Which Kobo?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

I don't care about the comparisons. I shop at Amazon, the Kindles don't have SD cards, and it's none of Amazon's business about what books I buy. The same goes for B&N.

I have an Android phone, so no Google books, either.

I don't fill out or post any demographic info. I don't want loads of "suggestions" about what someone "thinks" I should read.

Kobo's taking over Blinkbox Books.
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...ustomer-lists/

So how do you buy a book from Amazon without them knowing that you bought it?

Shari

[Alpha o]

Hard copies. They don't keep track of those for suggestions. Most are not in ereader format anyway.

I won't buy ebooks from Amazon, Google, or B&N.

[Alpha o]

But other sellers don't have control over your device, either. If they goof like Amazon and B&N have in the past, they can't delete the book, they have to ask. They don't have software on your reader.

Project Gutenberg demands nothing, you don't have to register for Smashwords, I did register at Baen, and Booksamillion.

Creative Commons can also be used without registering. One writer, Cory Doctorow releases all his books that way. He's fighting DRM.

I've also bought from O'Reilly press.

[dickloraine]

All of them can delete the books from your account. They can't delete them from your device, if you don't go online with it. By the way, as far as I know it was only one time that amazon deleted a book.
What, you describe is more the difference between a book with drm and one without it. Books without drm you can backup, copy, edit etc. There are ways around drm, which would give you the control you want. Most books are only selled with drm. Regardless where you buy them, you will have this restrictions. Books without drm are no problem from where ever you buy them. So the retailer is realy not that important.

[GERGE]

And of course they track hard copies.

[Alpha o]

Hard copies only tracked for sales, not reading lists. You don't get a bunch of suggestions on what to buy next in your account or via email. I only see other stuff listed on item's page, and can ignore that. I don't have the Kindle app.

Google does try to do that, so I won't buy from Google. I have an Android phone and that is a service I can't disable. Google has the habit of putting free stuff in your account. Some users have been complaining they can't delete the "free" music of the day which gets put into playlists whether the user wants it or not. Apple had to back down from one "free" album.

B&N can track all the hard copies it wants. I don't have the Nook registered, and I don't have the software or account on the computer. They have no physical or email addy, so what are they going to do about it?

I use FBreader on the phone and tablet. Was the easiest app to find the directory tree with. I didn't like the organization of books by most apps.

No size limits on tree as far as I have seen. I have nature guides with over 1,000 species and you scroll by name, common, family, or latin species - so what's so hard about using the file tree system? Alphabetically by author is just fine.

[dickloraine]

Who said anything about the file tree? Anyway, if all you use is author name, then a structure by metadata is no different for your use case. Just sort by author?

It is hard to understand what you mean with your rants. You mix buying physical books in a store with buying them per amazon with buying ebooks.

You also know, you can opt out of the amazon emails?

[Alpha o]

Everyone raving about how Calibre sorts started me off. I'm not a fan of Calibre. I have it, I've used it, but I'm not impressed. I usually find non-DRM books. I think I bought two that I had to remove the DRM from and the others are not novels, but reference works that will open with Adobe Reader once registered. Registered on phone and tablet, the Kobo won't need them. *

On the Acer, I just shoved all the books on the external SD card directly from a folder on the computer. A lot of readers for Android want shelves, and just plain make it hard to find the books since they are not synced into the reader's system. If music and video players can find media on the external SD card, then so can some of these readers. I just want a plain list. I don't want shelves. These are independent readers so they might just be emulating the readers from Amazon or B&N for all I know. There are sites where you can read on the computer in HTML, you don't need a downloaded program so I've never used or downloaded a reading app from a bookstore. I think FBReader does have a Windows edition.

As for file tree - finally had to go through the reader to device>sdcard(internal)then EXT SD card to find books. Now the reader goes there automatically since it has the path. Not all Android readers will do that or didn't when I was trying them.

I tried Aldiko, Moon+, Cool Reader and a few more.

I don't get emails from Amazon. Only that mdse has shipped with tracking numbers. Amazon has never sent an email about what I should buy next. I've opted out.

Someone made the statement that physical book sellers do track you. I just said if you haven't signed up for their mailing list and paid cash for books, there is no way they can get the info for other marketing. Free offers will get you on a mailing list.

I don't participate in "free" offers. If I don't, then I can tell the seller where to go with a clear conscience. We did the math on the B&N discount card and found that for the few books we do buy, it isn't worth it.

I'm waiting for the reader. I've found out a whole lot of information - by the way - I did read the TOS at Kobo. I have a very good idea of what the reader will and will not do. I will play with it when I get it and ask more questions if I have to.


*The Kobo won't need the PDFs as they are meant to be used with an astronomical observing app which Kobo does not run.

[dickloraine]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

On the Acer, I just shoved all the books on the external SD card directly from a folder on the computer. A lot of readers for Android want shelves, and just plain make it hard to find the books since they are not synced into the reader's system. If music and video players can find media on the external SD card, then so can some of these readers. I just want a plain list. I don't want shelves. These are independent readers so they might just be emulating the readers from Amazon or B&N for all I know.

You don't have to use shelves. Your FBReader for example: You can give it a path in the options, where it looks for books. The metadata of this books is read and they are shown in the library. As a plain list, sorted by author as the default. Don't know if you are confusing that with a file tree. Most people I see here asking for a reader with file tree navigation do that, because they have an elaborated path system already (quite like shelves) and want to use that instead of doing it again. Plain author sort is no different for both methods and quite frankly, in fbreader using the library is much more comfortable than using the file system.

[booklover6]

You can have a file tree on a Kobo very easily. Just install Kobo Start Menu and KOReader. Not hard to install. Then you will see your files in author folders. Check the Kobo Developers Corner for more info.

[Alpha o]

Thank you for the info and the suggestion of developer's corner.