General question about eBooks

[victim311]

I have no experience whatsoever of eBooks so, please forgive me asking what must be a very basic question.
I have an Acer Iconia B1-850 tablet and rather than take hard-copy books on an upcoming long-haul flight I wondered if I could use the tablet to download an eBook or two before I go.
My tablet has Google Play installed and I am fairly confident about using that to purchase a book but what concerns me is will I be able to read it with the tablet in airplane mode.
Once the eBook has been purchased and downloaded does it reside on the tablet so that I can access it offline at any time?
Also, I appear to have 1.15 Gb spare storage capacity on my tablet. Is this enough to download say two novels?
Thanks.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by victim311

Once the eBook has been purchased and downloaded does it reside on the tablet so that I can access it offline at any time?

Yes

Originally Posted by victim311

Also, I appear to have 1.15 Gb spare storage capacity on my tablet. Is this enough to download say two novels?

More than.

It depends upon the size of the book, but unless it has a ton of high resolution pictures and/or embedded fonts most books are measured in KB or possibly MB.

[Apache]

It should work fine for reading eBooks. You can install Moon+ Reader for free on your tablet. It is free, but has ads. If you like it I recommend Moon+ Reader Pro. It is a great app for reading eBooks.
Apache

[theducks]

That Tablet has a uSD slot. Pop a 16G uSD card in there ang you can even have many Manga as well as more EPUB than you can read in a year

[victim311]

Thanks very much for these replies.
I've never used the app but my tablet has Google Play already installed so I assume I can use this to purchase, download and read eBooks? But, would I then be limited to only buying eBooks found through that app? If I find an eBook that I want on say, the Amazon site can I buy it and then use Google Play to read it?

[Dazrin]

If you buy books from Amazon the easiest way to read them is with the Amazon Kindle App (which you can get for free from the Google App store.) If you decide you like e-reading then you might look into more sophisticated ways of accessing the Amazon content but I wouldn't bother for a trial run.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by victim311

Thanks very much for these replies.
I've never used the app but my tablet has Google Play already installed so I assume I can use this to purchase, download and read eBooks? But, would I then be limited to only buying eBooks found through that app? If I find an eBook that I want on say, the Amazon site can I buy it and then use Google Play to read it?

You can use Google Play to buy books from Google (there are also some free books there too). Once you have done so, remember to download the book to the device or devices you want to read on. Just buying the book does not download it to the device, it just stores it online in your account. If you have a connection, this is fine, as you can read it from the cloud. If you do not have a connection, you will not be able to read it in airplane mode. So remember to download it.

You can add books from elsewhere to your Google Books library and they will be stored in the cloud and can be downloaded to whatever device you use to access Google Books (tablet, phone, computer). At some point, you may want to use another e-book reader application but the reader in Google Books is good enough for what you say you want to do.

Have a good trip.

[victim311]

Many thanks for all this useful information. I'm grateful to everyone who has answered.
However, I'm a bit confused regarding BadBilly's reply.
I've just bought an eBook through Google Play. Once I paid for it seems to have instantly gone into my Google Play library i.e. without me having to download it. I've tried switching on airplane mode and accessing the book and all seems well. Am I missing something?
Also, a question for Dazrin - sorry to be a pain - I've studied the eBooks section of Amazon and there's a button which says, "Deliver to Kindle Cloud". So, does this mean that I have to first get the free app Kindle Reader that you mentioned and then use it to access the Kindle Cloud and download the eBook to my tablet so that I will be able to read the book with the tablet in airplane mode? Have I understood that correctly?

[maddz]

As far as I can remember, once you have downloaded the Kindle app and linked it to your Amazon account, when you purchase a Kindle book you have the option to automatically send it to your registered Kindle app via your Amazon account settings (via 'Your content and devices' IIRC). I certainly see this behaviour on my iPad and I'm pretty sure this was the case on my Nexus when i was using it ay back when (I can't test this as it needs charging).

[theducks]

Cloud requires device access at some point to get a copy (Download).

Think of it this way:
You went to the bookstore and bought 5 novels (the shopping app).
Took them home and put them in the closet (saved in the cloud) .
When you want to read them, you open the closet (login to the cloud), take out a book (use a library/file app), Put it in your backpack (download to device), close the door (logout). NOTE: you have not yet done any reading

The device app to a CAPTIVE $TORE (Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo....) does this seamlessly for you, but only for Their store (there are hoops to get 3rd party books to pass thru to your device for some stores).

The whole purpose of the 'branded 'App is to DRIVE YOU to their store for purchases. See, Nothing is really 'free'. Your purchases really pay for that FREE app.

My Android tablet (TAB A), has Kindle for Samsung (they get a cut of the $) for AZW* books, Moon + (paid version)for EPUB, And Adobe reader for PDF
I use Calibre Companion (and local WiFi) to manage the DEVICES Library and Calibre to host the full Library.

For my K4, I use USB to transfer.
[rant]AFAIAC What and when, I read is my private business and I avoid tattle (always phone home) apps by leaving the device in Airplane mode. YMMV[/rant]

[Apache]

I have a Windows 10 Tablet and find it is easiest to install Calibre and read directly from my Calibre Library. My wife has an Android Tablet and uses Moon+ Pro. If you continue to read eBooks this is the correct place to be to get any of your questions answered.
Apache

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by victim311

Many thanks for all this useful information. I'm grateful to everyone who has answered.
However, I'm a bit confused regarding BadBilly's reply.
I've just bought an eBook through Google Play. Once I paid for it seems to have instantly gone into my Google Play library i.e. without me having to download it. I've tried switching on airplane mode and accessing the book and all seems well. Am I missing something?

I assume you have Google Play Books
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...oid.apps.books
to read on. You don't have to install another reader if you find the Google one adequate for reading books you bought from the Play store.

As an experiment, I just bought a book via the Google play store app on my phone. I didn't see any option to download or not. I put my phone in airplane mode, opened the Play Books app, and was immediately able to read the book.

I think (?) you only have to choose "download" if you are buying a book from your PC and want to have a copy of the book stored locally on the PC. I do this if I want to be able to sync the book from my PC onto my Sony e-ink reader, since the Sony can't get a book directly from the Play store.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by victim311

Many thanks for all this useful information. I'm grateful to everyone who has answered.
However, I'm a bit confused regarding BadBilly's reply.
I've just bought an eBook through Google Play. Once I paid for it seems to have instantly gone into my Google Play library i.e. without me having to download it. I've tried switching on airplane mode and accessing the book and all seems well. Am I missing something?

I'm sorry. I may have remembered the process incorrectly. As someone else said, this process might only be necessary if you bought the book on your computer and wanted to load to the tablet. I think that's what I did the few times I bought from Google Play.

[victim311]

OK. I get it now!
Many thanks to 4691mls and BadBilly for that clarification.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by victim311

Many thanks for all this useful information. I'm grateful to everyone who has answered.
However, I'm a bit confused regarding BadBilly's reply.
I've just bought an eBook through Google Play. Once I paid for it seems to have instantly gone into my Google Play library i.e. without me having to download it. I've tried switching on airplane mode and accessing the book and all seems well. Am I missing something?
Also, a question for Dazrin - sorry to be a pain - I've studied the eBooks section of Amazon and there's a button which says, "Deliver to Kindle Cloud". So, does this mean that I have to first get the free app Kindle Reader that you mentioned and then use it to access the Kindle Cloud and download the eBook to my tablet so that I will be able to read the book with the tablet in airplane mode? Have I understood that correctly?

If you buy a book on Amazon you can choose which device (if you have more than one Kindle) you want it to go to. It may be that if you have a device that connects for Google books that it may automatically download. I've never had a epub reader so I don't know for sure. On my Kindle account I usually send books to the cloud reader so that it (a book I've just bought) won't take up space on one of my devices unless I want it too.