Kindle, Calibre, 94yo, 1000 miles apart

[varaonaid]

Hello,

We use Calibre and have worked to get most of our library in digital format (in either ePub or mobi and obviously, either can be converted to the other format). I primarily use my iPad to read and I'm a tech geek.

Here is my situation. My 94-year-old mother-in-law lived over 1K miles away in an assisted living retirement apartment complex. Due to crazy high spiking CV19, they are back in full lockdown (which obviously makes sense). But she's struggling. She can't see anyone, she has no TV, no internet, no news paper, and only reads. They've pulled the library bus now which was her one outlet to get books to read (and keep her sanity).

She is decidedly not tech savvy (and doesn't really want to be) but she's also fairly desperate. I can't even imagine living alone and being as isolated as she is and have nothing to do during the days. It's severely affecting her mental health and desire to continue on in life.

So, we're looking at ways we can help. We sent a care package with a few books but so loved the books and was so starved for stories, she finished the first book in less than a day. I'm looking for something that's more sustainable but affordable, and easy for her.

So, this is my question. If I purchase a Kindle Paperwhite (and have it sent to me to completely set it up) and I setup an account for her that I obviously have access to, could I load a few books at a time on it from home and have those "appear" directly on the device. I wouldn't want to put too many on at once and overwhelm her but I could remove some as she reads them to keep things simple and easy.

My second question is just how easy is a Kindle Paperwhite to use? Is it turn on, see books, click, read? Is it easy to "get lost"? She will absolutely carefully read any instruction manual so she she can learn stuff, it just needs to be accessible and easy (she actually read her cell phone manual cover to cover, though it's not a smartphone).

Secondly, I've read that the new Paperwhite also supports Audible. I have some audiobooks in Audible and many more in standard MP3. Is there any way to load those onto the Paperwhite for her to easily listen, too? We're also going to try to get her an Echo Show 8 because they have these around the place and it allows us to send her a text message (she doesn't text on her phone). So, she's already familiar with it and could listen to music, news, etc as well as video chat with us. If there's a way to load an audiobook on that, it would be another option.

I should add, there is free WiFi at the place she lives, she just has no way (and no knowledge) of how to access it. Obviously, I'd have to get the Kindle and Echo connected to the WiFi and I think the management staff has already said they'd help with that piece so that solves the "backend" technical part of accessing the files. I'm just not sure if what I'm wanting to do is possible and not having any access to a Paperwhite myself, I don't know how easy or complicated this whole idea would be to do. If it's complicated on my end, that's no problem - I can read and learn and figure it out, I only have to have it easy on her end.

I know this is a weird question and a weird situation but I sure would appreciate any info and knowledge you could share. I feel so terrible that my Mom is so isolated and board to where it's really affecting her outlook. We want to do something to help. Thanks so much in advance!

[Tarana]

It's not a weird question, but I can see that it would be a bit hard to explain to her step-by-step if you have never had an ereader. The audiobook thing is out for the ereader - I think it would be too complicated for her to connect the ereader to the Show. However, she can play audiobooks from your Audible account if you have the show connected to your account.

I have two kindle ereaders I donated to elderly at my late grandmother's senior apartment house at the start of COVID lockdowns in March. One was a kindle keyboard and one a kindle Touch, so old ereaders. I just asked them what authors they enjoyed and loaded up 200 books on each ereader with whatever I had of those authors and related. I used https://www.literature-map.com/ to help make more expansive selections. Fortunately, they preferred genres that I regularly read so there was no shortage of books. They do not have wifi access so adding books remotely isn't an option.

I did send books to my cousin's ereader remotely for 6 years. He worked in land management in Alaska and his only wifi access was a bar every few weeks. Once his ereader connected, Amazon downloaded the books that had accumulated. So I don't see this as a problem for your Mom.

As far as using the ereader, most regular readers of any age seem to 'get it' fairly quickly. If they've never used touch screens, takes a little getting used to, but not much. You can send books to her ereader, but I don't think you can delete remotely. There is a newish function on kindles that takes READ books out of the main queue. So, she won't have to have them in her way.

The most confusing thing is that selection bar where you select YOUR books or Documents, unread/read. Familiarize yourself with that so that you can explain it to her. Take photos of that screen popup so that you can follow along while explaining. Practice checking and unchecking and seeing results so when she has a problem, you might know to check those checkmarks.

[ilovejedd]

Recommendation, get her a Kindle with built-in cellular and have it pre-registered to your account.

I'd skip Calibre altogether and just send Amazon Kindle purchases directly (you can do this via Manage Content and Devices). For Kindle books, I seem to recall seeing an option to delete remotely via the webpage for Kindle purchased/borrowed content.

With that said, perhaps an iPad might be better so she can also use it to FaceTime with you and stuff?