Kindle Users? Share your advice!

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Kindle Users? Share your advice!

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1Fullmoonblue
Editado: Ene 1, 2012, 5:33 am

I love books. Real, tangible, paper, page-turnable books.

However...

My collection has fast out-paced my available shelf space, and my family decided to help me address the issue by getting me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. Which was incredibly thoughtful... except that, in addition to loving real books, I'm also not terribly tech savvy.

So I thought to ask for advice from my wonderful fellow book-loving people! (That's you!)

:) ... which is the extent of my tech savvy-ness

The Kindle Fire is a lovely little object, but one week later I still can't seem to access any reading material on it. I tried downloading free ebooks via Project Gutenberg, but the Kindle wouldn't open the files. I tried downloading a library book, but its '.mobi' file extension wouldn't open either.

I *want* to like this thing. I really do...

Help!

If you're a Kindle user, what have your experiences been, learning to use one? What fixes or programs did you need to install (and where did you get them) to open and read ebooks? Where are some good sources for electronic reading material, and what suggestions would you offer to a slightly tech-inept newbie...?

Thanks, all, and best wishes for a happy, healthy 2012!!

~Fullmoonblue

2AnnieMod
Ene 1, 2012, 5:37 am

I am a Kindle user but not the Fire... and I think it is different. And I usually get all my reading from Amazon (conscious decision which I don't want to get into arguments over) -- they have a lot of free books as well if you want it to be free.

Someone else will need to help with the non-Amazon sources :)

Welcome in the e-world. Just a word of caution - since I have it, I seem to be buying MORE paper books than I used to... ;)

3Fullmoonblue
Ene 1, 2012, 5:45 am

Hah! Now there's a downside that doesn't surprise me! While browsing on Amazon the other day, I saw a book I wanted listed as 'free to Prime members' on the Kindle, and a little voice in my head whispered, "do it! get a Prime membership! and then shipping on paper books will be FREE...!" ;)

4AnnieMod
Ene 1, 2012, 5:48 am

Well - I am a Prime member... :) And I love it.

The free shipping is always nice of course. The free streaming TV series and films are also nice (the popular ones are not free but a lot of the ones I like are... and then for some of them I would pay some small money for the episodes I want...).

The free to Premium members for books is a bit trickier - yes, it is free BUT you can have only 1 free book per month (at least for now this is how the system works).

It comes down to deciding if it is worth for you...

5leahbird
Ene 1, 2012, 10:46 am

I too got a Kindle Fire for Christmas. Like you, it wasn't something I was planning to buy for myself since I am an avid fan of physical books. But now I'm loving my Kindle, maybe a tad more as a tablet than as a reader, but loving that side as well.

As for free books, AnnieMod is right, Amazon has TONS of free books that are super easily downloaded. I've not tried Project Gutenburg yet, so I can't comment on that, but I've downloaded about 40 free books from Amazon already (hopefully you like classics if you want to score free books).

I also just got an ebook from my local library. The program they use is called R.E.A.D.S. (from Overdrive) and it is statewide (they have Kindle books clearly marked and separate from the other forms). See if your library participates. It took me a while to figure out how to download it, but in the end I figured I have to do it from an actual computer instead of the Kindle. I "check-out" the book on R.E.A.D.S. and it gets sent to Amazon via my email (somehow) and then I can download it to my Kindle from the "Manage your Kindle" page. You can keep books from 7-21 days, you choose the time limit.

As for the "free to Prime members" thing, I have been a Prime member for probably 5-6 years. I signed up because of the free shipping for my text books and have never found a reason NOT to have it. It's great. However, the books that seem to be available in the Lending Library don't really appeal to me. I've yet to find one I wanted to borrow. I'm sure the library will grow, but I would look through it really well before becoming a Prime member, if that's your main reason for doing so.

Good luck and I hope I helped a bit.

6rxtheresa
Ene 1, 2012, 11:40 am

I don't have a Kindle Fire but I have a generic tablet and I know that different readers allow you to read books with different extensions like .pub. See if the kindle fire (since it is more advanced) will allow you to access different e-reader apps. There are several e-reader apps out there. I don't have my tablet right now to tell you which one I use to read .pub formats but I will check on it. I know this locking you into the kindle book format is one of the reasons people buy tablets over the kindle though.

7jjmcgaffey
Ene 1, 2012, 7:59 pm

On my Android phone, I use Aldiko and FBReader for epubs, Kindle for most .mobis, and a few other things for odd formats. I also have Calibre on my computer (freeware) which does a very good job of translating any non-encrypted formats into one another.

Apparently the Kindle will (now) allow you to download other ereader apps from the Amazon app store (which should be an icon on your device).

For Amazon books (and I agree with others, there are a lot of free ones - classics, mostly. Search Amazon.com for 'kindle free') you need to register your Fire with Amazon so that it's linked to your account (I did it for my phone and two computers, for the Kindle app). Then you go find a book you want (free or otherwise) and on the right where the Buy Now stuff is it offers Buy Now with One-Click and gives you the option to download it to whatever device(s) you have linked to your account. Give it a couple minutes and it's there.

8RidgewayGirl
Ene 1, 2012, 8:20 pm

You know, it hadn't occurred to me to look elsewhere for ebooks than the amazon site. The Kindle is really set up to work well with amazon and there are an enormous number of free books to download--pretty much anything out of copyright, which is seventy years, I think. I find it much easier to read on the Kindle Fire than those old mass market paperbacks I have on my shelves.

9bkmbooks
Editado: Ene 1, 2012, 8:43 pm

Definitely lots of great, free classics available on Amazon but not that easy to find immediately - if you're already browsing Project Gutenberg and find something interesting, just search on Amazon for the kindle-ized version, you'll prob get the best download that way. Some interesting stuff I've found includes early PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Charlotte M Yonge, E M Delafield, May Sinclair, E M Forster, E F Benson, Isabella Bird, Fanny Burney….

The other big "freebie" category is the self-published "indy" authors - sometimes a contentious issue as many readers feel they “clog up” the market (and browsing/searches) with, at times, unprofessional offerings. Really depends on how interested you are in being adventurous in checking out the indy oeuvre :)

There are also a decent amount of low-cost, sale books available from the big publishing houses, again with some digging and reviewing the Amazon Kindle Store homepage - there are daily & monthly deals, plus "top-100" Kindle & Free book lists.

You can find lots of blogs and Amazon forum threads on free/low-cost books, but my recommendation for “one-stop” browsing for deals is ereaderiq.com. It’s a free site with many services, including lists of free e-books and monitoring of e-book price reductions by category, plus you can incorporate your amazon wish-list and they’ll e-mail you if any of those prices drop.

10bkmbooks
Ene 1, 2012, 8:49 pm


Oh, and you could google "The Magic Catalog of Project Gutenberg" which gives you a link for one document to download to the Kindle, which then has links to all the Kindle-available books in Gutenberg.

11auntmarge64
Editado: Ene 1, 2012, 9:49 pm

Unless you're into really obscure classics, Amazon probably has what Gutenberg has. At least, that's been my experience. It's much easier than downloading from Gutenberg, which requires downloading to a regular computer, connecting the Kindle, and dragging and dropping into the Kindle. If you're tech-illiterate or -shy, don't go in that direction unless you can't get the book from Amazon.

As to finding items, I find it much, much easier to shop on the Amazon website and tell it to send to my Kindle. Then when I get on the Kindle the items are automatically downloaded. It's easier because the website shows more info about items right on the search results page - things like translator - so it's quicker to see which version to click on. For bestsellers, it may be just as easy to order from the Kindle.

At any rate, don't give up. Kindles are wonderful tools. I might also suggest you check out www.kindleboards.com, where LOTS of dedicated Kindleholics share info and help.

12jjmcgaffey
Ene 2, 2012, 12:13 am

I've gotten some really badly edited (free) books from Amazon, and the same book from Gutenberg is better done. I've also gotten some badly edited Gutenberg books, and never thought to look for them on Amazon. It's worth checking both - though, yes, Amazon to Kindle is easier, especially for a technophobe.

13auntmarge64
Ene 2, 2012, 11:00 am

I just tried downloading directly from Gutenberg to my Fire. Even the Kindle (.mobi) version won't open, but Gutenberg does offer the option to read online, and by clicking on that link I can get the book to show up in the carousel as a website, and it can be added to favorites. However, this way of accessing does not keep track of what page I'm on, so each time I access the book it opens at page 1. Not a tragedy, just an inconvenience.

This was for an English-language copy of Kim, which Amazon doesn't offer free, so it's certainly an option for those items available free only on Gutenberg.

There are other "back door" options, such as emailing directly to the Kindle, but I haven't played around with them on the Fire yet. Emailing always worked fine on my regular Kindles and probably does on the Fire, but be aware there's a charge involved.

14AnnieMod
Ene 2, 2012, 11:27 pm

>13 auntmarge64:

No, that one is not there free... There is at least one .99 edition though and I have a version that came from a 7 novels pack (for 2.99 or something like that). I know I know... I am just saying.

Good luck in finding it in a good format.

15rxtheresa
Ene 3, 2012, 7:28 pm

The e-reader app that I downloaded to my android tablet and use for many different formats is called Laputa. Also one of the LT Early Reviewers books this month is free for kindle at the kindle store. Some nice member mentioned it in an Early Reviewers thread. I downloaded it this am to my kindle. Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh.

16Fullmoonblue
Editado: Ene 5, 2012, 2:46 pm

7, yes, one of my troubles was that I couldn't get Gutenberg mobis to open on the Kindle after downloading. I was afraid I was doing something wrong... perhaps I'm just missing an app or something.

10, "The Magic Catalog of Project Gutenberg"...? Wow. Have to check that out, just to see it!

@ 11, thanks for the link! I'll definitely visit.

I got it linked to my Amazon account, so I guess that's a start... Thanks for all of this advice, everybody!! :)

17rkchr
Ene 5, 2012, 10:20 pm

Call the kindle support line with questions. they should be able to explain any problem. Or put in your phone number for them to call you. They called my aunt the minute she put in her number.

18auntmarge64
Ene 5, 2012, 10:24 pm

One more tip:

There is an app available for Kindle Fire and other Android devices called Read It Later which can be used to download Gutenberg books. They won't show up in the carousel or in books, but if you keep track on LT you can make a note where it's stored. I'm sure there are other apps to do this, but this is the one I've been using on my phone and now on the Fire. As a plus, any items stored on one device are automatically available on your other Android devices, and titles can be changed if necessary (my download of Kim came in under a URL address as the title so I changed it to the name of the book).

19jjmcgaffey
Ene 6, 2012, 12:11 am

Huh. I've been using Read it Later for Twitter links - never thought of applying it to Gutenberg books. Hmmm...

20bkmbooks
Editado: Ene 7, 2012, 12:56 pm

Good discussion over on Amazon about interesting, not so well-known, public domain finds:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_et_md_pl?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum...

21brigneti
Mar 22, 2012, 1:13 pm

I'm a new-ish Kindle user (got it for Christmas!) and I was wondering if anyone else here is using any website for ebook-lending (Lendle, ebookfling and Booklending.com are the 3 big ones).

They don't work quite like Bookmooch, but there are some similarities (Lendle and ebookfling work with points/credits), and you have to manage an "inventory" of what's available to lend. I keep wanting to vacation users that don't respond (but that's not possible).

The main limitation is, of course, that few books have the lending feature enabled by the publishers (but so far I've managed to borrow and wishlist enough books).

Anyone else has experiences with ebook-lending?

22Bcteagirl
Mar 26, 2012, 12:47 am

I would get the middle ground expensive kindle, it can handle PDF's. You don't need one with colour/video for reading. Plus it will eat up electricity faster. At that point you are buying a cheap laptop, not an e-reader.

http://manybooks.net//

Is another good free booksite. As is Gutenberg, and Gutenberg Canada (which has more Anne of Green Gables for example).

If you do get a Kindle I can help you set your privacy settings. :)

23LEB5782
Editado: Abr 21, 2012, 4:55 pm

13 -- I found this thread through a Google search of the same problem. The Project Gutenberg books download to my Kindle Fire, but don't open. My plan for now is to:

1. Backup all the books currently stored on my Kindle Fire to a folder on my PC. (Any books from Amazon should still be on the Cloud anyway, but just to be safe...)

2. Remove the books that don't open from my Kindle Fire.

3. Import and convert the ebooks to .EPUB format, then convert back to .MOBI using Calibre. (If you don't already have Calibre, I highly recommend it -- you can download it free at: http://www.calibre-ebook.com.)

NOTE: When converting to .MOBI, click the "MOBI Output" tab at the bottom left and verify the "Personal Doc tag" in the "Kindle options" box shows "EBOK" -- if it shows "PDOC" the Kindle Fire will store it in Docs, not Books.

4. Move the newly-converted books back to the Fire.

That's the plan, anyway. I'll let you know if it works... unless I decide to simply delete the PG books that don't open from my Kindle Fire... re-download them directly to my PC, then see if Calibre can send them to my Fire successfully.

Either way, I'll let you know if it works. :)

24kaykwilts
mayo 30, 2012, 6:40 pm

Sites like PixelsofInk and ereader will list books that are currently free every day.

25Fullmoonblue
Jun 2, 2012, 8:49 am

Ah -- had not heard of those! Thanks.

26rxtheresa
Jun 2, 2012, 5:46 pm

Thanks kay, just joined Pixels of Ink and am enjoying looking over the daily e-mail of free and discounted books.