I gave up my Kindle… and I couldn’t be happier

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Music: Who's Afraid of Halloween by Alfred Grupstra from Pixabay

[allisonj.]

I'm one of StoryGraph's volunteer librarians. What a happy surprise to see a shout out for the site!

[sonarfreq]

I watched another video here last night, where someone was concerned about Amazon's ability to update book content (covers and copy) without asking you first, which has also concerned me for some time. So although I DO buy ebooks from Amazon, I also convert every single purchase into an EPUB version using Calibre and DE-DRM plugins, and then store this alternative library on another hard drive. The EPUB as a result cannot suffer such tampering from Amazon, plus I have a DRM free library to enjoy or share as I please! I'm "almost" a pensioner now, and I have grown up and lived largely in a culture that always used actual PUBLIC LIBRARIES to share and disseminate information in book form amongst others, and I will never accept a huge corporation suddenly deciding that they are the arbiter of what can and cannot be sold or shared in a written form, to the detriment of humanity. Thank you for the video, and sharing your thoughts, and I wholeheartedly agree with you! And incidentally, my ereader is an old black n white Barnes & Noble Nook, which is still working perfectly after years and years, and I sideload my EPUBS onto it via USB. God Bless.

[genteelblackhole]

I've backed up my Kindle books with Calibre too, but I haven't taken the final step of actually getting a Kobo (or other e-reader). It's definitely something I intend to do eventually though, I'm glad it's working so well for you. And now you've got me making a Storygraph account too!

[bjminton]

Amazon has put so many small brick and mortar companies out of business by bringing in lesser quality items. I have never considered getting a Kindle because of that and have been reading ebooks for nearly 20 years. Love my BOOX!!

[golemtabak]

I've been annoyed about the Kindle for a while: too slow, disastrous user interface, cheapest design, and all in all just way too expensive.
I've always wondered how to get my books onto another reader. You have answered all my questions, thank you very much!

I will probably buy a Kobo Reader next :)

[jeffocks]

Great to find this video, and at this moment. Had been planning getting a kindle. I've been on Kobo for 10+ years. The books I buy look cheaper on amazon when I compare. But I'd hate ads in a reader so thanks to you I'm staying put with kobo!

[bzylarisa]

Watching you quit Kindle encouraged me to finally get a Kobo—the same color model as yours—and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

[gamewrit]

First time viewer. Great and insightful video. Concise and very helpful. Cheers!

[d.r.martin]

If you haven't already, I would enjoy a piece on how you use Calibre to repurpose the books you have on your Kindles. I'm tempted to switch, too, but am intimidated by the prospect of transferring my several hundred titles.

[aag]

Bravo Oliver! I am amazed that you have an YouTube account. How delightful - I agree 100% about Amazon.I have finally worked out how to de-DM the Kindle (few) books I have. I now need to find a "reasonably priced" eReader, I can now try and enjoy books in electronic format … I have only been able to manage "real" paper books. I wish I could enjoy the convenience of the eBooks. I also deleted my Goodreads. Very sad that I had to do it - but I just couldn't keep supporting yet another Amazon "product" like so many other things.

[christopherharnett]

I love how clean the Kobo UI is. I got a Libra Color around the same time as you and I love it.

[DYNAMITE]

I'm not thrilled with my reliance with Amazon, but I do love my kindle. It's nearly 8 years old and still runs relatively well. One of the things I like best is how seamlessly it works with my e-library account with the Libby app. With an e-reader like Kobo, have you found it compatible with library services? Is it as convenient as Kindle's process?

[staceyspencer]

I've had a Kindle in my Amazon shopping cart for weeks. Haven't bought yet because (1) no money and (2) hoping for a sale. Just removed it and started checking stats on other e-readers. Thank you!

[patricia]

You made some really good points! I didn't know it was possible to move your kindle ebooks elsewhere. I'm going to check if it's available in my country. It does bothers me how big Amazon has become, but in my mind there wasn't anything better out there... Thank you for opening my mind and encouraging me to do my research. ❤

[evegarvega]

I use my old kindle, I jailbreak it and install my own screensavers and then I mainly use it for borrow on the library or books from free repositories, like project Guttenberg and so on, it is so frustrating the amazon ecosystem. It blows my mind that you can buy a book and after several months it may never be available again.

[KevinG-]

I had a kindle for the sole purpose of reading books. Technically you don't own the books as kindle can delete them from your account.You're paying for a license to read them. Jared Henderson explains that in his video, "Kindle has a big problem, so.... Going back to a book store or another smaller company that sells online is the answer! So dump it completely and use alternatives.

[michellerever]

The majority of what I use my Kindle for are library borrows and I'm thrilled with it from that aspect since I'm down to one book store splurge a year. I don't imagine myself ever heavily purchasing Kindle books again.

I should probably keep Kobo in mind.

[lazyhominid]

I use my Kindle with calibre. I don't buy many books from Amazon, and when I do, I start by turning them into ebooks and adding them to calibre, and if I want to read them on my Kindle I add them using calibre. I also get books from other stores and sites, and add them to my Kindle. It works very well, and is very nice. There is no way I'm giving that up.

[mikec]

I've been thinking about this as well. I think I finally figured out what I'm getting myself for Christmas. :) Thank you very much for sharing your perspective. It's helpful. God bless.

[esthereley]

I've also moved from Kindle to my new Kobo Libra Colour and I'm really enjoying reading on it. I use different colour highlights for quotes, dialogue, character and plot. I've moved quite a lot of my (995!) Kindle books via Calibre to my Kobo. What I really enjoy is linking Libby to it, so I can read and annotate my Library Bookclub titles easily on my Kobo.