OK ... I confess, I'm confused

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Will it do all the books?? Including the Kindle azw (?) files??

I don't think it will, unfortunately. But if you rename the AZW to PRC, then it should handle them.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I don't think it will, unfortunately. But if you rename the AZW to PRC, then it should handle them.

Eh .... not certain I'd want to go through the trouble. But then, I already have a copy of Goodsync.

Not kidding ... it's a great program for making backups. And cheap too.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Will it do all the books?? Including the Kindle azw (?) files??

No -- MobiPocket Reader doesn't "see" the .azw files/books. It only knows .prc or .mobi

First of all, the books you purchase from Amazon are backed up for you at Amazon and you can download them again and again. But, if you're a bit methodical, you can also transfer them from the Kindle to your PC or to auxiliary storage attached to your PC.

I have the following:

1 - A 2G "thumb" drive with all of the books I have downloaded except for the Harvard Classics and those purchased at Amazon.
2 - A 120G USB "pocket" drive with all my books on it. I have also transferred all my books purchased from Amazon from the Kindle to this hard drive.
3 - A 400G USB drive which backs up the pocket drive.

#1 and #2 live in my backpack along with my laptop and go everywhere I go. My laptop has two USB ports, so I can mount any two devices (usually the Kindle and the pocket drive) and transfer files from one to the other.

Except on the Kindle, I keep the book files in folders with the name of the source. Therefore I have folders named MobileRead, Feedbooks, Manybooks, Fictionwise, Baen, TOR, Amazon, etc. I usually download to my laptop hard drive and then transfer the files to the thumb drive and pocket drive periodically.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Elsi

No -- MobiPocket Reader doesn't "see" the .azw files/books. It only knows .prc or .mobi

First of all, the books you purchase from Amazon are backed up for you at Amazon and you can download them again and again. But, if you're a bit methodical, you can also transfer them from the Kindle to your PC or to auxiliary storage attached to your PC.

I have the following:

1 - A 2G "thumb" drive with all of the books I have downloaded except for the Harvard Classics and those purchased at Amazon.
2 - A 120G USB "pocket" drive with all my books on it. I have also transferred all my books purchased from Amazon from the Kindle to this hard drive.
3 - A 400G USB drive which backs up the pocket drive.

#1 and #2 live in my backpack along with my laptop and go everywhere I go. My laptop has two USB ports, so I can mount any two devices (usually the Kindle and the pocket drive) and transfer files from one to the other.

Except on the Kindle, I keep the book files in folders with the name of the source. Therefore I have folders named MobileRead, Feedbooks, Manybooks, Fictionwise, Baen, TOR, Amazon, etc. I usually download to my laptop hard drive and then transfer the files to the thumb drive and pocket drive periodically.

Yeah, I realize that Amazon keeps a backup for you, and that is nice ... however, I like having a backup on my own media. I'm the sort of person who just KNOWS that there will come a time when I simply MUST read a particular book, and I won't be in Whispernet territory, and the internet connection will be down ,,,, silly I know .... but there you have it.

I have a 1.5 terrabyte backup server at my house dedicated to my artwork, documents, music and ebooks. I sync it daily to the main drives on my PC. It only takes a second, and I never have to worry about losing stuff.

I was going to set it up as a mirrored RAID, but liked the idea of a physical sync instead ... so, goodbye RAID and hello JBOD with Goodsync.

[sheureka]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I don't listen to music while reading and randomly playing the tracks in an audio book sounds like an interesting experiment, but not a very satisfactory way to follow the plot.

Now I'm confused - I use my Kindle for Audible books all the time (and therefore need an 8GB card). But I don't understand your reference to "randomly playing the tracks".

[Leep]

How do you organize your audio books on the Kindle card? When you turn off the Kindle does the audio book resume where you left off? Have you ever tired to download audio books from one of the web library services, and if so, did it work. I use my ipod most of the time for audio books, but, of course all the library downloads are mp3, and not compatible. Lastly, what kind of battery life do you experience between charges when listening to audio files on your Kindle?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by sheureka

Now I'm confused - I use my Kindle for Audible books all the time (and therefore need an 8GB card). But I don't understand your reference to "randomly playing the tracks".

It sounds like Elsi puts the MP3s in the Music folder, not the Audible folder. The music player is rather limited.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

It sounds like Elsi puts the MP3s in the Music folder, not the Audible folder. The music player is rather limited.

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Yeah, I realize that Amazon keeps a backup for you, and that is nice ... however, I like having a backup on my own media. I'm the sort of person who just KNOWS that there will come a time when I simply MUST read a particular book, and I won't be in Whispernet territory, and the internet connection will be down ,,,, silly I know .... but there you have it.

I back up the books from Amazon on my own hard drives. After mounting the Kindle, I just select the files and copy to my backup device.

My earlier comment is that if you try to use the MobiPocket Reader to "sync" your Kindle, the MobiPocket Reader software isn't aware of the .azw format files.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

If you put an mp3 in the Audible folder, it will be listed with your ebooks. But since you have that many mp3s, I don't think this option will work for you.

But you might want to try it with one or two because the audiobook player is nicely implemented.

P.S. If the MP3s don't appear with the ebooks, then you need to make sure the tags are set correctly. I beleive it's the genre tag that the Kindle looks for. It doesn't matter what it's set to so long as it is set.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I back up the books from Amazon on my own hard drives. After mounting the Kindle, I just select the files and copy to my backup device.

My earlier comment is that if you try to use the MobiPocket Reader to "sync" your Kindle, the MobiPocket Reader software isn't aware of the .azw format files.

I understand that. That's why I use goodsync. It performs a sync without reference to the type of files.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

No, the Kindle only plays audible files in proper audio book sequence. You can't properly sequence mp3 audio books to be "read" on a Kindle.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

Why don't you join all the tracks on each CD so you only have one file per CD? Would it be easier this way? You would have 12 files instead of 228. Are you able to select a specific file/song to play? (I have yet to use the MP3 player.)

Also, I am pretty sure .aa files are just renamed MP3s.

BOb

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Why don't you join all the tracks on each CD so you only have one file per CD? Would it be easier this way? You would have 12 files instead of 228. Are you able to select a specific file/song to play? (I have yet to use the MP3 player.)

Also, I am pretty sure .aa files are just renamed MP3s.

BOb

To be honest, I'm not really interested in using the Kindle to play audio books. I could see some value if one wanted to listen to a book at the same time she were reading the words. But not for my typical use of audio books. I "read" audio books at those times when it is not safe for me to be reading with my eyes. That's primarily when I'm driving. My car has a CD player, and I have a Sony portable MP3 player smaller a hotel room key. (In fact, it lives in one of those envelopes that Hampton Inn used to put my key in back in February.

So, for me, how the Kindle handles audio files and books is purely an academic exercise.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Why don't you join all the tracks on each CD so you only have one file per CD? Would it be easier this way? You would have 12 files instead of 228. Are you able to select a specific file/song to play? (I have yet to use the MP3 player.)

Also, I am pretty sure .aa files are just renamed MP3s.

BOb

aa files are most definitely not MP3s. They have better compression than MP3's and have embedded DRM. What makes you think they are mp3's?

Dale