I want to get back into reading, so I’m thinking of getting a Paperwhite. But I have no idea if it’s possible to transfer files to it from a computer, and I have no experience with pirating books.

Do I go to the same places I torrent movies and games or are there special places dedicated to E-Books?

EDIT: So many awesome answers on here! You guys have been very helpful. Thanks a lot!

  • Norgur
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    32 years ago

    Regarding the sources for books, you’ve gotten a lot of recommendations already. Loading them onto the kindle is super easy. You cannot only transfer via USB, your kindle even gets it’s own mail address you can then just mail your books to and have them converted and transferred by Amazon.

  • solidsnake2085
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    42 years ago

    I use EbookHunter. You have to turn on a VPN after 3 downloads or they make you sign up for it. I’ve downloaded many books from there for my Kindle.

  • lckdscl [they/them]
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    762 years ago

    Anna’s Archive, Libgen, Mobilism, IRC (I use a self-hosted service called OpenBooks for this). I use Calibre for metadata sorting, plug Kindle in and move books that way and keep it on airplane mode.

    Also, new Kindle jailbreak for <= 5.16.2.1.1 if anyone’s interested. Managed to get KoReader on my 10th Gen Basic.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      is there any advantage to jailbreak when i already got no ads and i’m 100% of the time on airplane mode? genuine question, not judging :o

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        I have the same doubt. I had a old first gen pw jailbroken. Recently got 10th gen basic. Not jailbroken yet

      • lckdscl [they/them]
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        192 years ago

        I didn’t have ads either but being able to use KoReader is a good enough motivation for me.

        • You can customize it a lot to your own liking and they do something clever with page changing that it seems a lot more responsive.
        • Another thing is I used to have to convert epubs to KFX to get nice hyphenation and good typography but on KoReader you seem to be able to customize all those typography things with whatever epub you throw at it.
        • Also, I have a local Calibre OPDS endpoint, you can add that in KoReader and download books over wirelessly. WiFi needs to be on when doing that but with a few tweaks you have read only root partiton so Kindle shouldn’t update.

        Overall there are a lot of steps to it, if you’re comfortable with your current setup it’s not worth the hassle/time.

      • @[email protected]
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        102 years ago

        This is the bit I read that sold me on it.

        But if you do jailbreak a Kindle, you’ll be able to install third-party apps like KOReader, which bring support for eBooks in formats that aren’t natively supported by the stock Kindle software, such as EPUB and CBZ files

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          Weird, I’m like 99% sure epub is supported considering it’s all I download on my stock PW.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            I wonder when they did that. I’ve never updated my kindle, it’s never even been on the internet so I’m stuck in 2021/2022.

            Either way I have KOreader now and it’s amazing. Just reading that I can connect it to the internet for more features and reading how to do that while blocking amazon. I still might not connect it or I’ll put it on my IOT wifi that doesn’t have internet access.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      52 years ago

      Ah, so a kindle needs to be jailbroken/rooted for sideloading books.

      Also, this is the third mention of turning on airplane mode. Is this to stop Amazon from doing something to the Kindle?

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        I don’t turn airplane mode on and I haven’t jailbroken it. I download all my books from Anna’s archive on my phone and then send them to my kindle email address. The books appear on my kindle in seconds. No DRM issues. I have the oasis because I’m a big reader and I highly recommend it.

      • mesa
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        32 years ago

        Not necessarily, Calibre makes this easy

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          Currently I torrent books (legally of course) and then send the e-pub book to my kindle through the Kindle app. works a treat.

          now I just have to find the attention span to read a book

      • 520
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        92 years ago

        Kindle jailbreaking isn’t strictly required, especially if all you want to do is sideload books. It’s more about if you want homebrew, other customisation options or you just wanna get rid of ads without paying.

        The airplane mode is because Amazon has a habit of updating the kindle without your permission.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          32 years ago

          Right… Yeah, I would like to get rid of the ads. It sounds absurd that I pay for the device but then have to pay again to get rid of ads.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            Amazon’s logic is you paid a subsidized/cheaper price that is offset by included ads. You can buy it without ads (more expensive, obviously) from the start.

        • lckdscl [they/them]
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          52 years ago

          I got ads removed on mine by asking chat support. The only caveat is it needs to be registered to an account. If you get a patient employee and ask kindly that the ads are not appropriate for children, it usually works.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        As others have said – nope. You can get a cheap enough Kindle without ads (and yes, it is absurd that there’s an ad-version in the first place), and sideloading is a piece of piss. Either use Calibre or set up a Kindle email address. I mostly do the latter these days. The only downside (and the main upside to using KoReader, I would think) is that you don’t get the full range of typography options sending over EPUBs this way – you would have to do a KFX conversation first (again possible with Calibre, but a bit of faff).

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Neat, my kindle is in airplane mode 100% of the time too… I never knew you could jailbreak, reading about it now.

      Edit: and I’m on 5.14.2 guess I’m going to jailbreak. Amazing, thank you!

  • @[email protected]
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    52 years ago

    My fav place to get books is libgen.is. They usually have what I want in multiple formats. I read on my phone, so I always have a book with me.

  • Beaupedia
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    122 years ago

    Give Kobo a look, Amazon isn’t the only name in the game. Kobo lets you connect directly to your library and check out books on the device, I absolutely love mine after having a couple Kindles.

      • AphoticDev
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        22 years ago

        The cool thing about that is that you can use it on iOS simply by visiting the Audiobookshelf instance directly on the web. So technically, it’s available on every platform that has some kind of browser.

  • @[email protected]
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    212 years ago

    Do I go to the same places I torrent movies and games or are there special places dedicated to E-Books?

    I use library genisis. Great for scientific papers and adequate for fiction.

    • nudny ekscentryk
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      252 years ago

      Anna’s archive is a catalogue which goes through multiple databases including libgen, therefore it’s preferable

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        First time i’ve heard of it. I’ve just checked it out looks like it’ll be my new goto-site, thanks :)

      • @[email protected]
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        212 years ago

        I’m just here for the free stuff.

        Libby, Hoopla, Overdrive are all free and helps support the authors to make more books. Win win.

        If you don’t like the borrowing format then just clone the epub after borrowing it. It isn’t difficult to do, and author still makes money.

  • @[email protected]
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    392 years ago

    Just because no-one has mentioned it yet.

    Your local library. You probably don’t even have to go in, once you’re account is set up you can check out books online.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      Going into a library is like choosing a movie from Netflix. If you don’t know what you want it’s fine. But if you’re after a specific book, big chances it’s not there.

      Example: I’ve read over 100 star Trek books, none of the libraries around me have any in the series, and I’m on a 3M people city.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        That seems very odd to me. I’ve never been to a city library that can’t get something they don’t have. Obviously I’m biased by my own experiences.

        I’m in Montréal (2-4M depending on how the library system is set up) and star wars has 1,099 hits. Video games, mangas, movies, tv shows, books illustrations, audiobooks, lego building guide ebooks, comics, etc. There might be some inflation in the figure for how some titles handle multi-lingual copies.

        Karen Traviss is my favorite star wars author, followed by Timothy Zhan.

    • TheaoneAndOnly27
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      72 years ago

      My biggest issue with ebooks in the library, and what led me into more ebook Piracy. Having to wait to check out a digital book. I know the library has to pay like yearly licensing subscriptions to a lot of these books, and it’s just so annoying to me that it doesn’t cover everybody having access to it. I sit on the library board and one thing we’re talking about doing is a graphic novel service for a lot of the youth. And low key, I’m stoked for the graphic novel service too. But that one’s unlimited access.

  • 520
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    12 years ago

    Personally I would recommend a Remarkable. It’s more expensive but soooo much more useful with a pen.

    You can load books onto a Kindle, but format conversion is required and the results are not always pretty.

      • 520
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        22 years ago

        It really is. Shit, I don’t fawn over tech purchases, but the remarkable is so damn useful.

        Pretty easy to homebrew on too, no jailbreak required. I’m tempted to make a libgen app for it.

        • ReallyKinda
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          12 years ago

          Yeah and they’re constantly adding phenomenal user requested features in their updates (even for the original kickstarter device that I have). A libgen app would be convenient!

          • 520
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            22 years ago

            I’m still learning to code for the thing, so let’s see how it goes!