Yeah, I know I vowed not to be sucked into the Kindle vortex. But just when I was craving some old-fashioned space opera, Amazon waved a week’s worth of E. E. Smith under my nose for 99 cents. C’mon, I’m only human.
And then I got to worrying about leaving my very limited Verizon hot spot on while reading that massive document off the “cloud,” whatever the hell that even is. What I wanted was to just download the damned file onto a hard drive, like normal people do, and no Kindle bullshit.
So I started actually looking at my options, which included something called “download and pin,” which I tried, and which gave my measured bandwidth limit a pretty good hit, but which didn’t seem to actually do anything until I attempted to read the file on my tablet with the hot spot turned off.
And to my shock, that actually worked. So good, I guess. But…
Where the hell is the file? I’m reading it on something called a Kindle Reader, which was already loaded on the tablet when I got it. It’s certainly not on the tiny little memory disc and doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the internal storage memory. Now I’m afraid to turn the tablet off, for fear I’ll have to download the book again.
This modern world is too confusing. I’m going out to chip a new tablet out of stone, like god intended. If I make two, I can start my own religion.
Commandment One: Thou Shalt Not Retain Control of Computer Files Thou Hast Sold to Others.
I have a slightly different problem. When I first got the Android tablet, I downloaded some pdf files to read later. I have no idea now how to find them… there is no general directory, evidently. The Kindle stuff is in an easily available section, but the pdf files seem to have vanished…
Oh those files are “in there” somewhere! It’s entirely possible that Amazon has hidden the files. It’s not just Amazon that I’m talking about but totally unlike a book, after you have “bought” an e-book you don’t necessarily “own” anything! Like it or not though, the e-book (in some form or another) is the format of the future.
But is that 99 cent deal all the books you can download for a week, or all the books you can READ in a week? Even with your bandwidth limits, there is a heluva difference!
try looking in /data/media/0/Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/.
No, it’s a “megapack,” where they dump a bunch of E. E. Smith novels and stories into a single file.
I’d love to. Where would I find that directory?
ML you should have a file folder icon. Open that up and look for downloads. open that up and the PDF files should be there. You may have to go to the Google App store and download a free PDF viewer.
Joel don’t worry about turning the tablet off. Even though you can’t find the hidden files they are still on your tablet not on line. They hide the files and put digital rights protection on them because bootlegging is a real problem.
BTW I hate to tell you this but if you had gone to Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/ you could have downloaded these files for free in Kindle, epub, PDF and text formats.
M Ryan… I got some sort of pdf reader thingie when I got the tablet. Don’t remember now where it came from, but probably not Amazon or “google” – but who knows?
I have a file folder icon, but it does not contain anything called “downloads.” I did find some downloads elsewhere, and Joel’s book is there, but nothing else. I’ll keep poking around to see what I can find. It’s been a while since I bothered.
Right now, the tablet is not connecting with Amazon anyway. The tablet is trying to make a new account, for some unknown reason, but it won’t connect. Always something.
Just to confuse things, the actual book files will likely have a screwy alphanumeric name, not the actual book title ( not always, though). With Kindle, you’re usually looking for “xyz123.mobi”. “.mpb” are index files for where you are in a book. Just do a file search for “*.mobi”.
On my real Kindle, book files are in the “documents” folder. The Android app may duplicate that file structure.
There’s also libgen:
http://libgen.io/foreignfiction/index.php?s=Smith,%20E%20E%20(Doc)&f_lang=0&f_columns=2&f_group=1
http://libgen.io/foreignfiction/index.php?s=Smith,%20E%20E%20%27Doc%27&f_lang=0&f_columns=2&f_group=1
http://libgen.io/foreignfiction/index.php?s=Smith,%20E%20E%20%27%27Doc%27%27&f_lang=0&f_columns=2&f_group=1
To find kindle files, in Windows open “search” and look for” *.azw3″.
Ah! Jeffersonian scores! That’s a much better list of the Lensman books than Gutenberg has. Far from exhaustive, but better.
Thank you Jeffersonian! I wasn’t familiar with Libgen.
Libgen is being sued now http://custodians.online/
I run the Kindle Reader app on my iPhone (and I also have a dedicated Kindle device). On iPhone, the reader always downloads the file when it’s selected and stores it until instructed to delete. There’s a toggle at the bottom of the “Library” screen that shifts between files on the “Device” and in the “Cloud”.
The Kindle Reader app is really just a dedicated file storage app and reader. It stores and reads Amazon Kindle books, as well as PDFs I get from elsewhere (when downloading directly via the browser on my phone, once a PDF is opened I can click near the top and find an “open in Kindle Reader” option, which then lets the Kindle reader app save and read the file). I’ve never had it delete anything I’ve read with it unless I specifically told it to.
Try the Calibre e-book reader in conjunction with Kindle.
When you buy or get a Kindle book, open it in Kindle.
On a PC, that puts the file at the top (most recent) in C:\Users\yourname\Documents\My Kindle Content
Then, fire up Calibre or your favorite e-book reader, and import the azw3 file in that directory.
Calibre can save or convert the file to other formats like epub etc.
You can then put that other non-Kindle format file on your phone, tablet whatever.
It sounds like a lot of work but isn’t. I got pushed over the edge a couple years ago when I specifically bought a Kindle book for a loooong airline flight, and without internet access on the plane, kindle didn’t think I owned that book anymore. Screw kindle.
Do this, and get a file you control. I’m not advocating piracy, but I’ll be dipped in democrat campaign promises before I’ll be denied access to a book I frickin’ bought again.