During my latest vaccination, the only bookseller in town was closed for a couple of days. I could've given up reading — instead, I bought a book for my mother's Kindle, Oasis 3. My mother paid for the book —. I like to pay for my own things, but wasn't in the mood for arguing. My mother said she would like to read it later anyway.
I love the concept of a Kindle — I like technology with real physical buttons. I like being able to read in the dark, and best of all, if you move houses you bring with you a small tablet, not tons of books. Having to charge a book does seem dumb though.
After finishing the book, I wanted to buy another book for the Kindle; a little bit to repay my mother for loaning me her Kindle; but mostly because I enjoy reading. Soon after entering the built-in Kindle store, I became bemused. The front of the store, and every category page is littered with what I'd consider pulp fiction or books I know are in the public domain — Amazon sure likes making money I guess. The only way to find interesting books seemed to be to do a direct search in the Kindle shop. After a while, I found a book I was interested in. I pressed on the purchase button and was ready to purchase with my credit card.
In order to keep your account safe, you'll need to log in again before adding a new credit card
What the heck? At this point, I just gave up. I know I could have called my mother and made her pay for another book — but I just became a bit more depressed. When my mother eventually dies and I lose access to her kindle accound, I guess I'll lose access to all her Kindle books. I guess I just have to accept I must own nothing and be happy.
Are there any good alternatives to Kindle where books aren't locked to an account, where you can actually own something? I love e-readers and I hate them at the same time.
by Bananananana_Batman
4 Comments
You can strip the DRM from Kindle books pretty easily with Calibre and some plugins, then you actually own the files. Been doing it for years and never had issues
Also check out Kobo if you want something that’s less locked down from the start
they make paper books now
Is it really such an unbelievable stretch that your digital purchases are linked to a digital account? Nothing is preventing you from being given access to that account, or changing the information associated with it whenever you need to, or any number of other tiny things. Nothing is preventing you from accessing the book once logged in either, or downloading it yourself to a different device you’re logged in on for offline use.
There are a LOT of anti consumer practices out there right now. Don’t diminish them by bitching about stuff like this. E readers have done so much good in making literature available to a much wider audience.
I have an old hand me down kindle that i run exclusively in airplane mode. All books are loaded in from my pc using Calibre. Alternatively, my wife has a kobo that I understand to be less oppressive. Boycott Amazon.