Non-Kindle owner asked to help Kindle owner...?

[guyanonymous]

I don't own a Kindle and have never used one. (I currently use the ebookwise 1150).

A colleague at work, today, told me she was getting a Kindle this Christmas. She's a complete non-techie and nervous about that side of things. She's confident about buying books from Amazon and them showing up via the wireless (I didn't know that worked in Canada yet).

Anyway, I was thinking of giving her a CD/DVD full of (copyright expired) books before the holidays began. My questions are:

1. What is the best format, to output from Calibre, for the Kindle?
2. Is there a step of VERY easy Windows-based directions I can give her on how to copy said files over via the USB?

I don't see her enough to be her tech, but want to give her a nice starting point for her new adventures in the electronic book world.

Thanks

David

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

1. What is the best format, to output from Calibre, for the Kindle?
2. Is there a step of VERY easy Windows-based directions I can give her on how to copy said files over via the USB?

I don't see her enough to be her tech, but want to give her a nice starting point for her new adventures in the electronic book world.

I don't have any practical experience with the Kindle, so can't answer these questions... BUT I thought I'd point out that you can download quite a few free, newer, Kindle-formatted ebooks from Smashwords, too. Might be worth a look while you're at it?

[fjtorres]

Mobipocket format will work fine on Kindle. Calibre can output them as .mobi or .prc.

You could also suggest she do a search on ebay for "prc ebook" which will point out a data DVD with 20,000 out-of-copyright ebooks in prc format available for US12.99.

[guyanonymous]

Thanks very much! And it's as easy as copying the .mobi file over via usb (using explorer)?

[Dr. Drib]

Just download every single Mobi book here on MobileRead.

She'll love you to death.


Don

[fjtorres]

Yes. It shows up as a new drive letter in Explorer. Just drag-n-drop.

[guyanonymous]

I do wish Gutenberg (or anywhere) would package authors in different formats - one click to download all of the Shakespeare in the format of your choice...

Thanks very much for the help!

She was really struggling, she said, with not opening it until Christmas. The box is just sitting there, fresh from the courier.

[Ajax]

One of the things I did when I bought my kindle was to pick up the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare in a single book compilation format.

I ended up buying the "MobileReference" bundles from Amazon for ~$5 each even though you can get them all individually for free, I felt that the money was worth it to get a well formatted set all in one with a nice linked Table of Contents.

[daffy4u]

To add to what Dr. Drib wrote, just download MobileRead's Mobi Download Guide. It's a "booK' with links to all the mobi formatted books on MobileRead. She just add the download guide to the "documents" folder of her Kindle then she can browse through the titles and when she sees one she wants, she clicks the link and it will automatically download to her Kindle (as long as the wireless is on).

Feedbooks has a similar Kindle Guide. Between the two guides she'll have lots of books to choose from.

[guyanonymous]

Will the fancy auto-downloading via wireless work up here in the frozen (ha) North? (Well, Victoria which is rainy these days)

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Ajax

One of the things I did when I bought my kindle was to pick up the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare in a single book compilation format.

I ended up buying the "MobileReference" bundles from Amazon for ~$5 each even though you can get them all individually for free, I felt that the money was worth it to get a well formatted set all in one with a nice linked Table of Contents.

I've bought five of these MobileReference Works series and I find them wonderful bargains and easily navigable.

Don

[Rootman]

To clarify what has already been said, just drag and drop the .MOBI files to the DOCUMENTS folder on the Kindle. Connect up the USB cable and it will show a new drive letter on the PC, open it up in Windows Explorer and drop the books in in the DOCUEMTNS folder. When finished use the Windows USB SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE tool in the tray area to safely dismount the Kindles USB drive and unplug the USB cable. The Kindle grinds away for a bit (evedent by the swirly in the upper left hand corner) and then shows the list off all the books.

One you get past a pageful it may not be evident the new books are there unless you have the book list on the Kindle sorted by MOST RECENT FIRST.

Amazon has tons of books for FREE, just keep an eye out. Project Gutenberg has 30,000 + books all for free, just use the MOBIPOCKET format option near the bottom of the page.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Whispernet will work IF she has the International Kindle, end then some Intl rates may apply even to free Amazon books, so be careful until you know what charges if any may apply.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

Will the fancy auto-downloading via wireless work up here in the frozen (ha) North? (Well, Victoria which is rainy these days)

Now, that I think about it, I'm not sure. I don't think the browser works for those outside the U.S. When you click a download link it opens the browser to download the book.

If nothing else, the guides provide a catalog of available Public Domain books, so they would be easy to find and download to a computer.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

I don't own a Kindle and have never used one. (I currently use the ebookwise 1150).

A colleague at work, today, told me she was getting a Kindle this Christmas. She's a complete non-techie and nervous about that side of things. She's confident about buying books from Amazon and them showing up via the wireless (I didn't know that worked in Canada yet).

Anyway, I was thinking of giving her a CD/DVD full of (copyright expired) books before the holidays began. My questions are:

1. What is the best format, to output from Calibre, for the Kindle?
2. Is there a step of VERY easy Windows-based directions I can give her on how to copy said files over via the USB?

I don't see her enough to be her tech, but want to give her a nice starting point for her new adventures in the electronic book world.

Thanks

David

1. Simple. She wants the .mobi output format. And Calibre will convert ePub and lrf to mobi.

As for #2, I'm sure someone will write them. However, Calibre uses a different directory on Vista than on XP - and I presume on Win7 as well, so which version of Windows does she have?

Derek

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

2. Is there a step of VERY easy Windows-based directions I can give her on how to copy said files over via the USB?

The Kindle support page, shows how to transfer content to the Kindle via USB. The Kindle is seen as a USB mass storage device so, the procedure is the same for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.