Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#31

Post by billfruit » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:15 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #14

maskros wrote: post #9

Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry abo…

I've heard people complain about Calibre's EPUB conversion utility, but I've never seen anyone do a deep-dive to explain exactly why it's bad. Is it comparable to the HTML-soup that Microsoft Word spits out when you export a Word doc to HTML? FWIW, I still heed those warnings, and so I still hold on to the de-DRM'd AZW file even after I convert it to EPUB.

For me the most obvious mangling the converting process is doing is inconsistent paragraphing, some times a single paragraph in original splits into two at an arbitrary place after conversion, and vice versa, seriously disrupting the readability.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#32

Post by kranner » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:20 PM UTC

jxdxbx wrote: post #28

maskros wrote: post #9

Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry abo…

I had no idea that an EPUB file was embedded in the weird Amazon formats. I mostly agree that you want to avoid "transcoding" an EPUB. But the formatting on some official EPUBs is so bad that I like to use readers that can override the built-in formatting. I like to choose the font, spacing, hyphenation, and justification myself. (Full justification and hyphenation are my bugbears--I think they are never appropriate…

You could unpack the ePubs, edit the CSS and repack it; and then they would work with all readers.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#33

Post by Symmetry » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:20 PM UTC

I've downloaded all my books but I'm holding off cracking the DRM until I need to.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#34

Post by neves » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:23 PM UTC

farss wrote: post #29

Don't forget to backup your marks and highlights also. I made that mistake once, and then lost my Kindle. Lost years worth of highlights and notes, so now I set up a bash script to automatically sync them to a Git repo when my Kindle is plugged into my laptop.

Your bookmarks and highlights are synced to the cloud. You should be able to read them online on: http://read.amazon.com/notebook

From the kindle you can also export all the highlights of a book to your email. It's a lot better to read it on your email. The kindle device reader note reading experience is subpar.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#35

Post by kranner » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:26 PM UTC

superkuh wrote: post #22

Sometimes it's just better to pirate the books even if you've paid for them. The formatting and error correction is usually better and they stick to epub and mobi standards. As an aside: I was helping a friend out who owned a Kindle recently and shocked to learn it can't read mobi or epub. Why would anyone buy such a crap e-reader?

Kindles are awesome e-readers. They can read .mobi files, the battery time is in weeks and the e-ink display is very easy on the eyes.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#36

Post by jhbadger » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

jxdxbx wrote: post #28

maskros wrote: post #9

Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry abo…

I had no idea that an EPUB file was embedded in the weird Amazon formats. I mostly agree that you want to avoid "transcoding" an EPUB. But the formatting on some official EPUBs is so bad that I like to use readers that can override the built-in formatting. I like to choose the font, spacing, hyphenation, and justification myself. (Full justification and hyphenation are my bugbears--I think they are never appropriate…

There isn't an EPUB "embedded" in Kindle formats. The Kindle format is based on the pre-Kindle Mobipocket format (that's why unDRMed Kindle books often have an extension of .mobi). EPUB didn't even exist when this format was created. Making an EPUB (or any other format) from a Kindle book involves converting, which is always going to introduce changes in formatting. People can argue that one program or another does a better job at doing it, but there's no way around it.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#37

Post by preek » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

farss wrote: post #29

Don't forget to backup your marks and highlights also. I made that mistake once, and then lost my Kindle. Lost years worth of highlights and notes, so now I set up a bash script to automatically sync them to a Git repo when my Kindle is plugged into my laptop.

This sounds like something that many could benefit from!

Would you mind sharing your script?

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#38

Post by Yizahi » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

There are other reasons for doing this. Even if Kindle market would function forever and Amazon won't delete books remotely there is still a possibility that your account could be breached, for example by social engineering means. And if malicious person can access your account he can delete everything there, forever. If someone will steal your Steam account you can restore it completely, most likely. If Amazon acc is stolen - goodbye everything. And support won't restore or refund anything. (support itself is good)

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#39

Post by aswanson » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

Anyone know of a good way to browse & put pdfs into the kindle? The Amazon PC application purports to do as much but is really bad at it.

Re: Backing Up My Kindle Ebooks (2018)

#40

Post by Finnucane » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

jxdxbx wrote: post #28

maskros wrote: post #9

Calibre is great, if you configure it properly. By default, converting books to another format will change the layout! Destroying the original formatting by default is unacceptable behaviour to be honest, so user beware. For Kindle, I suggest using the KindleUnpack plugin instead; which can extract the EPUB file embedded in the AZW/KF8 format file losslessly for use with EPUB based readers without having to worry abo…

I had no idea that an EPUB file was embedded in the weird Amazon formats. I mostly agree that you want to avoid "transcoding" an EPUB. But the formatting on some official EPUBs is so bad that I like to use readers that can override the built-in formatting. I like to choose the font, spacing, hyphenation, and justification myself. (Full justification and hyphenation are my bugbears--I think they are never appropriate…

That's basically the case. The Amazon format is basically a proprietary wrapper around epub. You make a Kindle file by starting with an ePub file and running it through the Kindlegen software provided by Amazon. So Calibre's converters are basically reverse-engineering that process. This means that if an ePub version of the book is being sold by Apple or Kobo or some other vendor, that's the file you should start with, though their encryption may be better than Amazon's.