6 ms·

I've backed up my eBooks from time to time & cracked some books over the years that I had purchased & wanted to put on another device but a lot of the time I do

I've backed up my eBooks from time to time & cracked some books over the years that I had purchased & wanted to put on another device but a lot of the time I don't worry about it. I got my first kindle in 2010 and bounced over to Barnes & Noble for a while with a Nook but then came back to the Amazon ecosystem. I've bought hundreds of books over the years. But just like paper books there are a lot of books that I read once and never look at again. They aren't priceless treasured objects for me. The thing with Amazon.. people complain a lot, but their ecosystem just works the best in the eBook space. I actually find it a lot less annoying than some of the shenanigans with other digital stores like the iTunes store over the years. I haven't tried Kobo but B&N was always a hot mess compared to Amazon. Tons of annoyances in the store & device software that Amazon had right from day 1. And you were paying more for a worse experience.

aeturnum 7y ago
I have a Kobo and haven't had any complaints (though they're often not as cheap as Amazon though). P.s. I wasn't sure if you were saying this, but I don't think Kobo has anything to do with B&N.
- ben7799 7y ago
  I was just mentioning that I haven't really given Kobo a shot... so I could be in the dark and Kobo is better. But I hear enough through the woodwork that I have been under the impression using Kobo would be trading off annoyances with some things better & some worse. Mostly what I hear is Kobo often has some hardware advantages but has some different software annoyances. What format the book uses is a very minor concern to most of us who just read the books. Epub vs Mobi vs KF8 or whatever has no impact on me 99% of the time. The only time it'd really matter is hopping around between platforms and having to convert stuff. If Kobo started having a huge advantage I'd be more likely to buy a Kobo and keep my Amazon library with Amazon and start buying Kobo books there. I wouldn't go on a big project to convert all my Amazon bought books to a Kobo compatible format. Cause once done I wouldn't actually need/want to re-read all those books on the Kobo.
  - ryantgtg 7y ago
    To me, Kobo has a major advantage with the “warm toned” backlight on the Clara HD. I switched from kindle just for that. On kobo, the dedrm process involves installing the kobo desktop software (windows/Mac only), which syncs the books to your desktop. From there you can snatch the ebook from the file manager and put it in calibre. There’s an “obok” dedrm plug-in. If you switch from kindle to anything else, you will lose the ability to download your kindle purchases. You need an active kindle account/device to download ebooks from the kindle library (this wasn’t always the case).
    - lightbulbjim 7y ago
      Obok can grab the books straight from your Kobo using the Calibre plugin. No need for the desktop software.
komali2 7y ago
Fair, but just like I've never needed my photo backups, when I do need them (if I ever do), I'll be very, very, very glad I put in the ~3 hours of work or so a month it takes to ensure my photos are all backed up.
- stoacc 7y ago
  How do you back up your photos?
  - komali2 7y ago
    By copying them to harddisks, and burning the important ones to blurays.
- bduerst 7y ago
  Doesn't Amazon let you re-download your books on your kindle? That's a little different than photos in that once the photo is gone, you don't have the opportunity to capture it again.
  - calcifer 7y ago
    Assuming Amazon doesn't just decide to delete it [1], sure. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...
    - bduerst 7y ago
      Seems that those books were added to the store by a company that didn't have the rights. I'm not sure that's a widespread problem.
      - calcifer 7y ago
        I'm not sure the distinction is relevant. The fact is, Amazon can and will remove your books at any time and there is nothing you can do about it.
autoexec 7y ago
> But just like paper books there are a lot of books that I read once and never look at again. They aren't priceless treasured objects for me. Traditionally your books could have been donated, or given to friends and relatives. DRM prevents those things. It really sounds like you might be better off using a library to borrow ebooks than to buy them. You're already basically just paying for a rental.
crispinb 7y ago
> their ecosystem just works the best in the eBook space I just want ebooks. I don't want an 'ecosystem in the eBook space'. If I had a similar paper book ecosystem 'in the paper book space' I'd have some giant foreign corporation insist that before I was permitted to read I must buy a bookshelf from them. Then all their books would have to be on that shelf. Then if there's a book they don't sell, or for which I choose another retailer, I'd need to buy a different shelf. Then every time I want to read a damned book I have to first know which corporation's mandated shelf it's on. The whole DRM-ebook business stinks. I do buy the odd one from Amazon if I can't get it anywhere else, but the DRM goes immediately on download.

aeturnum 7y ago

I have a Kobo and haven't had any complaints (though they're often not as cheap as Amazon though). P.s. I wasn't sure if you were saying this, but I don't think Kobo has anything to do with B&N.

ben7799 7y ago
I was just mentioning that I haven't really given Kobo a shot... so I could be in the dark and Kobo is better. But I hear enough through the woodwork that I have been under the impression using Kobo would be trading off annoyances with some things better & some worse. Mostly what I hear is Kobo often has some hardware advantages but has some different software annoyances. What format the book uses is a very minor concern to most of us who just read the books. Epub vs Mobi vs KF8 or whatever has no impact on me 99% of the time. The only time it'd really matter is hopping around between platforms and having to convert stuff. If Kobo started having a huge advantage I'd be more likely to buy a Kobo and keep my Amazon library with Amazon and start buying Kobo books there. I wouldn't go on a big project to convert all my Amazon bought books to a Kobo compatible format. Cause once done I wouldn't actually need/want to re-read all those books on the Kobo.
- ryantgtg 7y ago
  To me, Kobo has a major advantage with the “warm toned” backlight on the Clara HD. I switched from kindle just for that. On kobo, the dedrm process involves installing the kobo desktop software (windows/Mac only), which syncs the books to your desktop. From there you can snatch the ebook from the file manager and put it in calibre. There’s an “obok” dedrm plug-in. If you switch from kindle to anything else, you will lose the ability to download your kindle purchases. You need an active kindle account/device to download ebooks from the kindle library (this wasn’t always the case).
  - lightbulbjim 7y ago
    Obok can grab the books straight from your Kobo using the Calibre plugin. No need for the desktop software.

komali2 7y ago

Fair, but just like I've never needed my photo backups, when I do need them (if I ever do), I'll be very, very, very glad I put in the ~3 hours of work or so a month it takes to ensure my photos are all backed up.

stoacc 7y ago
How do you back up your photos?
- komali2 7y ago
  By copying them to harddisks, and burning the important ones to blurays.
bduerst 7y ago
Doesn't Amazon let you re-download your books on your kindle? That's a little different than photos in that once the photo is gone, you don't have the opportunity to capture it again.
- calcifer 7y ago
  Assuming Amazon doesn't just decide to delete it [1], sure. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18am...
  - bduerst 7y ago
    Seems that those books were added to the store by a company that didn't have the rights. I'm not sure that's a widespread problem.
    - calcifer 7y ago
      I'm not sure the distinction is relevant. The fact is, Amazon can and will remove your books at any time and there is nothing you can do about it.

autoexec 7y ago

> But just like paper books there are a lot of books that I read once and never look at again. They aren't priceless treasured objects for me. Traditionally your books could have been donated, or given to friends and relatives. DRM prevents those things. It really sounds like you might be better off using a library to borrow ebooks than to buy them. You're already basically just paying for a rental.

crispinb 7y ago

> their ecosystem just works the best in the eBook space I just want ebooks. I don't want an 'ecosystem in the eBook space'. If I had a similar paper book ecosystem 'in the paper book space' I'd have some giant foreign corporation insist that before I was permitted to read I must buy a bookshelf from them. Then all their books would have to be on that shelf. Then if there's a book they don't sell, or for which I choose another retailer, I'd need to buy a different shelf. Then every time I want to read a damned book I have to first know which corporation's mandated shelf it's on. The whole DRM-ebook business stinks. I do buy the odd one from Amazon if I can't get it anywhere else, but the DRM goes immediately on download.