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Worldwalker · 06-10-2010, 10:59 PM

We all started out as newbies. Being a newbie is nothing to be ashamed of, so long as you correct that situation as quickly as possible.

Calibre goes on your computer. You're doing it right so far.

The interaction between calibre, your computer, your ebook reader, and your ebooks, goes kind of like this:

Calibre organizes your books. You use it to keep track of which ones you have, tag them according to whatever scheme makes sense to you (for instance, you might label them "mystery", "fantasy", "history", etc.), and load them onto your reader. You can do a lot more with it, of course, but I'm just touching on the basics.

Now things get a little more complicated depending on where you're getting your books from. There are a couple of things to consider:

The big one is DRM -- what the publishers call "digital rights management" and other people call "digital restrictions management" because, as someone (probably someone named RMS) pointed out, DRM manages rights like prisons manage freedom. DRM is what publishers use to make sure you can't read your books on any device other than the one they're registered to, can't lend them to anyone, can't sell them when you're done with them, etc. If you're planning to buy through the Sony store, you'll need to deal with DRM, and with Adobe Digital Editions -- ADE -- which is part of the DRM system. I'll leave the details of that to someone who actually deals with the stuff, because I'm a curmudgeon who's voting with my wallet, as tiny as it may be, and I will not buy a DRM-locked book. Calibre can organize and transfer DRM-locked ebooks, but it can't convert their formats, and of course can't buy them from online bookstores.

So where does that leave you? Well, it leaves you with a lot of independent publishers, like Baen Books, Bookview Cafe, BeWrite, and others who will sell you DRM-free ebooks. Quite a few of them hang out here, or at least have some staff member who does. A lot of indie authors post about their books here on MobileRead, scattered throughout various forums (I'm agitating for a "Book Fair" forum to collect them all into one place, so we don't have to go digging for them). The independent publishers have the further advantage of much more reasonable pricing than the big guys -- they sell ebooks at paperback prices (sometimes even used paperback prices!), rather than hardcover prices. Baen has the Baen Free Library, an insidious system where they give you the first few books in an SF or fantasy series free, because the devilish little schemers know that if you read them, you'll buy the rest of the series. They've sold me a lot of books that way. :/

Then there are the classics. That's my main source of ebooks: Right here on MobileRead, for one, and on a larger scale there are Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks, etc. Hundreds of years of literature there for the taking. They constitute the majority of the books cluttering up my reader. I'll post my big "where to get free books" list further down.

The best thing to do, I think, would be for you to snag a few books you like from here on MobileRead -- you'll want epub format, by the way -- import them into calibre, look at them there, and then use "send to device" to send them to your 900. The best way to learn to use any software is (IMO, of course) just hacking around with it for a while and seeing what it can do (aren't you glad I'm not an air traffic controller?).

Here's the list of where to find good ebooks free -- yes, legitimately and legally free, both gratis and libre:

Right here on MobileRead is a good start -- the ebooks are built by hand by MobileRead members, and in my opinion they have the best formatting. There are a lot of other good ebook sites out there. Here's my personal free ebook source list:

Public Domain

MobileRead - best formatting, limited selection (hand-built by MobileRead members)

ManyBooks - PG scraper, but sometimes has books from other sources, good formatting

Feedbooks - mostly scrapes PG, improves formatting

Project Gutenberg - the granddaddy of them all, phenomenal selection

Munseys - painful to use, but has books nobody else does

the Internet Archive - generally only the scans are readable

Google Books - most of the time, what's good isn't free, and what's free isn't good

Free non-PD

Baen Free Library - amazing selection; also, they will tempt you into buying books

5th Imperium - Baen CD collections

Other Things

Search: Inkmesh. Sadly, it's not a very comprehensive search engine, at least when it comes to free ebooks - it misses a lot of them - but as far as I know, it's the only ebook-specific one out there.

If you're using free ebooks, it's only right to give something back: proofread a page a day at the Distributed Proofreading Project.

06-10-2010, 10:59 PM	#2
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	We all started out as newbies. Being a newbie is nothing to be ashamed of, so long as you correct that situation as quickly as possible. Calibre goes on your computer. You're doing it right so far. The interaction between calibre, your computer, your ebook reader, and your ebooks, goes kind of like this: Calibre organizes your books. You use it to keep track of which ones you have, tag them according to whatever scheme makes sense to you (for instance, you might label them "mystery", "fantasy", "history", etc.), and load them onto your reader. You can do a lot more with it, of course, but I'm just touching on the basics. Now things get a little more complicated depending on where you're getting your books from. There are a couple of things to consider: The big one is DRM -- what the publishers call "digital rights management" and other people call "digital restrictions management" because, as someone (probably someone named RMS) pointed out, DRM manages rights like prisons manage freedom. DRM is what publishers use to make sure you can't read your books on any device other than the one they're registered to, can't lend them to anyone, can't sell them when you're done with them, etc. If you're planning to buy through the Sony store, you'll need to deal with DRM, and with Adobe Digital Editions -- ADE -- which is part of the DRM system. I'll leave the details of that to someone who actually deals with the stuff, because I'm a curmudgeon who's voting with my wallet, as tiny as it may be, and I will not buy a DRM-locked book. Calibre can organize and transfer DRM-locked ebooks, but it can't convert their formats, and of course can't buy them from online bookstores. So where does that leave you? Well, it leaves you with a lot of independent publishers, like Baen Books, Bookview Cafe, BeWrite, and others who will sell you DRM-free ebooks. Quite a few of them hang out here, or at least have some staff member who does. A lot of indie authors post about their books here on MobileRead, scattered throughout various forums (I'm agitating for a "Book Fair" forum to collect them all into one place, so we don't have to go digging for them). The independent publishers have the further advantage of much more reasonable pricing than the big guys -- they sell ebooks at paperback prices (sometimes even used paperback prices!), rather than hardcover prices. Baen has the Baen Free Library, an insidious system where they give you the first few books in an SF or fantasy series free, because the devilish little schemers know that if you read them, you'll buy the rest of the series. They've sold me a lot of books that way. :/ Then there are the classics. That's my main source of ebooks: Right here on MobileRead, for one, and on a larger scale there are Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks, etc. Hundreds of years of literature there for the taking. They constitute the majority of the books cluttering up my reader. I'll post my big "where to get free books" list further down. The best thing to do, I think, would be for you to snag a few books you like from here on MobileRead -- you'll want epub format, by the way -- import them into calibre, look at them there, and then use "send to device" to send them to your 900. The best way to learn to use any software is (IMO, of course) just hacking around with it for a while and seeing what it can do (aren't you glad I'm not an air traffic controller?). Here's the list of where to find good ebooks free -- yes, legitimately and legally free, both gratis and libre: Right here on MobileRead is a good start -- the ebooks are built by hand by MobileRead members, and in my opinion they have the best formatting. There are a lot of other good ebook sites out there. Here's my personal free ebook source list: Public Domain MobileRead - best formatting, limited selection (hand-built by MobileRead members) ManyBooks - PG scraper, but sometimes has books from other sources, good formatting Feedbooks - mostly scrapes PG, improves formatting Project Gutenberg - the granddaddy of them all, phenomenal selection Munseys - painful to use, but has books nobody else does the Internet Archive - generally only the scans are readable Google Books - most of the time, what's good isn't free, and what's free isn't good Free non-PD Baen Free Library - amazing selection; also, they will tempt you into buying books 5th Imperium - Baen CD collections Other Things Search: Inkmesh. Sadly, it's not a very comprehensive search engine, at least when it comes to free ebooks - it misses a lot of them - but as far as I know, it's the only ebook-specific one out there. If you're using free ebooks, it's only right to give something back: proofread a page a day at the Distributed Proofreading Project.