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Raaaah! How do I get Gutenburg books to Kindle?

naujoks

naujoks

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 6, 2008
297
59
London, UK
Main reason for my getting an iPad was ebooks.
UK owner, so that's right:No iBooks yet!
Kindle has the cheek to charge me $$$$ to buy those books, that the Gutenberg library offers for free - the same versions!
Is there any way to upload a Gutenberg txt file (transform it somehow?) to the Kindle directory (which I found, it contains the books that I bought in the proprietary Kindle format)?
 
There's a trick to it that I don't remember off the top of my head. But if it helps- on the Kindle Store on Amazon.com, you can often find both paid AND free versions of old books. I've downloaded a number of free Gutenberg-converted books off of the Amazon Store for free, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Alice in Wonderland.
 
Check out feedbooks.com.

They have a ton of public domain books, including many classics and Gutenberg books. You can download them all for free in epub, kindle, or pdf formats.
 
gibbz said:
Check out feedbooks.com.

They have a ton of public domain books, including many classics and Gutenberg books. You can download them all for free in epub, kindle, or pdf formats.
Click to expand...

That, and there is also ManyBooks. It's easy to drag and drop the books into a Kindle, I'm not sure if Amazon will let you transfer these DRM-free books into their iPad app using iTunes (the way Goodreader and some other apps do).
 
If they were bought/downloaded on the Kindle, they should automatically sync. If you are looking to get them into iBooks, you can download directly from the Project Gutenberg site (there is an option to download them in EPUB format) then drag them from your book library onto the iPad. My book library was not initially visible and I had to check it in the preferences iTunes. I have found that the mobileread.com forums have some nicely formatted public domain books that people have taken it upon themselves to do.

Edit: Sorry, just realized I didn't answer the question regarding the Kindle. Not entirely certain on that point. Might be possible to email them to Kindle address. Not quite sure how I blinded myself to the 'I can't get iBooks yet' part :eek:
 
You can download kindle format books from manybooks.net and a number of other sites but the only way to get kindle content onto the iPad is whisper sync. There are usually several copies of Gutenberg titles on amazon so you may have to page down a few times to get to the free version. When you do finally get iBooks, it is a lot easier to get free titles to iBooks than kindle but I still use kindle so I can also read on my Mac or my iPod touch.
 
I actually figured out today that if you have an actual Kindle device (my brother has one), and you install the Kindle app on your iPad with the same registration as the Kindle device, you have the option to go to "archives" in the app and it will download any book you have (including free ebooks you put on the Kindle manually). I know this requires that you have a Kindle, but it's the only way I've been able to figure out how to do it so far. I'm using iBooks mostly anyway.
 
I believe if you jailbreak your iPad, you can copy Kindle-format (which is actually mobi format) books into the Kindle app's directory, and they will show up in the Kindle app. At least that worked on an iPod touch, I haven't tried this on the iPad. And that is, of course, if you can find ebooks in mobi format or figure out how to convert your existing ebooks into that format.

I have a feeling your best bet is to be patient and wait a bit -- iPad is going to be released in the UK on May 28 or something, I forget the exact date, but once it is released there, surely iBooks will follow soon, if it isn't released at the same time. Getting books in epub format and loading them into iBooks is really the easiest way I've found to get ebooks onto the iPad.
 
naujoks said:
Main reason for my getting an iPad was ebooks.
UK owner, so that's right:No iBooks yet!
Click to expand...
The iBook store has many free and public domain books. It's only 8 days until it launches here, so wait and see :cool:
 
To summarize: amazon has at least some of the free Gutenberg content, but they don't make it easy to find. You have to search by book, then find the one that costs $0.00, and go through the motions of "buying" it. Don't forget to "deliver" it to your iPad.
 
iBooks has all the free content

If you prefer the Kindle app follow some help in the posts above, but otherwise use the iBooks app and search for "Free". I've found everything I wanted looking for the content from the public domain that way. There is a LOT of free content in the iBooks store. As a tip you should be able to put your own book cover artwork on these once they are sync'd back into iTunes. Get the info on your book and look for the artwork where you can copy/paste what you like into the file (similar to how you can do it for music).
 
I haven't tried this yet, but if you have a mac, can you just install the OS X kindle app and add the books there, and then let them sync using whisperSync? This would eliminate the step of adding them to an actual kindle device.
 
For those who are not reading the actual top post:

The OP is in the UK and CANNOT get the iBooks app legitimately yet.
 
gwynne said:
For those who are not reading the actual top post:

The OP is in the UK and CANNOT get the iBooks app legitimately yet.
Click to expand...

So like he said he just needs a little patience and wait until next Friday. Kids, eh? Always want it now now now.
 
gwynne said:
For those who are not reading the actual top post:

The OP is in the UK and CANNOT get the iBooks app legitimately yet.
Click to expand...

The solution is to create a new US iTunes account, selecting no payment method, and using any old US address and zip code that match up (a hotel or something), also use a separate email address from your UK iTunes account.

You can then use this to access the US app store, download the iBooks app, and since you don't have to pay for the free books you can download as many as you like.

Also, you can buy US gift cards from plenty of sites (be careful though...) if you want to pay for apps.
 
I use Calibre to convert PDFs to EPUB and drag to iTunes on my desktop
Some Gutenberg books are downloadable in the EPUB format already, save and drag as before

Works well on my iBookShelf
 
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