WWTBAM Bored

If you purchase e-books on Amazon, your options for downloading and reading those books are about to get considerably more limited. You have always been able to download Kindle books you purchase to any Kindle device you own via wi-fi. However, you also have the option to download and transfer Kindle e-books to your computer via a USB connection. Once on your computer, it's available as a backup, and if they subsequently edit or delete a particular title (that's happening more often nowadays), you have the version you bought. Also, if you want to read that book on somebody else's e-reader, like a Nook, you can convert the title using a program like Calibre to a compatible format and then transfer to your other e-reader.

Unfortunately, the download to computer option is going away as of February 26. After that, you won't be able to transfer Amazon titles out of the Amazon universe. So, if you want to save your e-books, do so now. Unfortunately, the option to download via USB is limited to one title at a time, so if you have an extensive library, it's going to take you quite some time. This article explains more:

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/download-k ... ure-feb-26

Ok, not sure if this affects me or not from reading the story.

I don't have a Kindle-but I use the "Kindle for PC" program thing on my computer. Any e-books I have are downloaded to that when I buy them and I read on my laptop.

Will this continue to be the case?

To probably no one's surprise, I have a pretty large library of kindle books.

Spock wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 24, 2025 9:25 am

I don't have a Kindle-but I use the "Kindle for PC" program thing on my computer. Any e-books I have are downloaded to that when I buy them and I read on my laptop.

Will this continue to be the case?

This won't affect you. When you "purchase" a book on Amazon, you're actually purchasing a license to access the book, the same as if you buy or rent a streaming video. At some point, you selected a default device in your account. That's probably "Kindle for PC." You can change the default device if you ever get a Kindle or if you have the program on a second PC (it would give you options "Kindle for PC" and "Kindle for PC 2.") Your book is automatically delivered to the Kindle for PC program on your computer and you can read, remove, or delete it or send it to as many Kindle devices as you have.

The option that's being removed in two days by Amazon allows you to have an AZW file (Amazon's proprietary format) downloaded to your computer. From there, you could convert it to a different format like a PDF using a conversion program like Calibre and upload it to a Kobo or Nook reader or send it to someone else as an email attachment.

One thing to note. Kindle books are updated all the time. In many cases, self-published authors will correct a bunch of typos and similar mistakes. Other times an author will write a book and a year later write a sequel. They then go to the first volume and add a couple of pages at the end promoting the sequel. When they update the book for whatever reason, if you have the book on a Kindle device or on Kindle for PC, your version gets updated automatically. However, if you delivered the AZW file to your computer, that's the version you have, the same as if you buy a printed first edition.

Where this comes into play is when authors (or authors' estates) publish revised versions of their work. Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie's estates removed what they felt was problematic language. A couple of years ago, I noted that the James Bond books were also being revised, decades after Ian Fleming's death. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61611&p=599214&hili ... nd#p599214

I won't get into a discussion of how appropriate this practice may or may not be. I'll just note that if you own an earlier printed version of Live and Let Die, as I do, you have Ian Fleming's original text. If you bought a Kindle version before the "revision," you now have the revised language.

Another interesting note. Amazon can remove Kindle books entirely. This doesn't just mean a Kindle version goes "out of print." If that's the case, you still can read it. It means that the book disappears from your library entirely, often without warning. That can occur if there's a copyright or piracy dispute about a book.