[Gmac]

Long story short, I got a new kindle recently.

What's the easiest way to go about compiling a new, free library?

Legitimately or otherwise. I'm a cheap bastard after all.

Thanks. Feel free to email me: [email protected]

[Lothario]

Howdy Gmac: Lots of Free e-books are available at Amazon mostly classic.....

For newer books or I guess books you would be looking for search and download via Torrent on your computer and transfer to your Kindle, Only difference will be books will be in a PDF Format and I prefer to read PDF files sideways with a little enlarged text (Personal Preference)

Any questions PM me.......

[Enfant_Terrible]

Many books that you might be interested in might be torrented at this point. You can download them on .pdf or .mobi format
just google "title of book + ebook/mobi/pdf"

[T and A Man]

I was waiting for this sort of thread.

Legally, many classics are readily available as copyright is usually 50-70 years after the death of the author, depending on the jurisdiction.

http://www.archive.org
http://www.gutenberg.org
http://www.digitalbookindex.org

are the two most comprehensive, though the latter has a LOT of obscure and esoteric manuals, namely stuff like 1920's textbooks

ebooks.addelaide.edu.au us a good site because Australian copyright up to 2005 had death+50 year, 70 years is usually the norm. So stuff like George Orwell can be obtained.

Illegally, toerrents can get you most things.

[mofo]

delete

[K-man]

Go to piratebay.org, type "kindle" and take your pick from many book collections, several hundred in each, that will last you years. Great books mixed with rubbish, of course - but you don't have to read them all. Just select those you like and drag-and-drop them in the "Documents" folder on your kindle.
And they are not PDF, but formatted for the kindle.

Now, if searching for a specific book, it's best to go straight to Amazon and spend those $10.

[basil]

Don't be to fussy about only downloading only in formats kindle will read (mobi and azw).

Instead download http://calibre-ebook.com/ and convert to .mobi
Then follow K-man's advice on how to add it to your kindle via USB, or if like me you cant be bothered doing that and you have your kindle connected to WiFi follow the guide here so you can email a file to your kindle and it will download it over WiFi for free.
If you find Calibre a bit intimidating to use then check out http://ebook.hamstersoft.com/ which basically uses the open source code from Calibre but strips away most of the complicated options and make it a lot easier to use.

[PDX]

Aren't libraries starting to loan out "books" in the .mobi format? Seems a more reasonable path than pirating.

[Stitch]

Calibre is fantastic; highly recommended. And since it can do conversion, many libraries lend in .epub format, so you can do that (it's also incidentally trivial to strip DRM off epub books). Heck, the Gutenberg project could provide reading material for life.

[rvz77]

found a site called theebooksbay

[alecks]

gmac,

is the kindle worth the money?
performance?

[basil]

Performance, the thing about basic kindle (not talking about Fires) is they are for reading, they perform fast enough for you to read on, faster than you can individually turn a page on a paperback. They dont need to be faster.
If you want a device that is going to let you carry around hundreds of books without the bulk, make it easy to hilight and review the nuggets of information in a book and review, make it so you read more because its an enjoyable experience, you can sample new books for free that otherwise you might not have checked out. Then hell yes its worth it. Shit I'd have paid hundreds for mine. However if you read three books a year - dont bother.

[PDX]

$79 for the basic one.

The weight and space it saves when traveling is worth that.

[alecks]

sweet,probably worth it.

can prob download the majority of the books for free anyway

[T and A Man]

Personally, I have a Kobo, pushing the open source agenda.

The feel of it versus a real book isn't quite the same. That's easy to conceive, though the difference is not as pronounced as I imagined prior to purchase. In fact I find I prefer a universal single page spread all the time, instead of a double page spread where you have concave distortions towards the binding. It's also a lot easier to illuminate with a night lamp.

One thing I would recommend it for, for harnessing intellect is that it IS a perpetual reference library at your finger tips. Don't discount the 'if you only read 3 books a year, it may not me worth it". It's the point of having book-marked sections at your finger tips at all times. Youn find you need refreshers from 'Bang' if your game slips a little, get a copy on your eReader and refer to it when needed. it is equally valuable, if not moreso, to have copies of books you have already read and keep refering to, for the reduction in the encumberance alone.

The ability to have thousands of books at your disposal for less than 180 grams and 600 square centimetres is an astonishing luxury.

[Iceinthewater]

I have one. I got a one month membership to filesonic and got a huge library of stuff - mostly business/marketing related. It's def. not the same as a real book, but if you're interested in informational books, kindle is an awesome tool. The mobility, volume of info it stores, and lack of eye strain are my favorite things about it.

theebookbay is great!

[basil]

(01-10-2012 07:44 PM)basil Wrote:  

Download http://calibre-ebook.com/ and convert to .mobi
Then follow K-man's advice on how to add it to your kindle via USB, or if like me you cant be bothered doing that and you have your kindle connected to WiFi follow the guide here so you can email a file to your kindle and it will download it over WiFi for free.
If you find Calibre a bit intimidating to use then check out http://ebook.hamstersoft.com/ which basically uses the open source code from Calibre but strips away most of the complicated options and make it a lot easier to use.

Update:
Amazon may just have made things a shit load easier with this new bit of software they put out for PC users - http://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle
Basically you right click on a file it, click sent to kindle and it opens a box kinda like when you want to print. Give it the ok, the program converts it to native kindle format (azw) and sends it free to your kindle via wifi.
So far have tested with a mobi, pdf and word doc, results seem really good.
At this stage I'd suggest you un-check the box that says Archive Document in Your Kindle Library. The advatage of archiving I belive would be that you should be able to read and sync the document across not only your kindle but also kindle apps for smartphones and also the kindle cloud reader so you can read online. However this is possible because your document would be stored on amazons servers or 'cloud', if your document is an illegal copy, issues may in the future arise.
Check it out. Makes the whole process incredibly easy. You can have a downloaded file in almost any format on your kindle in bit over a minute, no hassle.

[WesternCancer]

you can put pdfs straight on the kindle you just have to read it horizontally (you can change the screen to do so. use the pirate bay to get every book EVER. there are torrents for the kindle themselves like 6k books. the hardest part will be choosing which one to read!

[Laner]

Thanks Basil. That really makes things easy for sure.

I have to use calibre at the moment as I am plugged into the net and not using wifi.

I still think calibre is great though.

However, being able to right click and send to my kindle is very slick.

[[email protected]]

Asking piracy advice to steal cheap ebooks..... on the forum of a guy who makes his living primarily though the selling of said cheap ebooks.

I suppose the irony escaped you entirely when you posted the thread.

[Gmac]

(01-11-2012 06:53 PM)alecks Wrote:  

gmac,

is the kindle worth the money?
performance?

I love it. Does everything I need it to, battery life is good, it's fast, and easy to read and carry around. Easy downloading free/pay for books with the one click feature. I read it daily on the metro and it's extremely convenient to resume where you were on any book you've read. I just bought the first 4 books of the "Game of Thrones" series, and I've got a ton of classics now. Good stuff, highly recommend the original kindle.

[xmlenigma]

Is it possible to read these Kindle books on a Windows / Mac laptop?

[xmlenigma]

(01-11-2012 12:07 AM)Stitch Wrote:  

Calibre is fantastic; highly recommended. And since it can do conversion, many libraries lend in .epub format, so you can do that (it's also incidentally trivial to strip DRM off epub books). Heck, the Gutenberg project could provide reading material for life.

Which libraries are lending in .epub? How does one join them?

[PDX]

Anyone know how to get an English definition of a word if you're reading something in Spanish?