"Best" place to buy ebooks?

[gandoe]

I'd like to get information/opinions about the "best" place to buy ebooks.

Now that I have my first e-reader, I will be routinely adding new ebooks to my library. I had been using my tablet (Android with Moon+) as an e-reader, and sporadically getting ebooks from Gutenberg, Amazon, and various other sources. With the new e-reader (Note2), I anticipate a significant increase in ebook purchases. I currently use Calibre as my library manager, and routinely download any purchase and convert it to a standard epub format. This will continue, as I plan to add annotations to some/most files)

The genre's of interest cover:
- classics / "Great Books" / literature (e.g., Dickens, Austin, Lewis, etc.)
- Non-fiction (science)
- science fiction
- history
- biography
- etc. (it could be a very long list)

Does anyone have recommendations for the epub store that provides:
- high quality epubs
- verified translations or new releases of publications out of copyright?
- download capabilities
- format choice
- other factors that you have found to be significant?

I realize this is a fairly broad question; please don't hesitate to add clarifying factors.

Thanks in advance to your advice

Ed

[pwalker8]

Hum, I don't see that Note2 is associated with a specific book store. My guess is the best choice would be to buy ebooks, remove the DRM (google apprentice alf), put it in calibre and side load via calibre. Which bookstore is best depends on where you are and what you are looking for. IMPO, in the US, Amazon has by far the best selections and it's easy to remove the DRM. Of course, Amazon uses a DRMed version of mobi. But Calibre can convert that to epub easily enough.

Right now, removing the DRM from the Nook store is problematic. I'm not sure about the Roku store (i.e. Kobo). It's been a while since I bought from there. It's possible to remove DRM from the Apple Books store, but you need a mac that runs Sierra to do so.

My normal method is buy from Amazon, remove the DRM, convert to epub and download to my reader (I read mostly on Marvin on an iPad, but also on a Kobo Aurea (sp?)).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Right now, removing the DRM from the Nook store is problematic. I'm not sure about the Roku store (i.e. Kobo). It's been a while since I bought from there. It's possible to remove DRM from the Apple Books store, but you need a mac that runs Sierra to do so.

You can download an epub file both from the Kobo store and the Google Play store. It's easy to remove the DRM from those (not all of them are DRMed, but the releases from most major publishers are).

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can download an epub file both from the Kobo store and the Google Play store. It's easy to remove the DRM from those (not all of them are DRMed, but the releases from most major publishers are).

I assumed it was, but since I haven't done it myself, I though I would let someone else address the question.

[HLS]

Everyone sells the same books, kobo, google, kindle, nook but kobo is sometimes more expensive. dont know why

[fjtorres]

A lot will depend on your location.
And how insistent you are in buying epub.
Plus preferred genre(s) and publishers (if any).

Multiformat is not common.
Other than BAEN's ebook store I don't think anybody else offers a choice. Amazon is (various flavors of) Mobi, most everybody else is (various flavors of) ePub.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

A lot will depend on your location.
And how insistent you are in buying epub.
Plus preferred genre(s) and publishers (if any).

Multiformat is not common.
Other than BAEN's ebook store I don't think anybody else offers a choice. Amazon is (various flavors of) Mobi, most everybody else is (various flavors of) ePub.

Angry Robot (an UK science fiction/fantasy publisher) offers their books in multiple formats (DRM-free) as well. I've bought some from their website. Don't know whether they sell outside Europe, though.

[maddz]

If you buy a DRM'ed title from the Kobo store, you'll need Adobe Digital Editions to get the epub. As far as I know, ADE 4.5 hasn't been decoded, so you'll need an older version.

[gandoe]

Thanks all for your replys

Responses in no particular order:
- I'm in the US
- In terms of format, I have no bias towards any single purchased ebook format. After downloading the ebook, I use Apprentice Alf's magic plugin (if nec.) and then read into Calibre, converting to epub for standardization. (very similar to PWalker8)


My question was more directed towards "curated" e-book availability, in the sense of a high quality, true to original version. This concern was prompted by the August 2019 NYT article, which documents Orwell's 1984 (ironically) in various issues, some of which exhibit numerous errors, and others with "revisions" to the wording or writing.

Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/t...well-1984.html

I was asking if anyone has favorite curated ebook web stores, that offer high quality (non errors, well formatted, high res illustrations or drawings), true to original text ebooks.

A few that I know of include
- Standard Ebooks
- Five Books

I don't want to start ramping up my digital library, only the find the copies I've got are wrong. My reading time is too valuable for that!

Thanks again
Ed

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by maddz

If you buy a DRM'ed title from the Kobo store, you'll need Adobe Digital Editions to get the epub. As far as I know, ADE 4.5 hasn't been decoded, so you'll need an older version.

It has, I use it a lot and de-drming is no problem at all.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by gandoe

Thanks all for your replys

Responses in no particular order:
- I'm in the US
- In terms of format, I have no bias towards any single purchased ebook format. After downloading the ebook, I use Apprentice Alf's magic plugin (if nec.) and then read into Calibre, converting to epub for standardization. (very similar to PWalker8)


My question was more directed towards "curated" e-book availability, in the sense of a high quality, true to original version. This concern was prompted by the August 2019 NYT article, which documents Orwell's 1984 (ironically) in various issues, some of which exhibit numerous errors, and others with "revisions" to the wording or writing.

Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/t...well-1984.html

I was asking if anyone has favorite curated ebook web stores, that offer high quality (non errors, well formatted, high res illustrations or drawings), true to original text ebooks.

A few that I know of include
- Standard Ebooks
- Five Books

I don't want to start ramping up my digital library, only the find the copies I've got are wrong. My reading time is too valuable for that!

Thanks again
Ed

I see. In that case, I can't really help much. Amazon has the biggest catalog, but the quality of the books can range from well done to horrible, it just depends on the publisher. The library on this site has quite a few books and the quality of the books that I've download is quite good. Go to forums, then scroll down to E-book uploads.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by HLS

Everyone sells the same books, kobo, google, kindle, nook but kobo is sometimes more expensive. dont know why

They used to have a money back guarantee, if the book was cheaper at Amazon or B&N. Has that stopped? I wouldn't know, because I boycott them since they stopped selling me their readers. Well, I can get them but way more expensive and without any guarantee at all. So sorry, no more of my money for them 😉

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by gandoe

Thanks all for your replys

Responses in no particular order:
- I'm in the US
- In terms of format, I have no bias towards any single purchased ebook format. After downloading the ebook, I use Apprentice Alf's magic plugin (if nec.) and then read into Calibre, converting to epub for standardization. (very similar to PWalker8)


My question was more directed towards "curated" e-book availability, in the sense of a high quality, true to original version. This concern was prompted by the August 2019 NYT article, which documents Orwell's 1984 (ironically) in various issues, some of which exhibit numerous errors, and others with "revisions" to the wording or writing.

Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/t...well-1984.html

I was asking if anyone has favorite curated ebook web stores, that offer high quality (non errors, well formatted, high res illustrations or drawings), true to original text ebooks.

A few that I know of include
- Standard Ebooks
- Five Books

I don't want to start ramping up my digital library, only the find the copies I've got are wrong. My reading time is too valuable for that!

Thanks again
Ed

How about using the library? I have two library cards and between them I can lend up to 50 books at the same time. I lend a couple, read the first pages and if I don't like to read that particular book right away or find I don't like it at all, I return it early. Lending time over here is 2, 4,7, 14 or 21 days. Each of those two libraries has about 30,000 ebooks, plus newspapers, magazines and audiobooks. I pay a 6€ fee per year for one and none for the other

[gandoe]

Thanks again for all your responses.

Yes, I guess it is a bit of a hit or miss thing. The problem is, if I'm reading something new to me, I won't know if it's been "edited for clarity". I think I'll just have to pay more attention to the ebook versions and stores I purchase.

Thanks again!
Ed

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gandoe

Thanks again for all your responses.

Yes, I guess it is a bit of a hit or miss thing. The problem is, if I'm reading something new to me, I won't know if it's been "edited for clarity". I think I'll just have to pay more attention to the ebook versions and stores I purchase.

Thanks again!
Ed

You cannot buy an ePub from one store and find it's been edited for clairty vs the same ePub from another store. You buy the same ePub from different stores and you'll get the same ePub. There are no eBooks in any format that have been edited for clarity. You just have to buy the eBook you want in the format you want and read it. It is as it is.

What you can do is remove the DRM (if it has any) and using the Calibre editor or Sigil, you can edit it ot be as good as it can be for you.