# Too much of an mediocre thing, or how BookBub is destroying my reading life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481 "2015-03-07T22:30:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/1 "2015-03-07T22:30:36Z")
BookBub is a service that sends you an email every day telling you what ebooks are available for download in your chosen genres that are really cheap or free. Sound neat? I thought so. I thought it would expand my horizons and introduce me to all sorts of books I would not have found on my own. And then I subscribed. And then I found that it’s hard for me to resist downloading a free kindle book. Even the ones that sound bad. It’s free! And then it’s on my kindle. And then my kindle is aswamp with books that sound bad and, in many cases, are bad. Very bad. And then I try to read one and it doesn’t hold my attention because I didn’t really want to read it in the first place, and then I move on to something else without deleting it, and now I have hundreds of books on my kindle that I never would have sought out on my own because they are not what I want to read. Let this be a lesson to you. Too much of a mediocre thing is too much. Sadly, I think I’m the only person who needed that lesson! (And yes, I’ve finally turned off the notifications.) ---
**Author:** ![SJL4041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@SJL4041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SJL4041)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/2 "2015-03-07T22:42:22Z")
Are you sure about this? Because ten million web ads have assured me that BookBub is book lovers’ worst kept secret. I can relate because this is the first month I have decided not to download one of Amazon’s free “Kindle First” books that they offer every month for Prime subscribers. Usually I pick something that I justify by saying, “Theoretically, if I was trapped in an elevator with only this on my Kindle, I would try it maybe.” This month they all look so awful I can’t even say that. And it’s better just not to have garbage clogging up my cloud if I’m truly never going to read it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/3 "2015-03-07T22:50:36Z")
And look! It even made me screw up the thread title! Stupid BookBub! > [@SJL4041](#): > > This month they all look so awful I can’t even say that. And it’s better just not to have garbage clogging up my cloud if I’m truly never going to read it. Ha! It was actually while looking over those books that I finally recognized what an idiot I am about free books. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/4 "2015-03-07T23:16:01Z")
BookBub is the hot pink leopard print tee shirt on the clearance rack of the book world. There’s a reason The All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book is $1.99 and the Whosits’ Collection of Vampyres and Dark Passion is free. I get their daily email, too, and have downloaded a few books. Pretty much all disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![SJL4041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@SJL4041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SJL4041)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/5 "2015-03-07T23:25:04Z")
To be fair, about 5-10% of the time Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deal has an honest-to-goodness big-name publisher good book on it. And their Kindle Monthly Deal occasionally has one or two books on it that I have already been planning on buying. Sure, it’s mostly dreck, but there are flecks of gold in the stream! Just enough to keep you coming back for more. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/6 "2015-03-08T01:25:17Z")
I’m a “free/cheap e-book” newsletter junkie - BookBub, eReaderIQ Daily, and OHFB, along with the Amazon Kindle Daily Deal and BookPerk (Harper Collins). That said, I generally skim thru the emails and don’t find anything that piques my interest. I do agree with **SJL4041** that there are diamonds in the rough - I’ve found books on sale by some of my favorite authors (Gail Carriger, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, among others) thanks to these newsletters, so I continue to subscribe & skim. I’ve also found some interesting books thru the Amazon Kindle First offer - _[The Bird Eater](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20420591-the-bird-eater)_ by Ania Ahlborn was nicely creepy; I also enjoyed _[The Moonlight Palace](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21558967-the-moonlight-palace)_ by Liz Rosenberg. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-much-of-an-mediocre-thing-or-how-bookbub-is-destroying-my-reading-life/714481/7 "2015-03-08T03:29:11Z")
Dammit. I haven’t worked through all my free downloaded Wodehouse, Chesterton, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Shakespeare. Don’t tempt me with more.