Kindle Help.

[Deleted member 21686]

My good wife purchased a Kindle for me as a surprise.
I was not sure I really wanted one but thanked her for her generosity (out of our joint account)
I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to books and when she's buying out M&S and Next I like to browse the book shop then retire to a pub to read.
But I thought new technology give it a chance.
Well I set it up and downloaded 20 free books to see how it went and to my surprise it was pretty good and I read 2 books over Easter.

I've now cut out the browsing and straight to the pub.

What my question is Can you download books from other places or is it just Amazon, also where do you get current titles?

She now tells me to get all the books I cart around in the Motorhome out to make some space and she even purchased me a swanky leather pouch to keep it in.

I think I've been done up like a kipper.

 

[Deleted member 3802]

best thing since sliced bread :dance:

 

[Deleted member 13543]

NOT kippered!!

No you haven't really, you have just got more space in your motorhome for essentials like food and booze!! I have got about 200 titles on mine - imagine the space and weight THAT lot would take up in the form of books!

Some Kindle titles are cheaper than buying the actual book. As for other sites, there are quite a few out there, take a look here:

Where to Get DRM-free eBooks for Kindle, Sony, Nook, and other eReaders | The eBook Reader Blog - eReader and Tablet Reviews and News

I don't have any idea how up to date Amazon are with new titles, as I tend to look for the bargain ones!! I like to get ones that are either free, or cheaper than a charity shop, unless it's something I really, really want like the latest Phil Rickman!

The other advantage that a Kindle has is that you can make the print bigger, which can make reading glasses unnecessary.

A word of warning: do NOT let your wife near your Kindle!! I let my husband use it once, and he was hooked!! I now have a selection of books on it for him, and he can use it during the day. I have it when he is snoozing, or at night.

Happy reading!!

 

[Kontiki]

We still use our Dell PDA's for reading books, I have a few thousand books mainly in LIT format. I use a program called Calibre calibre - E-book management to convert other formats. I can usually find almost any book with a quick search of the internet.

Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZOutput Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, HTMLZ, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ

Not sure what the file format is for Kindle, but there is probably a program that will let you convert to that format.

 

[Deleted member 9215]

Look on eBay & type in Ebook or Epup & you can get disks with 1000,s of books for under £10

Dunk

 

[John H]

We've got two! As has been said, the space you save on books can now be given over to more essential items such as the old vin rouge (only kidding - I love traditional books but if you spend much of your time travelling then the Kindle is a great boon). In addition to the sites already mentioned, you will find a lot of good stuff (especially if you like the classics) for free on projectgutenberg.com - ebooks . Happy reading.

 

[Minisorella]

We've got two as well! Exactly as Kernowprickles warned, I made the mistake of letting my husband borrow mine and he too was hooked! I had to buy him one for his birthday just 2 months after he bought mine for my birthday! Brilliant bit of kit for camping or other holidays and I never leave home without popping mine in my bag, in case I stop for a coffee somewhere or have to spend time in a waiting room or at a bus stop

I think everyone's already covered where to find free books and there are so many great ones out there. You can buy ebooks from Waterstones and other bookshops, as well as from Amazon and you can subscribe to their newsletters so that you know when the latest releases are issued. It's the easiest process in the world to buy from Amazon though... once you've registered your Kindle and have an Amazon logon, your book arrives on your Kindle in seconds. Also, I understand Amazon are happy for you to register more than one Kindle and share books between them.

Here's an interesting point to debate...

All my life I've been happy to buy a book, read it and then pass it on to a friend or a charity shop or leave it on a park bench with a Bookcrossing sticker on it. I've never had a guilty conscience about this. I now share ebooks with friends, yet there seem to be far more rules and regs and copyright issues surrounding these little data files than apply to the originals and I feel as though I'm doing something wrong. What does everyone think about sharing ebooks and does anyone know the legalities involved?

 

[fairytooth]

All my life I've been happy to buy a book, read it and then pass it on to a friend or a charity shop or leave it on a park bench with a Bookcrossing sticker on it. I've never had a guilty conscience about this. I now share ebooks with friends, yet there seem to be far more rules and regs and copyright issues surrounding these little data files than apply to the originals and I feel as though I'm doing something wrong. What does everyone think about sharing ebooks and does anyone know the legalities involved?

I have seen people posting their entire collection of 3000+ books on the net for anyone to download so I wouldn't worry too much. The publishers try to take care of it by using DRM (making it hard to copy from one device to another) but it is also possible to overcome all that too with other free software.

:rolleyes2:

 

[tugga]

If you use Calibre to convert any books that anyone sends you via the email, you need to use AZW or MOBI formats. The latest version of Calibre is brilliant and well worth downloading. Also, if you have 2 Kindles, then using Calibre to back up both of them means you can swap books from one Kindle to the other so easily.

I have found that most of the authors I like, their e-books are pretty much the same price on whatever website you go onto, never tried Ebay though. Think I will go and have a look and see whats out there.

Cheryl

 

[Viktor]

There are a number of sites on the web still allowing downloading of scanned ebooks - from the complete works of Agatha Christie to Danielle Steel, and from Raymond E. Feist to J.K. Rowling..... if you know where to look it's possible not to need to buy another ebook for years.....be careful though
as most of them are still copyrighted.

If you scan your own into pdf or tiff format you can then convert those to mobi for the kindle (or smart phone with kindle app), using Calibre...
all round you win because you can also use the pdf ebooks on your PC (for example maps and scanned tourist leaflets).

 

[oldish hippy]

We still use our Dell PDA's for reading books, I have a few thousand books mainly in LIT format. I use a program called Calibre calibre - E-book management to convert other formats. I can usually find almost any book with a quick search of the internet.

Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZOutput Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, HTMLZ, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ

Not sure what the file format is for Kindle, but there is probably a program that will let you convert to that format.

i find this ok with a pda acer n35 with tom tom and use calibre

Download the free Mobipocket eBook Reader software to read on your PDA and Smartphone.

ps there are some free book there dont know what they like havent browsed through them
got a hdd given to me as it was a old ide 80 gig external storage drive when i ftted him a bigger one in the case and it was loaded with books well he said he was running out of space so copied his drive over and aquired a libary lol

 

[Thorgrim]

If you use Calibre to convert any books that anyone sends you via the email, you need to use AZW or MOBI formats. The latest version of Calibre is brilliant and well worth downloading. Also, if you have 2 Kindles, then using Calibre to back up both of them means you can swap books from one Kindle to the other so easily.

I have found that most of the authors I like, their e-books are pretty much the same price on whatever website you go onto, never tried Ebay though. Think I will go and have a look and see whats out there.

Cheryl

My wife and I both have kindles as we read voraciously and can carry a vast library around with us. I am a fan of old and obscure fantasy and science fiction such as Asimov and Heinlein or E. Doc Smyth, these books are no longer in print and can only be got second hand from eBay/amazon or as free downloads from similar fans sharing their collections as files. For me this is the greatness of kindle as it enables you to have an almost limitless library, encouraging variation from ones usuall authors or genres.

 

[Deleted member 21686]

As usual this forum has not let me down.

Great information from you all and I am beginning to see the benifit of Kindle now.

I am amazed how cheaply you can aquire the books of top authors on the likes of Ebay.

I will miss looking for those bargain books around town though. Well it wont hurt to look I suppose.

Thanks all for the info.

I shall come back if I have any technical questions.

 

[Thorgrim]

As usual this forum has not let me down.

Great information from you all and I am beginning to see the benifit of Kindle now.

I am amazed how cheaply you can aquire the books of top authors on the likes of Ebay.

I will miss looking for those bargain books around town though. Well it wont hurt to look I suppose.

Thanks all for the info.

I shall come back if I have any technical questions.

The books on eBay you are referring to are being sold without money going to the author, so you have to make the choice as to wether you agree with that or not. In my opinion it is a personal choice.
However please do not give an eBay seller money for these files as you can just as easily download them yourself from a file sharing site in the same manor as the EBay seller originally has.