy most non-fiction books in my areas of interest in hard copy, but I have found a few at reasonable prices for Kindle, so grab them up too.

I really like the lightness and ergonomics of my Kindle, I prefer reading on that now, unless there are photos, diagrams, pictures, etc.


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## LaRita (Oct 28, 2008)

Tony Rabig said:


> Frequently. I've been downsizing the physical book collection and replacing with ebooks.


This. I'm a huge re-reader and never get rid of books. Changing from paper to digital has already made a significant dent in the clutter at my house.


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## Paul Reid (Nov 18, 2010)

Bought an e-book version of my own book even though I already had it on paperback, which is silly given that I'm hardly likely to read it. Also, short story collections by William Trevor and James Joyce as I like to have them to hand. Kindle is so much easier than searching through bookcases anyway!


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## Meka (Sep 8, 2011)

I am donating all my hardcopies to the library and repurchasing them on my Kindle. It is just so much easier to read books on the Kindle!


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I recently bought a set of ebooks I already owned in paperback form. But I didn't own the entire series, just the first three books, and there was an awesome sale on the set, so I thought I might as well take the opportunity to grab them all for my Kindle.


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

Meka said:


> I am donating all my hardcopies to the library and repurchasing them on my Kindle. It is just so much easier to read books on the Kindle!


This is what I am also doing.


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## bce (Nov 17, 2009)

Books that I get for work (I'm a systems software engineer) I sometimes buy the ebook in addition to the physical copy.  The physical copy is for my desk because I can't take the kindle in with me.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

Only two. As my mother would have said, I'm too Scotch to buy things I already own just because of format. However, I did recently buy James Herriot's first 3 books in one volume because they were offered at such a low price and my paperbacks of those books are pretty beat up. (Hmm. Maybe that counts as 3.) I also got a Kindle copy of Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar. My paperback of that was in such bad shape I kept it together with a rubber band.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Yes, I did that with the very first book I read on my Kindle. I was about 200 pages into a 1000ish page book - I wanted to finish it, but I also wanted to play with my new toy! So I got the Kindle version and was very impressed with how easy it was to search for a particular sentence and find my place immediately.

I've since bought one or two old favourites for my Kindle even though I still had the paper copy. I'd love to be able to afford to buy a lot more. Trouble is, I still don't want to get rid of my paper books!


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## acellis (Oct 10, 2011)

I find myself doing this more often as time goes by. I also have a long list of books I own in paper for which I'm always seeking the digital version.


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## kaotickitten (Jan 9, 2011)

Of course. I don't want to have to take a favorite book on the plane if I can help it.  Same with to work.  Books get extremely filthy at work and a kindle is easier to clean.


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

Yes! I snatched up Graceling by Kristen Cashore when it was 99 cents through the Kindle Daily Deal. I can't wait until Bitterblue comes out. I also own more than one version / copy of Pride and Prejudice. What can I say? Jane is all that.


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## Poovey (Aug 25, 2011)

Yep!

One: I don't have much storage space for printed books, so a lot of them are in storage. It's been easier to just buy (or borrow through Overdrive) a book I want to re-read.

Two: I have to use a tinted, plastic overlay on printed books if I want to read them longer than 15-30 minutes. And I have to change the background color in Word to a light yellow while I'm writing if I don't want to suffer too much. The Kindle's e-ink screen doesn't give me any trouble, though, so I can read for an hour or longer at a time, just like when I was a kid. Awesome.


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## BrionHumphrey (Jan 20, 2012)

Absolutely! I am a teacher and as soon as I was gifted my first Kindle, I dug out all of the great books I was afraid of losing and they became a part of my lending library in my classroom. I also purchased e-copies of books that I was too impatient to wait for my wife to finish reading.

Just a thought, there are a great deal of people donating their hard copy books to local libraries. If you have two copies of something (for some reason I seem to have seven copies of_ Catcher in the Rye_ at any given time) I'm sure that your friendly neighborhood middle and high school English teachers/librarians would be happy to receive those as well!


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

I never buy the same book twice, so no.


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## tamaraheiner (Apr 23, 2011)

I've done it, but not for me. So I could gift them to other people.


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## M.P. Jones (Dec 28, 2011)

Yes - I've bought the entire Belgariad and Mallorean series by David Eddings (10 books) as the hard copies take up so much space and the books are getting a bit dog-eared now.  The problem is I can't quite bring myself to dispose of the books yet!  Old habits die hard I suppose...

MP Jones


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## Ergodic Mage (Jan 23, 2012)

I am loving David Weber's Safehold series, my first Kindle purchase was the latest "How Firm a Foundation". But before reading a new book in a series I go back and reread the previous one. As he has said there will probably be 3 more books I'm considering purchasing the Kindle versions.


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## lea_owens (Dec 5, 2011)

Definitely. A lot of the classics, like Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and others are on my Kindle as well as sitting on my book shelf... but those are free and the thread title was 'bought', so I had a look, and - yes - I've bought a few horse books which are also on my book shelf as well as a few history books.


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## Adonna (Feb 4, 2012)

Yup.  A few Dean Koontz novels and Captive by Brenda Joyce.  False Memory by Koontz is one of my favorites.  Had to have it on my Kindle


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Yes, but only because I couldn't find the physical copy.


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## DH_Sayer (Dec 20, 2011)

I understand it's not economically (or legally) feasible to do this, but I've always thought it would be cool if Amazon let you put Digital copies of the physical books you've bought from them on your kindle. After all, we weren't punished for all those years of buying CDs (which can be burned onto an iPod), but all that buying of physical copies of books from Amazon turned out not to be the best move.


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## Anjasa (Feb 4, 2012)

I've bought a couple, though not many. Mostly books that I hadn't gotten around to reading, though I also got some that I knew I'd like to read again.


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## planet_janet (Feb 23, 2010)

No, I haven't purchased any books that I already own a physical copy of.  When I went through my DTB storage bins after I got my Kindle, I kept my favorite books and donated everything else.  I figure if I ever want to read those favorites again, I can read the DTB versions rather than spend the money on the ebook versions.


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## Rebecca Burke (May 9, 2011)

Our teens got Kindles for Xmas and the first thing they did was to see which of their school textbooks could be (affordably) downloaded. As far as we were concerned, that meant the Kindle purchases had already paid off. Now they don't have to lug all of their insanely heavy textbooks back and forth to school, and the books are always accessible, so no excuses! I've always said they needed a sherpa to carry their backpacks; texts these days are just huge. So get your kids a Kindle and save a trip to the chiropracter!


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## DonnaGalanti (Nov 6, 2011)

Yes I do! I have many author friends and buy their ebook when it comes out on Kindle to read ahead of time, then attend their book launches and purchase the paperback there to sign.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

There are some series or authors that I re-read; I am gradually accumulating those so that I can have them with me when the mood strikes.  In most cases, I'm getting rid of the paper books.  Slowly our in-home library is becoming nonfiction and reference rather than the tons of fiction I kept around.  Saves room, for sure.

Specifically, I'm getting the JDRobb "In Death" series, Lee Child, Robert Parker and Dick Frances.  I have the Narnia series and the Crystal Singer series--got them for cheap soon after I bought my Kindle.  There are probably a few others.  It's just convenience to have my favorites with me.

Betsy


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## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

Nope. One or the other, but never both. Just seems unnecessary to me. There are no books that I own that I'll one day feel the urge to read so badly that I can't wait to get home and grab the paperback


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

Yes. Some classics I hope to reread at some point but really want to get rid of all those half-decayed paperbacks on the back shelves. And some favorites for traveling, that I can actually read on my iPod Touch as well.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I think there were one or two that I already had in paper but became available as a bargain or temporarily free ebook. . . .so I got the ebook and donated the paper one.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Sean Patrick Fox said:


> Nope. One or the other, but never both. Just seems unnecessary to me. There are no books that I own that I'll one day feel the urge to read so badly that I can't wait to get home and grab the paperback


Me too.


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

I've done this quite a few times. Generally I do this when purchasing eBooks to replace favorite books I've donated. 

On a few occasions I've purchased a book on iBooks not realizing I already purchased it on my Kindle. This is when I still trying to decide which was a favored eBook platform. I've since moved to nothing by Kindle.


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## DawnB (Sep 10, 2010)

I bought ebooks for all the paper books I had, then donated the paper books. The only paper books I have left are some non-fiction not available as ebooks.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

kaotickitten said:


> Of course. I don't want to have to take a favorite book on the plane if I can help it. Same with to work. Books get extremely filthy at work and a kindle is easier to clean.


I have some filthy books I'd rather read on the Kindle, too. (Wait...that wasn't what you meant. Sorry!)

I recently re-purchased _I Am Legend_ and _The Incredible Shrinking Man_ by Richard Matheson because they were on sale and my tatty old paperbacks are stuck in a box somewhere in the attic.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Frequently. And again just a few days ago when Vintage released US edition ebooks (finally!) of Somerset Maugham's _Cakes and Ale_ and _A Writer's Notebook_ (_The Narrow Corner_ and _Skeptical Romancer_ are in the wishlist). Eventually I'll replace the U of Chicago Press issues of Richard Stark's Parker novels; ditto the New York Review Books Simenon titles.


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## Pardco (Feb 10, 2012)

Yes I have.
Once you get used to the convenience of Kindle- the old chunks of paper just seem awkward.
I have a large (now unfortunate ) investment in physical books so I do my best to be extremely selective with digital repurchases.
Happy eReading,
Paul


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## Kenton Crowther (Jan 5, 2012)

I had a hardcover (in slip case) of Henry Murger's _La vie de Boheme_ (in English) that I read but didn't really like because of the lumpish illustrations. It was a relief to get it as an ebook (no pictures) and donate the DTB to a charity shop. I also replicated my small-print 4-volume set of _The Spectator_ as a free ebook, simply to have the easy-reading larger type.


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## lmyrick (Feb 23, 2012)

Absolutely. Multiple times. Usually just for the convenience of having it on my Fire wherever I take it.


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## KathyLynnHarris (Feb 2, 2012)

yep, especially when i find a good book that i know i already love - at a bargain price.


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## tmando (Jul 18, 2010)

a few times, but only if the kindle copy was inexpensive


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Frequently, but only if the price is right. I probably have about fifty or sixty books on my shelves that I own both the paper copy and the ebook.


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## Darrell Pitt (Feb 12, 2011)

Sadly, all the time. 

I'm both a writer and a mature aged university student. The teachers like to see you with the hard copy in your hands of what we're reading. This means I buy a hard copy, but I also buy the soft copy for my kindle. 

Of course, I read it on my Kindle. 

That's my 2 cents worth.

Darrell Pitt


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## CJBranscome (Oct 25, 2011)

I love books about organization. I always lend them to students, knowing I probably won't get them back. I'm okay with this because I want students to have a shot at being organized, too, but I have one that I LOVE and this time, when I replaced it, I bought an ebook version. I can't lend it, so when I need it, I always have it. And then I do this dumb cheer in my head because it's like I won a contest. It's mine! I have it! Ha! (probably shouldn't admit all that out loud, ha).

CJ


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## Diane Capri (Sep 28, 2011)

I do this all the time. And the other way around. I often have several copies of books, hardcover, paperback, kindle. It depends on what I'm doing with the book, where I'm located, how easy it is to get a book, etc.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

I told myself I wasn't going to do it when I first bought my Kindle - but I have - because I enjoy reading on the Kindle so much more,  and also because I donated most of my Fiction books after getting my Kindle (and then later realized I still wanted to read them).  Most recently - I bought a book that had not been Kindle-ized at the time-  and now is - so I bought it again..Sigh...


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

Yes! My own.


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## Zackery Arbela (Jan 31, 2011)

Yep...did it for all A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. Giant doorstoppers all of 'em and heavy as heck. My lower back was glad for the relief!


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