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Kindle Edition of The Pragmatic Programmer for $2.99

155 points| matthewlmcclure | 13 years ago |amazon.com

103 comments

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[+] mva|13 years ago|reply
For the ones that are seeing a different price. There is a small trick workaround for that. You can generate a real US address here: http://www.realusaaddress.com/ and make that your primary address. As you as shipping digital stuff it doesn't matter that it's not your real address. Prices of the Kindle store should drop immediately.

Watch out when making non digital purchases though that you select the correct address ;-)

[+] KTamasEnty|13 years ago|reply
Yes you can use a fake US address and set your Kindle country to the US, but Amazon monitors the IPs (and credit cards) you are buying from and after a few purchaes to your fake US address, they'll start sending you letters asking for proof you live there and eventually lock you out (force you to change back to your real country) if you can't provide them.
[+] EliRivers|13 years ago|reply
And..... bang! It's easier to pirate it, so I will. When it's difficult to give someone my money, I just won't bother.

I am well aware that the world of international publishing is a convoluted mess (Charles Stross covers it well over on antipope); I'm not sympathetic enough to that mess to be willing to get charged such disparate amounts.

[+] Tyrannosaurs|13 years ago|reply
If the Kindle is registered to a UK device it blocks it at that point.

I used a proxy so I looked like I was in the US, registered a new account and it was all fine but it wouldn't let me gift it to a UK Kindle.

[+] jagira|13 years ago|reply
I don't get the difference in pricing.

Do Kindle books involve local publishers like printed books? (e.g A book published by Penguin in USA and TMG in India has different prices)

[+] jlarocco|13 years ago|reply
I hope this trend catches on.

Between my Kindle and iPad, I'd really like to never buy a physical book ever again. But then I still have four full book cases from before Kindle existed. I want to "upgrade" to ebooks, but I don't want to spend the money. At $3 each, I'd at least upgrade some of the better ones.

[+] jmduke|13 years ago|reply
I have this amazing dream of a facility where I can bring in boxes of books and they hand me back a USB drive filled with pdf copies of those books.

I don't know how or when that would happen, but it would be glorious.

[+] srs0001|13 years ago|reply
Perhaps, like purchasing a license to all forms of the work? I too would like to start purchasing ebooks, but used books are much cheaper than a kindle versions on amazon.

This is a great find though!

[+] salman89|13 years ago|reply
Awesome price, but worrisome for the state of high quality digital publications. I feel that this is worth much more than $2.99, and I am afraid that it will become a race to the floor .

Does anyone involved in print publications know what the cost distribution is on a book's sticker price?

[+] djt|13 years ago|reply
PG could you please change the title to reflect its only $2.99 in the US?

Im in OZ and it's $31.99

[+] rickmb|13 years ago|reply
$5.74 in The Netherlands.

Still a steal, but the painful part of this kind of opaque discriminatory pricing is that I would have bought it if it was $6 everywhere, but now I have to start wondering if I'm getting screwed (again( for being in/from "the wrong country".

For those unfamiliar with it, being confronted with the "you're from the wrong country" thing feels really, profoundly wrong and insulting, even if the difference is only 3 dollars.

[+] jacques_chester|13 years ago|reply
I wonder if this is yet another example of Australian readers being shafted by parallel importation laws, so that Tim Winton can make a few extra bucks.
[+] jentulman|13 years ago|reply
In the uk I'm seeing $24 dollars from .com and £15 from .co.uk
[+] chanux|13 years ago|reply
I bought 2 copies for $2.99. A friend in .ca told me he sees $31.99. I went there to gift him one. It was $4.99 by then. Gifted it anyway because it's was the best deal I ever had (It's worth the original price but it's a bit too far for me).

I have a Kindle connected to my account (My friend didn't) and I have a US address listed (I'm Sri Lankan).

[+] chollida1|13 years ago|reply
It's currently $31.47 in Canada.
[+] kroger|13 years ago|reply
It's not only in the US. I was able to buy it from Brazil.
[+] Dramatize|13 years ago|reply
Hmm. Went to click buy but it was still $31.99.
[+] djt|13 years ago|reply
If it is gifted then does it come from the original gifters price or the giftee?

Could be an interesting way to hack around it

[+] coffeejunk|13 years ago|reply
Germany: $30.65 in the US Amazon Store and EUR 24,94 in the German Amazon Store
[+] Bro_Merch|13 years ago|reply
I just bought it for $2.99 in WashingtonDC
[+] ak0s|13 years ago|reply
It's $4.99 for me (I'm in Russia)
[+] davewasthere|13 years ago|reply
Bit bummed that it's not available on Amazon.co.uk for even £2.99... Instead it's £15.30

Think I've got the physical book somewhere anyway. It's just now that I travel a lot, I like to have the Kindle version as well.

Seth Godin seems to be able to synchronise his deals/giveaways between amazon.com & amazon.co.uk... Shame this wasn't as well.

[+] droob|13 years ago|reply
Be warned that this is a very clunky e-book port -- they don't make much effort to adapt the sidebars and quotes to .mobi format, so you end up reading into the middle of them without realizing it.
[+] ninetax|13 years ago|reply
This is really an excellent book. I feel like this book was the pivotal thing that really let me see how the small amount of programming I knew could be so much more with the practices preached in that book.

It took me from "OK I get how to program in Java, but how the heck do I build this cool stuff I see everyday?" to "oh, if I wanted to do that I can see pretty much how I would build it (regardless of language)"

It's a must read.

[+] dbecker|13 years ago|reply
Agreed. I've read a few different programming books, and this was the one that did the most to improve my programming.

The material isn't incredibly advanced, so some expert programmers will get less out of it. But I think it's very worthwhile for 90% of programmers.

I would highly recommend this book to most people considering it.

[+] milesf|13 years ago|reply
I see a price of $31.47
[+] goochtek|13 years ago|reply
I see $31.99 in Australia. The interesting thing though is that the link has a referral code in it. Maybe the submitter is trying to make some money on it with some bait and switch ?
[+] alanpca|13 years ago|reply
It was reporting a price of $31.47 for me in Canada as well. I jumped on a US proxy and saw $2.99, then attempted to purchase. It wouldn't let me, and suggested I change the country associated with my Kindle application.

I changed the address to a US one, and the purchase went through. One of the positives of living in a border city with multiple shipping addresses, I guess.

[+] MattGrommes|13 years ago|reply
Are you looking at the Kindle version? Are you in the US? Might be a US-only price.
[+] lparry|13 years ago|reply
Yep, US$31.99 here in Australia. I was going to re-buy it (I already have a hard copy), but I'll be damned if I'm going to at that price. Regional pricing is such a scam.
[+] anonimo|13 years ago|reply
I'm midway through this book and I'm fairly disappointed with it. It's not a bad book, bu much of the advice in it is common sense. And the parts that aren't common sense aren't very convincing (silly metaphors etc). Some of these 3-star reviews do a good job of reviewing it:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-eb...

[+] rwl4|13 years ago|reply
Maybe they meant to type 29.95 or similar but somehow typed something like 2.995?
[+] eupharis|13 years ago|reply
By the by, for those familiar with the pragmatic bookshelf, and were hoping to get it without DRM on that site, this was published by Addison Wesley, not pragmatic bookshelf.

One wonders how much the authors' experience publishing with Addison Wesley led to their founding Pragmatic Bookshelf.

They do have a page for the book on their site:

http://pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer/

But the buy link is broken:

http://pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer/titles/tpp

In short, just buy the damn thing from Amazon.

I've used my Kindle everyday for two years. This is the first DRM'd ebook I've ever bought.

[+] iceron|13 years ago|reply
Affiliate tag? Not cool.
[+] rodly|13 years ago|reply
I honestly think people that complain about referral link are just inherently negative. A free link, that takes you to a promotion, that saves you money, and you want to point out that the guy who brought this to your attention, is gaining something positive, at no expense to you or anyone. You probably pirated the book too.

Thanks OP, great deal and I bought it.

[+] LoganCale|13 years ago|reply
God forbid someone else make a small bit of money off a sale in exchange for promoting it!
[+] andyl|13 years ago|reply
I don't agree. Was glad to get notified about this bargain. IMHO this is what affiliate programs are for.
[+] Nick5a1|13 years ago|reply
To anyone outside the US, you can easily add a second US address (or any other country) to your kindle account.

Go to Your Account > Manage Your Kindle (in the Digital Content section) > Country Settings > Enter any US address and click update

You will now have US pricing. You can go ahead and add different addresses in other countries and you can simply switch between them to take advantage of different pricing, because Amazon remembers your previous addresses. The country you have selected has no effect at all on being able to download the book, you can still download from anywhere.

[+] medell|13 years ago|reply
I'm in Canada and this worked for me, $2.99, and is now on my Kindle.

Some other Kindle book prices dropped in price as well.

[+] ljf|13 years ago|reply
Reading the comments/reviews on Amazon, and I was wondering what peoples take on this book is for non-coders?

I'm purely editorial/product (not project) management - but this looks like it could give me a rounded understanding of best practice.

Those who have read it, would you recommend to someone of my background?

[+] osxwm|13 years ago|reply
In the US, logged into my US Amazon account that is linked to a Kindle I see the price of $2,99
[+] SCdF|13 years ago|reply
Wow, so this is the first time I've seen one-click purchasing (It's not normally enabled for me). It's really disconcerting. Not that I want to (and it's only $3) but is there any way to cancel a one-click purchase? It's not obvious..
[+] jonknee|13 years ago|reply
Yes and especially easy for digital orders.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...

> Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you'll no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return, visit Manage Your Kindle, click the actions tab for the title you'd like to return, and select "Return for refund."

[+] goochtek|13 years ago|reply
Any US users want to help us foreigners out by gifting it for the $2.99 price?
[+] tomlogic|13 years ago|reply
Must have been a limited time offer -- I got a sample sent to my Kindle, and now that I'm ready to buy it's jumped back up to US$22.79.
[+] jnotarstefano|13 years ago|reply
Unfortunately not available to italian customers, who'd have to purchase it at 19 euros (23 dollars). Is there a legal workaround?