The month of December (2010) marked my one year anniversary with my Kindle 2, International 3G. During that time I was able to read around 25 books, cruise the web, and post to Twitter while off the coast of Cuba. For the money and the size, it really is a great product. I’ve only had one issue, which I discuss below under the warranty area.
Can I read books not purchased at Amazon?
Every time someone sees me reading my Kindle, I get a ton of questions about it. This is the number one question and one I can answer — yes!
To date I’ve only purchased two books from Amazon (not counting free books) and read over two dozen. There are plenty of free books, so reading for free should not be an issue.
But I often simply grab books from other sources:
- Project Gutenberg
- LIBrary Project
- ManyBooks
- FreeBookSpot
- 4eBooks (Programming books)
- FreeComputerBooks
- Intech (Open Access Publisher)
- Memoware
- KnowFree.net
- Various individual publishers who do not want to push their content into Amazon
What you need to understand is that many books from these publishers will be in various formats (html, .pdf, .azw, .pub) and as such cannot be natively dropped onto the Kindle and read natively.
Enter Calibre.
What is Calibre?
Calibre is an open-source (free) software product created specifically to help you manage your personal library of eBooks. As of this blog post, there are twenty different files that can be converted and then targeted towards an eReader. In this instance, we are talking about the Kindle, which is fully supported as a target platform and a file format.
What file format should you convert to? Well, the Kindle currently supports TXT, PDF, HTML and their own AZW format (based on the MOBI format, which also works). For me the MOBI format seems to be the easiest to view and navigate, but really that all depends on the publisher and how well they build the eBook to start with.
To use Calibre, it’s as easy as installing the product, configuring it for your Kindle, grabbing some files, dropping them onto the interface and telling it to convert and load. The volunteers supporting Calibre have done a really great job with video tutorials and such.
Are there any roadblocks?
Some of us who believe what you buy you own, can take it a step further and purchase books from somewhere like (eBooks.com), which may not provide you with a format that supports your Kindle. Of course, you cannot take a file from them and simply drop and convert. There is this nice little piece of protection called DRM, which encrypts and protects the product from piracy. Now I’m all for protecting the intellectual property of something created and sold for profit. But placing DRM on a book is like telling me I can only listen to a CD in my car.
Recently I purchased a book called, “Start with Why” since it was not available in any Kindle version on Amazon (which now is for $6 more than what I paid for the eBooks version). What I discovered is that due to the DRM, I could not convert it to the Kindle and view it. So after five minutes of research, downloading and installing Python (free), and grabbing a script, I was able to remove the DRM and convert for my personal consumption. Will I share this file with anyone else — absolutely not, but do not force me to sit in my car and listen to that CD folks. And for those agencies wanting to throw around the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, there is an exception for eBooks, since I couldn’t get it on my Kindle for read-aloud function. Or, this was merely an exercise to see if that forum posting was accurate, and my name is not Dimitry Skylarov, so don’t come after me.
Warranty
Sometimes it’s important to know the bottom line. The warranty that comes with the device is good for only one year and has certain limits. Buy an extended warranty, but know you have to do so within 30 days (through Amazon) or within 90 days (from Squaretrade)
And yes, I have had one problem with a cracked screen that was fully replaced at no cost (the next day) by Amazon and their warranty program. Unfortunately, right now I am outside of warranty with no way to purchase an extended one from Amazon. Due to the fragile nature of the screen, which can break by placing it on the counter too hard, I’m extremely careful and a bit nervous when using it now. Not a position I should be in with a consumer product.
Update: Played with something fun.
This article has been Digiproved © 2011
