Amazon Kindle discussion
Digital library
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Hi Jeff! Welcome aboard! As an avid Kindle user since 2009, using many Kindle devices, I have built a good, solid base of a digital library. While Amazon was known to have deleted content from accounts (many, many years ago) in the beginning, I seem to remember they completely stopped that practice and promised to never do it again. I will occasionally see content for which I have seen a license become unavailable, but that licensed content remains in your account. Content does change over time. Occasionally, updates for content are sent out which don't automatically post (that messes with your notes, bookmarks), but you can update your content with those updates.
Costs for Kindle licenses to digital content vary. I emphasize "license" as, per Amazon's terms and conditions, you are buying only the nontransferable license to enjoy content--you don't physically own it like you would a dead tree book. There are several sites that will help you monitor price drops in content. My favorite is ereaderiq.com. There are also bookbub.com and earlybirdbooks.com. I find that I have saved a lot of money over time by purchasing Kindle licenses.
I believe the investment made in digital content far outweighs one's ownership of physical books. I have benefited greatly from being able to use all the features of a Kindle to better enjoy the experience of reading. I love being able to adjust font size and line spacing, being able to carry a dictionary with me wherever I go and being able to look up a word in a second. I enjoy making marks and notes to myself on digital content--I would never dare to do that on a physical book. I love X-ray when it is available.
To sum up, I suggest you "banish (your) worries and enjoy it." Although I still love all my physical books (I cannot discard them), I have not read one since I purchased my first Kindle 2 in 2009.
Enjoy!
Lori
Thank you Lori, you've calmed my fears quite a bit.
Never had any books deleted. However my old Kindle reader gave up the ghost this year. It was a present and remained in the present-givers name so all the books (loads of them) were bought in his name. I've been able to download them to my PC but couldn't load to my Kindle Fire as it's in my name. I can put them on Calibre but a DRM message comes up saying I need to get the publisher's consent so I can't open them. We're trying to get round to doing something about this when we've gottime. All I'm saying is, if devices fail which they're bound to do after a time, you may be left with books you can't access any longer!Gill Mather
Thanks Gill, appreciate it. Hope your issue gets resolved soon. Yeah, by the time my model gives up it's ghost maybe a new and improved model will be on the market, and since i get it all for myself, will probably be able to access everything.
Gill wrote: "Never had any books deleted. However my old Kindle reader gave up the ghost this year. It was a present and remained in the present-givers name so all the books (loads of them) were bought in his n..."The wise move, in the beginning, would be to have created your own account and purchased the books using that account. As you have found out, the books were encoded with DRM (digital rights management) to only open on the device to which they were downloaded
to the OP, you can also transfer via a Send to Kindle method, digital books from other sources provided they're in the right format, through you Amazon account and store them there. I would also recommend using an external storage device to keep a copy of the originals though.
Thank you CBR, i tried a Project Gutenberg eBook that said Kindle, but i need to be a bit more tech savvy for it to work, i'm not by a long ways hurtin' for things to read though!
Jeff wrote: "Thank you CBR, i tried a Project Gutenberg eBook that said Kindle, but i need to be a bit more tech savvy for it to work, i'm not by a long ways hurtin' for things to read though!"just download the mobi file and use one of these Send to Kindle methods to put it on a Kindle (I'm presuming other companies ereaders have something similar)
Email:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindl...
App on a Computer:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindl...
or
https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindl...
I think it’s important to realize from the beginning that your Kindle book library doesn’t reside in your Paperwhite or any device you happen to use, it resides in the Amazon account you buy things from. If your PW falls under a bus tomorrow (heaven forbid!), any books you’ve bought are still there on your Kindle/Amazon account ready to be downloaded again. You can read them on your phone via app, for example.
Miss M wrote: "I think it’s important to realize from the beginning that your Kindle book library doesn’t reside in your Paperwhite or any device you happen to use, it resides in the Amazon account you buy things..."Also, you can start reading on one Kindle device & continue reading later on the app on your phone, or vice versa. Your place will be kept, a little like having an electronic bookmark.
As a new and enthusiastic Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition owner, i feel like doing most of my reading from it, and wish to create over time an extensive digital library on it. Is this a smart move, how dependable is this technology. Are there instances when content changes? Or when certain eBooks just get deleted? Is such an investment where many eBooks cost pretty much the same as physical books a foolish use of my money? Or should i just banish my worries and enjoy it and be calm about it being a dependable format to enjoy books.