Kindle and Amazon Book Stores

[Anonymous]

Anyone have a Kindle?

My mum has two (3rd Gen and Paper White). They are both linked to the UK book store, but it would be great if she could link one to the Amazon.com site as that would allow her to buy some of the polish books that are on the store.

Looking at the Amazon Manage Devices, it seems its account wide and I am not sure what would happen if I was to switch her over. Would all her books still be available? Would she still be able to buy the books from the UK store? Or only from the .com store?

 

Thanks

[The Duke]

Maybe unlink one of kindles, and created a Amazon dot com account, via a vpn. Then log into the kindle via the new account  address.

Worth a try, but messy.   your likely to fall short when trying to buy with a UK CC/DC, you’ll probably need to buy 20 usd amazon vouchers via Amazon UK, then add the voucher to the US account.

Doesn’t look like you can buy USD cards off amazon UK, so you would need to try your luck on ebay. You’ll probably be ripped off. But tbh if the New kindle ever touched the Internet with out a vpn, Amazon would likely take a fit.

They don’t like you messing about like that. I once had an Audible dot Com account, from thr pre Amazon days, when amazon bought Audible they clamped down on the US accounts.

In their credit they contacted me and all the book I “illegally” purchases, from before Amazon ownership they added them to my new UK Audible account, as a show of goodwill.

So approach  with caution.

[Ed P]

Buy her a Fire tablet for her birthday. Keep an eye on Amazon offers, the Fire is quite often in their heavily discounted range.

[Dave Rice]

If you read this thread on the Amazon forums http://tinyurl.com/kl6mta3 the problem isn’t so much Amazon as the publishers or local laws.

I guess Amazon have to cover themselves and it’s far too much faffing about to do it on a book by book basis.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all, yeah probably going to be most sensible to run two amazon accounts. A pain these non-global licensing laws!

I did find a page on the Amazon website that stated if you transferred to a US account then all currently owned books would still transition across, but it made no mention of whether you would still be able to buy UK books or not.

[Bob Williams]

SWMBO has the original Kindle, which was mine at first. I put Kindle for PC on her laptop, my desktop and tried it on my Wiley Fox, but that was too small for my failing eyesight. Adjusting Text Size just left too few lines per page. Then I bought a Lenovo TAB 8 and put Kindle on that: success! I can read very well on that, it’s brilliant. I don’t know if I can buy from Amazon.com, doubt it for copyright reasons, but I will certainly have a go with the Tab 8. If I succeed, I’ll let you know.

There are lots of different e-book publishers available for Android devices. I was given this link last week, haven’t had time to check it out yet, but it looks good:     https://tinyurl.com/m7ambof

In your mum’s case FS, I would advise factory – resetting and selling both Kindles, then buying a good Android 8″ tablet. She could stuff it with e-books then, with lots of choice from various sources. Our County Library lets us download e-books from their website, don’t know if yours does. There are just so many e-book outlets now, it seems a pity to just tie it to Amazon.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Don’t forget the bog-standard epubs. It is a doddle to put them on a Kindle. However, Kindle may provide problems as I’m not sure if it has a Polish character set.

[Jason]

In my view, a tablet is no substitute for a Kindle if all you want to do is read.

[The Duke]

A real kindle, the paper white, is the rolls royce, a Tablet is no substitute.

If you read alot, its a no brainer. There are others but I think the Amazon ones are worth the extra for tech limited folk or though that just want a simple seamless experience.

If I had one I may go a different route, bit the wife who has no intrest of learning tech, it’s a kindle all day. The paper white is with the extra, so you can sleep in peace while they read. It’s amazing how little light they give off.

[Ed P]

I personally find that a good high dpi pad is just as good as a Kindle, better in fact for text books containing illustrations. I’ll concede that Kindles are better in bright sunlight.  However this is all moot for Polish books, as a Kindle is not really much good if the words are all transliterated. It makes reading a real chore if the characters are mere approximations or worse show as black boxes. LINK

[blacklion1725]

I’d go for an Ereader over a tablet for reading all day – much kinder on the eyes, better battery life (by a mile) and lighter. I have a Kobo (forget which but broadly same as Kindle Paperwhite) – horses for courses but prolonged reading on the ereader is fine, the same on a tablet would give me a head/eye ache.

As always the superb Calibre pogram and ApprenticeAlf plugin make all the ebooks and ereaders platform independent. I get 90% of mine from Amazon/Kindle and convert in seconds to read on the Kobo.

Regarding the original post, Calibre would also be a good belt and braces way to safeguard (backup) the existing UK content before you dabble with the US Kindle store

[Bob Williams]

I understand what those of you say when opposed to a tablet for reading e-books, but I don’t just use the tab 8 for that. I have all kinds of uses for it that a Kindle is not equipped to handle, so for me a Kindle is an unnecessary expense. As for the screen, I don’t have a problem with my eyesight when reading on the tablet, and my close up eyesight is poor now. I am able to adjust the lighting and text until it suits me and I can read for as long as I wish. I can also sync the Tab with my Google account over all other devices. The Lenovo Backup & Sync feature is great for this, works well with Google.

The way I see it, a Kindle is good for one thing, because that’s what it was made to do: the right android tablet can do so much more. I did my usual trick when choosing my tab 8, went to Curry’s and other stores and tried every tablet I could find. Some of the more expensive models were a lot harder on the eyes than the Lenovo. The real “cheapo” models, were horrible. Then I bought the Lenovo Tab 8 online from Argos. Unusually, Amazon were quite a lot more expensive for the same model.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Jason]

What about the battery life, though? I can take a Kindle on a fortnight’s holiday and not even bother taking a charger. I can also read it in direct sunlight whilst sitting round the pool. 😉

[Boris]

blacklion1725 wrote:

As always the superb Calibre pogram and ApprenticeAlf plugin make all the ebooks and ereaders platform independent. 

I was told that the new version of Kindle for PC (1.19) doesn’t use the AZW ebook format that Calibre knows how to read. Instead, it uses the new KFX ebook format—which AFAIK nothing else can yet read or convert ?

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[blacklion1725]

Hmm had a quick check with a Kindle Freebie and Kindle4PC downloaded the AZw and Calibre converted to epub AOK – I’m on 1.17 (Kindle4PC) though

Will do some digging

EDIT: yep looks like you need to stay on 1.17 – install link in this thread – and turn off automatic updates as soon as you install it. Pretty sure Calibre will catch up but this work-around should do fine in the mean time.

[Drezha]

Boris wrote:

blacklion1725 wrote:

As always the superb Calibre pogram and ApprenticeAlf plugin make all the ebooks and ereaders platform independent.

I was told that the new version of Kindle for PC (1.19) doesn’t use the AZW ebook format that Calibre knows how to read. Instead, it uses the new KFX ebook format—which AFAIK nothing else can yet read or convert ?

I downloaded two books last weekend and had no issues converting – is it for new releases only? I purchased Sourcery, so not really a new release!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[blacklion1725]

Drezha what version of Calibre are you on out of interest?

Also in my edit above, the link mentions if you have an older Kindle registered you can get round the issue even with the current Kindle4PC. Either way I think we are all set fair.

[Ed P]

Before you put in too much effort I’d strongly suggest that you check if the Polish language can actually be displayed on a Kindle. Download one of the copyright free Polish classics as an epub and import it into a Kindle.

[Les.]

I don’t read too many books (not enough time), but do have a Kobo, a 5″, maybe 3 to 4 years old. Very impressed for less than $50 at the Co-op. However I would like a bigger one, and was looking at a 10″ screened one a couple of years ago. It actually appeared to be made in Ukraine, and when a friend was there, she went to “The Shop” which sells them —- but they only had a smaller, lower end model. It will certainly handle Russian, and I expect Polish as well.

Just checked, it was a Pocketbook. I must look at it again when I get time.

Tamara reads Russian novels online on her 10″ tablet, and that lights up the room.  She sometimes wakes at 4:00am, can’t get back to sleep, and then keeps me awake when she starts reading.

Les.

[Author]

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