Author Topic: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle  (Read 6000 times)

mikefixac

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Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« on: April 24, 2013, 04:00:20 PM »
This is a take off on another thread about Kindle vs Libraries.

I'm just starting to learn this, but evidently with a free downloadable program called Calibre, I can download free books from websites such as Project Gutenberg, Google Books, MobiPocket to my Kindle in the Kindle file format.

Does anyone have experience using Calibre and have you been happy with the program?


Paul der Krake

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2013, 04:56:27 PM »
I use it and like it. It works on all three major OSes which is already a big win in my book (get it?). Very handy to convert books between format too.

Tip: so it looks like most of the Gutemberg project books are already provided for free by Amazon, they just appear as titles with $0.00 sticker price on the website.

grantmeaname

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2013, 05:33:24 PM »
I use it and like it. Do you run Linux, Windows, or Mac OS? I've only run it in Ubuntu.

JahWontPaytheBills

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2013, 09:21:39 PM »
Calibre is awesome. I use it and like it. With an additional plughin, you can also strip the DRM out of ebooks bought off Amazon. This way if Amazon were to decide you are no longer worthy of the books you purchased -and deletes your library- you can just load them right back on the Kindle...
« Last Edit: April 24, 2013, 09:27:10 PM by JahWontPaytheBills »

sheepstache

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2013, 09:31:47 PM »
Calibre's my favorite of all the programs that convert between formats and load stuff onto your device.  You don't need it to get the gutenberg books, free google books, etc., but you can use it to put everything you find in the correct format for your device.

That's really good to know about stripping drm too.

arebelspy

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2013, 08:09:46 AM »
I've been using Calibre for probably 5 years and have donated to support the author.

It's something I only open every few months, but it's very useful when I need it.
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mikefixac

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2013, 09:10:35 AM »
Thank  you so much everyone.

Now I'm motivated to learn Calibre and incorporate that in my life. When it comes to learning new stuff, I feel I'm a little slow, so I just have to take my time to make sure I get familiar with it.

It bothers me that a lot of what I learn in the digital world I forget. But one thing that I like is that if I learn one thing, it will carry over to other applications.

arebelspy

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2013, 10:22:56 AM »
Now I'm motivated to learn Calibre and incorporate that in my life.

I'm confused.  What do you have to learn and incorporate? It's an organizational system for eBooks (with some converting capabilities, and a few other tricks if you need them).  Think of it as iTunes for eBooks.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
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Paul der Krake

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2013, 10:37:31 AM »
It doesn't look as good on all platforms because it's built using a cross-platform library (Qt) instead of the native UI toolkits. t boils down to the author choosing ease and speed of development over prettiness. Like Rebel said, it's not like you need to spend hours in it every day so not a big deal IMO.

Wolf_Stache

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2013, 04:13:01 PM »
I love Calibre. I use it to put Smashwords books on my Kindle, and convert my own text files to mobi formats so I can read them on my kindle (in my opinion, this is one of the most useful features for quick docs you don't want to spend the time formating).

Vilx-

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Re: Calibre and The Amazon Kindle
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2013, 03:32:08 AM »
+1 for Calibre. I use it as a converter all the time (though I read on my phone, not Amazon Kindle). The results aren't always perfect, but then my source material is usually of poor quality as well. Plus, there's a myriad of options that can significantly improve the output.

 

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