eBooks for Dummies

**SupremeSpod** · 5 September 2012, 11:35

Originally posted by SimonMac View Post

See that I did there?

I have just got an iPad (oooh shiney makes it all better) and am getting my head around eBooks etc, I have seen the native iOS iBooks and I assume using this method will mean I can only buy books from iTunes, which on first glace seems to be more expensive than the likes of Amazon, so that would mean I would have to use the Kindle route, there is an app for both my iPad and MacBook and I assume books are tied to the account not the device so I can view them on both?!

Also someone mentioned (I think it was Gentile) that they have a lot of their technical books, white papers etc on their eReader, I assume the Kindle app can handle PDF's etc? But is it possible to load up eBooks from other sources into a single repository, if so is Kindle the best for this or is there something else.

Anything else I need to know

Download the kindle app.

I too have an iPad - shiny.

**fckvwls** · 5 September 2012, 11:38

Download Caliber and the Kindle app. Use it to format eBooks into your chosen format and push to your chosen device.

Torrent away and before you know it you'll have a monster library that needs managing.

**Platypus** · 5 September 2012, 12:24

Originally posted by SimonMac View Post

there is an app for both my iPad and MacBook and I assume books are tied to the account not the device so I can view them on both?!

Yes.

Originally posted by SimonMac View Post

Also someone mentioned (I think it was Gentile) that they have a lot of their technical books, white papers etc on their eReader, I assume the Kindle app can handle PDF's etc?

Yes, but not brilliantly it seems to me. You have to email your PDF to your your Kindle and Amazon converts it into readable format for you. That's as far as I got with this.

Originally posted by SimonMac View Post

But is it possible to load up eBooks from other sources into a single repository, if so is Kindle the best for this or is there something else.

Don't know, but my suspicion is that the iPad might be the best repository since it handles Kindle books, PDFs natively and iBooks.

**Bacchus** · 5 September 2012, 12:32

One ring to rule them all...

I find the best thing to do is manage everything on the laptop, one place to back up, one proper fat file system for storage, then distribute files accordingly

You can read PDFs natively on the kindle, but unless you set the size so that a whole page fits on the 6" screen you will have to scroll all over the place, it's like trying to read a broadsheet through the letter box

As others have said, download Callibre!

**mrdonuts** · 5 September 2012, 14:01

anyone know if kindle ebook reader is any good for techbooks in pdf format if you use this calibre application to reformat them for it

**northernladuk** · 5 September 2012, 14:09

I have a kindle and the app on my phone and after a bit of torrenting I have more reading material than I have hours left in my life so happy days.

One thing I cannot do however is use them for tech manuals.. I just can't get used to using the kindle to find the stuff I want and all that. I normally only need a section and as much as I know all the different ways of finding the page on a kindle it doesn't beat flicking through the book. Have tried for awhile and it's just not happening. I got over the holding a book thing almost immediately but not tech ones.

**mrdonuts** · 5 September 2012, 14:13

thanks

**eek** · 5 September 2012, 14:15

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

I have a kindle and the app on my phone and after a bit of torrenting I have more reading material than I have hours left in my life so happy days.

One thing I cannot do however is use them for tech manuals.. I just can't get used to using the kindle to find the stuff I want and all that. I normally only need a section and as much as I know all the different ways of finding the page on a kindle it doesn't beat flicking through the book. Have tried for awhile and it's just not happening. I got over the holding a book thing almost immediately but not tech ones.

Last year I rapidly ended up with both an kindle and an ipad due to that exact problem

Kindle for fiction and non-fiction books
Ipad for technical books and pdfs. Most of the pdf apps have very good search facilities.

**NickFitz** · 5 September 2012, 18:47

Originally posted by SimonMac View Post

I have just got an iPad (oooh shiney makes it all better) and am getting my head around eBooks etc, I have seen the native iOS iBooks and I assume using this method will mean I can only buy books from iTunes, which on first glace seems to be more expensive than the likes of Amazon, so that would mean I would have to use the Kindle route, there is an app for both my iPad and MacBook and I assume books are tied to the account not the device so I can view them on both?!

iBooks can handle PDFs and eBooks.

E.g. download some useful and instructive tome, such as Sources of the Synoptic Gospels by Carl S. Patton, in eBook format; drag and drop it on iTunes; sync it to your iPad and read it there.

Do the same thing with some worthy PDF, such as this paper on Ethnic Conflict in Papua New Guinea. That way you'll have something to read when you get bored with the Synoptic Gospel thing

The Kindle app, available free on both iPad and Mac (and indeed on just about everything) can also handle both eBooks and PDFs, IIRC.

Definitely get Calibre, if only for the sake of removing DRM from Kindle books. Read this first: http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2...the-perplexed/

Happy reading

EDIT: just to add, Kindle is also available on iPhone, and will synchronise your reading position between phone, tablet, and computer; this can be quite handy.

eBooks for Dummies