Hello from China & a question (of course)

chinareader · 10-05-2011, 02:23 AM

hello everyone!
I'm an American currently living in China. I bought my Kindle a few months ago after not being able to read a new book for a couple of years. There's only couple foreign bookstores here and I'm disabled and no this place is not wheelchair friendly - so getting around to buy some books is been out of the question..

the Kindle is the best purchase I've ever made. I actually haven't used it much at all, because I'm swamped with work and other things that much, but I was able to use it a couple times when I was in the hospital. amazing.

of course, now the Kindle is turning into something that's just becoming a chore to deal with mostly because of my ignorance I'm sure.

I'm planning to go back in the hospital for couple more surgeries and so of course recently I've been trying to load up my Kindle. here of course comes the problem. I ran into these forums several times so searching for solutions - everyone seems so helpful. this isn't exact the specific forum but this is why I'm here so I will go ahead and post my pride problem because I see others have done the same.

two problems:

pdf conversion issues - duokan worth it?
Size of Calibre library - not enough room for duplicate copies

1)
I've read the sticky about PDF files of course.

My problem is I have several PDF articles that I want to read. is it worth installing duokan from here. I'm really afraid to mess up my Kindle and I'm not a hacker at all, but reading PDFs on the thing is painfully frustrating.
I've read enough here and on the Calibre site to know that converting from PDF to a MOBI file is probably not a great idea and can produce mixed results. I've done it a couple of times and it works well. But because I'm trying to load up in advance quickly, I really don't have time to check The results of each one of the files I want to convert. Do you think it's worth installing duokan for this problem simply for the better PDF rendering?

2) I've installed Calibre, but it wants to make a local copy of everything. Is this is is absolutely necessary? I really don't have enough room on my hard drive(SSD) for it to copy everything. What would be the danger of having it just use a library that contains all of my downloaded books(external drive)? or is there way for to load many things onto my Kindle from my download location without it copying them locally? (I have a bunch of books that I will load that I don't know whether or not I will read so I just want to load up with several options for when I'm sitting in the hospital)

thanks to everyone on this forum, I've already found some great advice. Hopefully someone out there can help me.

montsnmags · 10-05-2011, 03:35 AM

Welcome, chinareader. You'll probably get a few welcomes here in the Introduce Yourself section, but not necessarily answers to your questions.

What I suggest is splitting up your two questions and asking them in the relevant subforums here. For your first, give the Kindle Developer's Corner (<---linky) a go, and for the second try the Calibre (<---linky) section or its subforums. You'll probably want to read a bit there about your second question. For instance you might try the Calibre FAQ about library structure (<---linky).

Again, welcome.

Cheers,
Marc

Joybells · 10-05-2011, 05:25 AM

greetings chinareader - nice to have you aboard - and sorry to hear that you are up for more surgery. What an opportunity to read, though.

beppe · 10-05-2011, 02:17 PM

welcome to MR! and the warmest wishes for your health.
Reading PDF's is a problem with smallish screens, whatever software one uses.

ImogenRose · 10-05-2011, 04:45 PM

Hello and welcome to MR!

Imogen

MickeyC · 10-05-2011, 08:09 PM

Hi chinareader and welcome to MobileRead

chinareader · 10-06-2011, 01:22 PM

Thanks for the welcomes and thanks Marc, for the links. I have read the FAQ of Calibre of course. For now, I'll just do it all by hand and learn Calibre later. The Devcorner looked good and I found a bit there.

10-05-2011, 02:23 AM	#1
chinareader Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Beijing, China Device: Kindle3	Hello from China & a question (of course) hello everyone! I'm an American currently living in China. I bought my Kindle a few months ago after not being able to read a new book for a couple of years. There's only couple foreign bookstores here and I'm disabled and no this place is not wheelchair friendly - so getting around to buy some books is been out of the question.. the Kindle is the best purchase I've ever made. I actually haven't used it much at all, because I'm swamped with work and other things that much, but I was able to use it a couple times when I was in the hospital. amazing. of course, now the Kindle is turning into something that's just becoming a chore to deal with mostly because of my ignorance I'm sure. I'm planning to go back in the hospital for couple more surgeries and so of course recently I've been trying to load up my Kindle. here of course comes the problem. I ran into these forums several times so searching for solutions - everyone seems so helpful. this isn't exact the specific forum but this is why I'm here so I will go ahead and post my pride problem because I see others have done the same. two problems: pdf conversion issues - duokan worth it? Size of Calibre library - not enough room for duplicate copies 1) I've read the sticky about PDF files of course. My problem is I have several PDF articles that I want to read. is it worth installing duokan from here. I'm really afraid to mess up my Kindle and I'm not a hacker at all, but reading PDFs on the thing is painfully frustrating. I've read enough here and on the Calibre site to know that converting from PDF to a MOBI file is probably not a great idea and can produce mixed results. I've done it a couple of times and it works well. But because I'm trying to load up in advance quickly, I really don't have time to check The results of each one of the files I want to convert. Do you think it's worth installing duokan for this problem simply for the better PDF rendering? 2) I've installed Calibre, but it wants to make a local copy of everything. Is this is is absolutely necessary? I really don't have enough room on my hard drive(SSD) for it to copy everything. What would be the danger of having it just use a library that contains all of my downloaded books(external drive)? or is there way for to load many things onto my Kindle from my download location without it copying them locally? (I have a bunch of books that I will load that I don't know whether or not I will read so I just want to load up with several options for when I'm sitting in the hospital) thanks to everyone on this forum, I've already found some great advice. Hopefully someone out there can help me.

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10-05-2011, 03:35 AM	#2
montsnmags Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,155 Karma: 4632658 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: none	Welcome, chinareader. You'll probably get a few welcomes here in the Introduce Yourself section, but not necessarily answers to your questions. What I suggest is splitting up your two questions and asking them in the relevant subforums here. For your first, give the Kindle Developer's Corner (<---linky) a go, and for the second try the Calibre (<---linky) section or its subforums. You'll probably want to read a bit there about your second question. For instance you might try the Calibre FAQ about library structure (<---linky). Again, welcome. Cheers, Marc

10-05-2011, 05:25 AM	#3
Joybells reddit, reddit, reddit Posts: 184 Karma: 405760 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Oz Device: Kobo Touch	greetings chinareader - nice to have you aboard - and sorry to hear that you are up for more surgery. What an opportunity to read, though.

10-05-2011, 02:17 PM	#4
beppe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,161 Karma: 81026524 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Italy Device: Kindle3, Ipod4, IPad2	welcome to MR! and the warmest wishes for your health. Reading PDF's is a problem with smallish screens, whatever software one uses.

10-05-2011, 04:45 PM	#5
ImogenRose PORTAL Posts: 7,204 Karma: 2884640 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Kindle 1, Kindle 3 (3G), iPhone	Hello and welcome to MR! Imogen

10-05-2011, 08:09 PM	#6
MickeyC Grand Sorcerer Posts: 16,732 Karma: 12185114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Florida Device: iPhone 6 plus, Sony T1, iPad 3	Hi chinareader and welcome to MobileRead

10-06-2011, 01:22 PM	#7
chinareader Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Beijing, China Device: Kindle3	Thanks for the welcomes and thanks Marc, for the links. I have read the FAQ of Calibre of course. For now, I'll just do it all by hand and learn Calibre later. The Devcorner looked good and I found a bit there.

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