Multilingual multiformat e-reading

[imfrustrated]

Hello! As the name says, I'm frustrated...
We have a Kindle, a Kindle PW, 2 Kindle for iPad/iPhone apps and are a quatrolingual famliy (English, German, Italian, Spanish). Since e-books in different languages are only available from the different amazon sites, we have different accounts. Of course, only one device can be paired with one account. Therefore, we have the books strewn about the devices like cows after a Kansas tornado. That, as you can imagine, leads to heated arguments between siblings as well as spouses and makes the whole e-reading experience taxing to say the least. The funny thing is, I am not talking here about stripping DRM from these amazon books (as I know we are not meant to discuss here). These are all books purchased legally (and in some cases at a premium) from Amazon, but I cannot read them on the different Amazon approved devices. Does anyone have any advice for me?
Thanks in advance,
imfrustrated

[HarryT]

I don't really understand what the problem is. You can read any of your Kindle books on any device. Just deregister the device that you want to read the book on, and re-register using the account that's bought the book.

This is a Kindle question, so I'm moving it to the Kindle forum.

[imfrustrated]

Thank you for moving it. It is not that simple, I'm afraid we have multiple books from multiple accounts and de-registering and registering every time you want to read a different book is annoying - and it means you don't have access to your other books at the same time!

[HarryT]

Remove the DRM from your books, store them all in a Calibre library, and you'll be able to load any book on any device. That's the way I'd do it.

[imfrustrated]

I have tried, Harry. and I know I am not to discuss the details of that here, so I'll have to abstain. Suffice it to say, hasn't worked yet.... I posted a question on Alf's blog...

[imfrustrated]

Kindle books appear to be hidden on my new iMac - can't find them under the usual suspect paths...

[soulfuldog]

I don't know where the Kindle for Mac app stores books (my PC has them under My Documents > My Kindle content), but can't you just do a search of your computer for a particular book title you know you downloaded with the app? Then head back over to Alf's blog for help with the rest of your issues

[HarryT]

Kindle book file names aren't book titles; they are Amazon's cryptic ASIN codes.

[imfrustrated]

Thanks, y'all! Figured it out! Transferred all the German books and now doing the English... All transferred nicely to calibre, just have to redistribute afterwards!

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Kindle book file names aren't book titles; they are Amazon's cryptic ASIN codes.

They are when I download them from Amazon to my PC, but I'm guessing that if you use the Kindle app then they aren't? Now that you mention it, I do have a vague recollection of seeing some cryptic book titles on my Kindle, but that would probably have been on the few occasions I sent them directly to my Kindle.

Glad to hear you are sorted now anyway imfrustrated (you'll need to alter your username)

[imfrustrated]

I have a couple more questions -

1. Now that all my books are DRM-free on calibre, do I delete all the books from the various kindles and reinstall them from calibre? Am I also correct in assuming it would be best to deregister the ebook readers from the big A so that the seller has no access to my ebook reader?

2 On the other devices (iPad/iPhone), would it be better to read these books in iBooks on my iPad or via a different app?

Thanks for your help!

(still not ready to change my handle...)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by imfrustrated

I have a couple more questions -

1. Now that all my books are DRM-free on calibre, do I delete all the books from the various kindles and reinstall them from calibre? Am I also correct in assuming it would be best to deregister the ebook readers from the big A so that the seller has no access to my ebook reader?

Yes, I would delete the books and re-add them from Calibre.

Absolutely no need to de-register. Amazon don't care if you side-load books.

2 On the other devices (iPad/iPhone), would it be better to read these books in iBooks on my iPad or via a different app?

I prefer the Kindle App personally, but it's what you like that matters.

[imfrustrated]

Thanks!

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by imfrustrated

I have a couple more questions -

1. Now that all my books are DRM-free on calibre, do I delete all the books from the various kindles and reinstall them from calibre? Am I also correct in assuming it would be best to deregister the ebook readers from the big A so that the seller has no access to my ebook reader?

2 On the other devices (iPad/iPhone), would it be better to read these books in iBooks on my iPad or via a different app?

Thanks for your help!

(still not ready to change my handle...)

The Kindle app for iOS has some issues with side-loaded content, in particular it doesn't render KF8, so if the content uses more advanced formatting you might do better with an ePub app like iBooks or Marvin. But you'll have to make your own judgement on that.