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Old 07-18-2013, 08:16 PM   #1
binkyblue
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What's the best device to buy for downloading free public domain books?
I have a simple telefunken ereader that works fine for Gutenberg but doesn't work properly for other sites like Internet Archives or Google. Thanks.
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Old 07-21-2013, 06:08 AM   #2
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I'm also doing that research. From what I found out so far most major choices will have some restriction on sideloaded (no DRM) books to make you buy from their own stores and hook you forever. The newest most popular feature being sadly used to this purpose by the major companies are social features like facebook sharing for instance.

They will lure you with the promise of 1000 features but soon you'll find out you need to use their own book to access them. In the same way I would not buy the gas and the car from the same company I'm not doing that for books. I'm strongly against this because its killing smaller publishers and authors.

So far I found out the Kobo is the best choice, the worst being kindle as you won't even be able to use the EPUB format.

Also, I use e-ink solely. I like to read and I like to feel it's a piece of paper and not my smartphone I have to plug in everyday.
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Old 07-21-2013, 08:06 AM   #3
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Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive etc have their books available in various formats, PDF, epub, mobi, html, txt. So for free public domain books, disregard the comment about Kindle being the worst because it can't use epub, really you should be able to use just about any ereaders for them.

I presume you are trying to browse and download the books directly to your ereader and aren't downloading them to your computer and then transferring via USB? In which case, I've no idea which is best or why one will work for Project Gutenberg and not books from the Internet Archive. I've downloaded books directly to my Kindle from both of them, and I just assumed that would work for all the main e-readers?
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Old 07-21-2013, 08:48 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Allucard View Post
So far I found out the Kobo is the best choice, the worst being kindle as you won't even be able to use the EPUB format.
The Kindle is very far from being "the worst". It's just as easy to get books in Amazon's Mobi/KF8 formats as in ePub.
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Old 07-21-2013, 11:18 AM   #5
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This is what you need.
Quote:
Originally Posted by binkyblue View Post
I have a simple telefunken ereader that works fine for Gutenberg but doesn't work properly for other sites like Internet Archives or Google. Thanks.
What you need is a free programme for your PC. You can get it here:
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Download the books in ANY format to your PC. Calibre will easily change them to the format you want and will upload them in the desired format to your Ereader.
BTW I think that the best ereader is the bog standard Kindle, available in Spain (where I live) for 79 euros. You CAN put books without DRM onto your Kindle with no problem at all using Calibre.
Calibre works with any Ereader. I have used it with 4 different ones.
Good luck.
PS If you need help with Calibre, look on Youtube.
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Old 07-21-2013, 11:22 AM   #6
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PS If you need help with Calibre, look on Youtube.
Er, no, look in the "Calibre" forum right here at MR.
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Old 07-21-2013, 01:19 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Allucard View Post
I'm also doing that research. From what I found out so far most major choices will have some restriction on sideloaded (no DRM) books to make you buy from their own stores and hook you forever. The newest most popular feature being sadly used to this purpose by the major companies are social features like facebook sharing for instance.
No, this is not correct. All of the major e-book readers allow you to add non-DRM'd books from other sources.
Quote:

They will lure you with the promise of 1000 features but soon you'll find out you need to use their own book to access them. In the same way I would not buy the gas and the car from the same company I'm not doing that for books. I'm strongly against this because its killing smaller publishers and authors.
This is not right, either. There may be some features that don't work, but there aren't many. Amazon even allows you to sync non-Kindle books across devices.
Quote:

So far I found out the Kobo is the best choice, the worst being kindle as you won't even be able to use the EPUB format.
You don't need EPUB; PG books come in other formats, including the Kindle formats.
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Old 07-22-2013, 07:13 AM   #8
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And most epub books convert to mobi quite well through Calibre. So I've found anyway.
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Old 07-22-2013, 07:19 AM   #9
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Plus the Kindle Store itself has a good amount of Public Domain books as well
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Old 07-23-2013, 02:03 PM   #10
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You'll find the best-formatted public domain books right here, on MobileRead.
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Old 07-27-2013, 12:13 PM   #11
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I'm a fan of Kindle, particularly the Paperwhite. Most or all public domain ebooks are available from Amazon, Project Gutenberg or other sources preformatted for kindle/mobi. Those in epub format can be easily converted with Calibre or other free mobi conversion programs.
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Old 07-28-2013, 10:58 AM   #12
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