help , for a complete numpty please

[calamity407]

my kids bought me a kobo touch for xmas and have now read the books that were on it , and bought a few, managed that fine . I then saw an ad for lots of books on e bay , 8000 for £1.53 , have got disc now , and managed to download on to my laptop , now how the heck do I get them on my kobo. Also on the disc was calibre , which I have downloaded and also winrar. Once I have done it once , I am sure it will be fine .

[Fehmarn]

Originally Posted by calamity407

lots of books on e bay , 8000 for £1.53 , have

Usually if it sounds to good to be true, it is 8k books for less than two quid certainly seem like that to me...


Check for disk for the file type ".epub".
If you have any of those, plug the Kobo into you pc. Copy an epub file of two over to the Kobo. Eject and unplug, the Kobo should then show those in its library.

Calibre is a tool to manage your ebook library and to convert between different formats for different devices. You don't really need to use it.

[calamity407]

A friend bought the same disc from the same place , we were sort of thinking , even if we only got 10 books out of them it would be a good buy , but having now seen , what books are on it , we are well impressed , if I could just get them on my e reader lol . Will try again tomorrow and . Will delete calibre then .

[NETLOLA]

Originally Posted by calamity407

A friend bought the same disc from the same place , we were sort of thinking , even if we only got 10 books out of them it would be a good buy , but having now seen , what books are on it , we are well impressed , if I could just get them on my e reader lol . Will try again tomorrow and . Will delete calibre then .

Calibre is incredibly useful; don't get rid of it. It can convert almost any ereader file format, to the one that you need, no matter the device, as long as the file is not DRM encrypted. Even then, there are plugins that can circumvent this. This becomes important if you ever buy another device that would have other ereading apps on it, such as an ipad.

For instance, over the years I have had one eBook reader after another, starting off almost 10 years ago with the very first Rocket. I've also had a device that read only Mobi files. With Calibre, I have managed to convert many, many books for reading on my iPad in a slew of eBook Apps.

[calamity407]

I will keep it then , I am very new to al this , but I will learn eventually

[soulfuldog]

Glad you are delighted with your illegal purchase of knocked off ebooks.....

Hope you see some sense and give some authors a little recompense by actually buying their books in future.

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Glad you are delighted with your illegal purchase of knocked off ebooks.....

Hope you see some sense and give some authors a little recompense by actually buying their books in future.

If it was off ebay, it was probably books that are old and beyond the copyright period. I've seen loads of ebay items like that, selling compilations of LEGALLY FREE ebooks.
At least ask him before accusing him of illegally acquiring books, your tone is quite rude.

[soulfuldog]

Fair point danskmacabre, I jumped to a conclusion without thinking, my apologies!

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by l_macd

Glad you are delighted with your illegal purchase of knocked off ebooks.....

Hope you see some sense and give some authors a little recompense by actually buying their books in future.

I've checked ebay and most of the books on the discs are PD. I think ebay cracked down on the illegal books, but then again it's a bit of a rip off since you can download all of the books for free (Legally) on so many sites (Including MobileRead). Especially if the books are in a bad format which they seem to be.

Jumping to conclusions a bit.

[soulfuldog]

Yes the thought of someone paying for PD books never crossed my mind..... still, I jumped in with both feet, no denying that

[coinín]

Originally Posted by The Terminator

I've checked ebay and most of the books on the discs are PD. I think ebay cracked down on the illegal books, but then again it's a bit of a rip off since you can download all of the books for free (Legally) on so many sites (Including MobileRead). But the books might not be as good formatted when you buy them that way.

Oh, not necessarily.

I feel it's worth a few bucks to have the work done for me sometimes. Think of how long it'd take you to download 8k individual files. That's time consuming, and I'd certainly plop down a fiver for something that saved me that much time, especially if they were quality files. So much of the Gutenberg stuff is littered with formatting errors, typos and bad speeling.

Heck, I bought the entire Wizard of Oz collection from MobiReference in the Kobo store in spite of knowing I could get them all for free... but the $1.89 - 30% for my coupon was well worth having them all in one clean file, chronologically ordered, virtually typo/spelling error-free because they have good proofreaders, and I did not have to download 15 separate books. I feel like my time's worth a bit of money, and I'm perfectly happy to pay a reasonable but small fee for a better copy of something I could get for free.

Some e-editions have better introductions, footnotes, commentary, etc... which, especially if you need it for academic purposes, might well be worth a few bucks to you.

[calamity407]

no worries people , the disc is binned , the kobo is packed away , and the 1st person that visits and wants it can have it . So I wont be buying books for it any more . I have never bought anything illegal , but have bought thousands of real books . I think the above offensive post did it for me , so have given up with it .Thanks I_macd, happy reading

[plib]

Originally Posted by calamity407

no worries people , the disc is binned , the kobo is packed away , and the 1st person that visits and wants it can have it . So I wont be buying books for it any more . I have never bought anything illegal , but have bought thousands of real books . I think the above offensive post did it for me , so have given up with it .Thanks I_macd, happy reading

Well, don't give up too easily. The Kobo is one of the better readers around and it can also be used for library books in addition to purchased books. That will become increasingly useful as digital lending increases. I've found it to be a worthwhile purchase so I'd recommend persisting with it for a while.

That said, I have relatives in the UK who might live close to you?

[calamity407]

lol , you might , I have just got a bit frustrated with it , have downloaded from the kobo store no problem , but cant keep buying books , it was supposed to make it cheaper for me . Its just so annoying that I have all these books on disc and downloaded them on my laptop fine , and no clue how to get them on the e reader. Will have the weekend off and maybe try again , we will see.

[plib]

Originally Posted by calamity407

lol , you might , I have just got a bit frustrated with it , have downloaded from the kobo store no problem , but cant keep buying books , it was supposed to make it cheaper for me . Its just so annoying that I have all these books on disc and downloaded them on my laptop fine , and no clue how to get them on the e reader. Will have the weekend off and maybe try again , we will see.

I second the recommendations for Calibre, it does everything I want it to do, and from the sound of it everything you would want to do also, including getting the books off your disc and on to your Kobo.

As far as not having to buy books one of the alternatives is borrowing ebooks from the library. Check out this thread for UK libraries that have eborrowing and what the enrolment requirements are.

Good luck.