Finding books for e-readers

Skib

Well-Known Member
Dec 21, 2003
9,866
2,493
113
London
This post is for eml.
OH and I have Kindles and we try to get books as down loads where possible.
But it isnt always possible. This post is about paid for books only. Books not out of copyright.

If a book is available in mobi file format (Kindle) and licensed for UK, it will be listed on the Amazon uk website. In any case that is where I always start when checking for an e-book.
However, if it is not listed for Kindle on Amazon, Google books (go to the Google books site and then search) will usually indicate whether there is an e-book in any format at all. Some publishers seem to have shunned Amazon and link with other e-readers, so it is worth looking. Similarly some American books can be found on USA sites.
As a final lost hope it is also worth googling the book's title with the word ebook. But take care as this may lead to dodgy pirate download sites.

If you cant find an e-book it probably means the ebook isnt available. This particularly goes for earlier books by any author - books which predated e-books. With best selling popular authors e.g. top crime writers, one just needs to wait. Their back list may gradually be converted.
But books are sometimes out of print (or awaiting a reprint) and one still has to look for them second hand on paper and choose the copy one likes the sound of. I bought Down to Earth Dressage by Carl Hester via Waterstones second hand department. I just bought Podhajsky's autobiography second hand via Abe Books. I buy second hand from Amazon too - last time was last November.
And some quite recent books are not produced as e-books either. Over the last month I have bought new books on paper: Mammals (modern play) by Amelia Bulmore, Dotta of her Father's Eyes (graphic novel) on paper. I still buy cookery books on paper.

With academic books, the e-book may well cost about as much as the hard cover. Then a cheaper paperback comes out yet the e-book remains high price. Last week I did pay an extra pound or two for the Kindle version of an academic book Soldaten because it is a great convenience to be able to highlight and make notes on the book itself without damaging the copy. I would have liked the Podhajsky as an e-book for that reason but it just isnt there.
Hope this is some help. I am not entirely organised and have spent too much on books this winter. My main caution is not to buy stuff for the Kindle unless you really really want to keep it. We found ourselves buying and reading rubbish even when books had glowing reviews and we have now gone back to reading books from the local library.
 
If you buy a book from Amazon they archive it and it is there for you for ever. But you can plug your kindle into your computer usb and add and delete files using normal windows like an external hard drive.
 
newrider.com