E-books and e-book readers

[migrant]

If you download the Calibre e-book management software, calibre-ebook.com, it sets up a management on your computer and stores them. Allows you do do management functions, copies, converts, etc.

It's free but they appreciate a donation

[lomuamart]

Plug them both into your computer via USB and just copy them over from one to the other.

Righto. That sounds easy.
Unfortunately, I deleted most of my books on the Calibre system as my hard drives were severely short of space at the time

[Chromeman]

Plug them both into your computer via USB and just copy them over from one to the other.

Unfortunately, I deleted most of my books on the Calibre system as my hard drives were severely short of space at the time

http://thepiratebay.sx/browse/601

[PET]

This is another excellent free e-book site on Pirate Bay

http://thepiratebay.sx/user/TxJag/

[lomuamart]

Incidently, something I'd like to download on PB is in PACK.rar format and I don't know what to do with it.
It gets to my hard drive OK but I'm stuck on how to open the books up to a format that Kindle will take. I've got Calibre software but it won't recognise PACK.rar Can anyone tell me in layman's terms what I'm doing wrong/should do?

[Pleng]

Incidently, something I'd like to download on PB is in PACK.rar format and I don't know what to do with it.
It gets to my hard drive OK but I'm stuck on how to open the books up to a format that Kindle will take. I've got Calibre software but it won't recognise PACK.rar Can anyone tell me in layman's terms what I'm doing wrong/should do?

RAR is an archive/compression format, similar to zip.

Download winrar and use it to extract the archive then you should be able to put it on your Kindle

[hhfarang]

^Winrar is free to try for a trial period but after that every time you open it you get a message that it is not free and you need to pay for the service. You can just close that message and continue to use it though.

[lomuamart]

OK, thanks both of you. I'll give it a go.

[lomuamart]

I see I've already got Winrar on the computer. So, how do I get a file from my documents into there and uncompress it and get that back to my docs so I can transfer to the Kindle?
Sorry for being thick. I really need to be led by the hand through these processes.

[Chromeman]

Right click on the RAR file and select the Extract files... option. It will then ask you where to put the files. Just select you documents folder. Then after the files are extracted, they are available for transfer to the kindle. Here is one easy way to do that.

[lomuamart]

Thanks Chromeman. That worked a treat.

[HHTel]

Does anyone know if you can buy a Kindle or other e-book reader here (apart from amazon and not a 'tablet')? I know someone who may be settiling here for a while and she asked if they are available in Thailand and can they be serviced here (e.g. she sits on it and breaks it!!)

[Ginjaninja]

HHTel,
there is a Kindle thread already...
I think they can be purchased through BKK but pang. With regards to servicing; I would forget about it and same goes for any tablet (iPad, etc). You would probably have to ship to the U.S. and incur shipping/re-import costs which would be substantial and therefore not worth it. I don't think Thailand would be any different to any other countries outside the U.S./U.K.
Tell her to buy a decent case so it takes at least some battering.
GN.

[oakdale160]

a very basic question from somebody who has never had a kindle. what are the pros and cons and which one to buy, mostly for reading books and viewing videos.

[Ginjaninja]

Pros:
Price is pretty good.
Excellent e-reader, that's what it's designed for.
Kindle online services are good as is the dedicated Kindle email address so you can send yourself books from a laptop for example.
The non-Kindle Fire readers are very compact and lightweight. I think the Fire range is crap.

Cons:
The non-Kindle Fire readers are limited to reading books only.... there is no video watching.
The Kindle Fire readers are colour so you can watch video but they are not user-friendly compared to an iPad Mini (for example).
Using a Fire for surfing the net or playing around with apps is a no-no in my opinion.

Summary:
Buy the bog-standard black n' white model if you want an e-reader only.
Buy an iPad Mini if you want a singing and dancing piece of quality technology. With the iPad you can even download the 'Kindle app' which allows you to use your Kindle account and online books.
I had a Kindle Fire and found it very frustrating when doing anything other than reading books. I was giving an iPad Mini as a safety award and having touched the Kindle since.


GN.
iPad Mini user