12-21-2010, 10:32 PM | #1 |
Master of Disaster
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buying digital books
Out of curiosity I tried checking out the Sony online bookstore (since I have the PRS-505) as I have never yet actually bought a digital book (I've read lots of free ones though) to check out what all the hubbub is about, and to check out the offer in case I was ever unable to find the book I wanted for free, and was shocked to discover how incredibly poorly stocked it was ! I tried a smattering of some of my favorite books (Robert Asprin "Myth Adventures", John Varley "Gaea", John Brosnan "Skylords") and almost none of them were on offer ! I knew the Sony store had a reputation for being poorly equipped in comparison to Amazon but this is ridiculous ! I'll stick with s thank you ! It seems they want me to as well !
Still, do you know of a well stocked online bookstore that has non-DRM books compatible with the Sony Reader ? Or a way to read Amazon's books on my e-reader or computer without installing that stupid disgusting "Kindle for PC" ? And the concept of selling books for only one reader (your own ) disgusts and irritates me, the choice of readers and books should be totally independent ! Last edited by Enkidu of Abydos; 12-21-2010 at 10:35 PM. |
12-22-2010, 09:55 PM | #2 |
Karma Kameleon
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Google calibre plugging drm tools v3
Buy from Amazon, convert to ePub, read on your Sony Lee |
12-23-2010, 08:04 AM | #3 |
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Your model is the PRS-505, so do you have the upgrade that allows you to read ePub books? Or what format are you looking for things in?
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12-23-2010, 08:07 AM | #4 |
Wizard
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If you can read epub then you can shop around. Kobo books is well stocked and I believe that Borders also offers epub.
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12-23-2010, 10:41 AM | #5 |
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But the OP asked for non-DRM ebooks. Both of those stores use DRM (Kobo claims to have some non-DRM books but I've never found one and my question to their customer service people remains unanswered).
Last edited by Hatgirl; 12-23-2010 at 10:58 AM. |
12-23-2010, 12:32 PM | #6 | |
Master of Disaster
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Quote:
I'm generally looking for anything I can open in Book Designer and convert to any other format for reading on my computer or my e-reader (I usually get books as .lit, .rtf or .doc and convert to .lrf for reading on my e-reader). Can Book Designer open .epub files ? |
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12-23-2010, 01:04 PM | #7 | |
Guru
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Quote:
I beleive there's only one firmware update for the 505 - the one that adds support for ePub, so your reader should be able to handle this format. |
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12-23-2010, 01:41 PM | #8 |
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12-23-2010, 02:19 PM | #9 | |
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Quote:
(as in, there are quite a few legal DRM-free epub sites out there) |
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12-24-2010, 06:20 AM | #10 |
Master of Disaster
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Still can't read'em on my computer though.
Anyone know a good app similar to Book Designer that can convert various book formats and open epub ? Preferably free ? |
12-24-2010, 07:17 AM | #11 | |
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Quote:
You can also use Calibre by Kovid Goyal (also great, free, open source and multiplatform) to manage your library and perform format-shifting operations. Calibre includes a multi-format ebook viewer. |
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12-24-2010, 07:19 AM | #12 |
01000100 01001010
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If you have text, HTML, or RTFs, I really like Atlantis word processor for its simple UI. It's based on Word, but streamlined, and there's a "Save as Ebook" option that gives you a nice EPUB. Costs $30 (the trial version doesn't have the EPUB option)
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12-24-2010, 10:25 PM | #13 | ||
Wizzard
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Quote:
I notice you seem to like sf/fantasy, and they've got plenty of older rights-reverted backlist titles from midlist authors from the 40s-90s. If you like Robert Asprin's comedic fantasy, you might like John DeChancie's Castle Perilous series or Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar, and for John Varley's quirkily cerebral sf, Greg Bear or Terry Bisson might be close enough for your tastes. The usual sf/fantasy re-publishers who offer stuff on Fictionwise are e-Reads, Wildside Press, Mundania Press, ElectricStory, Wonder Audiobooks (golden age stuff), Small Beer Press, Double Dragon Publishing, and there are a couple of others. Other places which have DRM-free formats you could convert to LRF are Baen's Webscription (they sell other books besides the ones they publish and have a couple of Robert Asprin books, last I checked, and RTF and lit for all the books) and BookViewCafé (consortium of sf/fantasy authors offering their works directly for sale; some titles include .lit and .lrf in the MultiFormat pack). Quote:
And they also add DRM to books which come from some DRM-free outlets which have proudly proclaimed their DRM-free-ness via their own website stores as a "DRM makes it harder to read; we trust the customer" point, such as Carina Press and Smashwords. Given how Kobo's own blog has blathered on about cross-platform compatibility and openness and trusting the reader, I'm not sure whether this is ironic, hypocritical, or ironically hypocritical. |
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12-25-2010, 01:08 PM | #14 |
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As ATDrake probably knows, the DRM fiasco at Kobo came about as Kobo was making an attempt to make it more obvious to website users which books had DRM attached and which did not. Previously, all books available in ePUB format had a button or label which said "download ePUB). The customer had no way of knowing, prior to purchase, if they were getting a DRM book or not. The change they were trying to make was to have two different buttons and labels, one for Adobe DRM ePUB books, and one for ePUB editions without DRM. The same was true with two versions of PDF files.
Something apparently went dreadfully wrong in the process and suddenly all books had DRM attached. As far as I know, they were not aware of this until the middle of last week and they are working on it. The week before Christmas was a horrible time to have this happen, as they were also rolling out other website changes that would make the website easier to use. It is the kind of huge problem every business has nightmares about. From my perspective, it does nothing to take away from Kobo's well known philosophical commitment to openness. Hypocritical, I think not. PS: The Smashwords books at the Sony reader store have always had DRM attached. I'm hoping that when Kobo gets this mess straightened out, the Smashwords books are DRM free, but they apparently don't have to be. Last edited by taming; 12-25-2010 at 01:30 PM. |
12-25-2010, 02:20 PM | #15 | |
Wizzard
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Quote:
Here's Carina Press' own FAQ entry and official blog statement which says that they offer their books DRM-free to everyone and if another outlet puts DRM on them, that wasn't Carina's decision or preference. Here's Kobo's official blogpost from September on "DRM if necessary, but not necessarily DRM" which claims that if someone offers Kobo their books DRM-free and says to keep it that way, then they do. Already in the comments there's someone pointing out that they've been DRM-ing Carina Press' DRM-free books. Here's more anecdata that Carina Press' normally DRM-free books on Kobo are DRM-ed there, from people who tried taking advantage of a sale on them at Kobo and found they couldn't transfer/convert them as they thought they'd be able to. I have one Carina Press freebie from Kobo (Last Days of a Rake, still free in the listings) and it is indeed DRM-ed at Kobo, but remains DRM-free at other non-Carina outlets. So yeah, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call shenanigans on Kobo for this one, at least. |
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