KINDLE - Please help

Dublin Chick

Hi all,

This may seem a little basic but I am trying to put some books on my mothers Kindle. It is just the basic Kindle no touch screen or anything. Is there anywhere I can get books for free and can I drop and drag files from my computer onto the Kindle. I have the cable.

I know you can obviously get some books for free from Amazon but is there anywhere else I can go to?

Thanks so much!

DC

Torqay

Unfortunately, "drag & drop" doesn't work with such restricted devices as Amazon readers but you can manage the Kindle with Calibre, it will also convert formats which are normally not supported on the Kindle.

As for free ebooks, there is Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and Mobile Read, to name but a few.

If you have a Kindle 3 or 4, you can install Duokan, an alternative OS. It will not affect the original OS (you can choose which OS you want to boot) and it does support "drag & drop" as well as other formats (e.g. EPUB) natively, so you don't have to convert them into MOBI.

Celly Smunt

You can drag and drop files for free,however the legality comes into question.

Dublin Chick

Am I just being a Technical blonde but I don't understand. Have tried all those links and downloaded that Calibre programme but this is proving to be very confusing for me and still no books.

B0X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?node=154606011&field-price=0-0&redirect=true

There's loads of free books on their site if you want to look through them.

Or try http://manybooks.net/ and download the MOBI version. You can just drag and drop them on.

Lawros Tache

Torqay wrote: »

Unfortunately, "drag & drop" doesn't work with such restricted devices as Amazon readers

Yes it does.

Simply attach the kindle to the computer with the cable.
Kindle will show up in "My Computer" as external drive named "Kindle".

Click on this.

Inside will be a folder called "Books" (or "Documents" on first kindle model)

Drag and Drop the books into this folder.

Reboot the kindle, the books will "appear" in approx 1 minute, depending on quantity involved, as it refreshes itself.

Free books are available on sites mentioned and are good recommendations.

Other methods are available for larger variety, more up to date books. Google is your friend.

cml387

Go to
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top
You see the list of 100 top books.
Click on Les Miserables,for example
There is a link for the kindle edition with pictures.

Now connect your kindle to your pc and switch on Kindle.Ater a few seconds it will connect.
The kindle should appear exactly as a USB stick plugged in.
It should appear as a drive e.g. e:Kindle
Open Kindle, there should be a folder called "documents"

On the gutenberg page click on Kindle link (there is a version with or without images)

It will prompt you to save to a location. Save it to the documents folder on the Kindle.

Note the above does imply some knowledge of transferring files on a computer

Torqay

Installing an additional operating system on a Kindle may not be for beginners (although Duokan is pretty straight forward and risk-free).

Dublin Chick wrote: »

Have tried all those links and downloaded that Calibre programme but this is proving to be very confusing for me and still no books.

This tutorial should help you: Adding Books to the Kindle With Calibre

Calibre will do all the work for you with a few clicks. You will need to download books, add them to the Calibre library and then send them to the Kindle (which should be automatically detected when the Kindle is connected).

Project Gutenberg offer the books in their library in a variety of formats, for the Kindle you should pick MOBI, if it is not available, you can choose any other format (e.g. EPUB, HTML or TXT), Calibre will convert it. Just stay clear of books in PDF format, flow text readers - like the Kindle - do not handle them all that well and conversion rarely works satisfactory.

Here you will find more legal sources for free ebooks: 20 Best Websites to Download Free eBooks

P.S.: if you ever want a reader that allows you to simply drag and drop your books, get a Kobo!

Dublin Chick

Thank you all so much for your time and your responses, I gave up for the evening but will go back tomorrow and am sure after all your help Mum will be reading away!

Thanks you all again

MarkR

You can email .mobi files directly to you @kindle.com email address.