Old books for my Kindle Fire

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
Herself bought me a Kindle Fire for christmas

I am learning fast

any suggestions - free or cheap is the ticket

I am also ignorant about the formats that work and those that look terrible

pdfs generally look pretty soupy with words missing

I am most interested in sailing history or old nautical journeys

just re-read Shrimpy and really enjoyed it - but even that was a pdf

I have a PDF of Slocum but it is full of missing letters and words and looks horrible to read

D
 
PDF is a bad format for ebooks - and most stuff as it's little more than a graphics file. Almost any test file will work, but Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/download is your best friend for Kindle. It'll convert almost any format into a Kindle-friendly one. It'll even make a stab at PDF, but less than fantastic for that.

As for free books, there are plenty on amazon. Most are teasers for paid-for series, but there are free versions of most classics. Probably the best source of legal copies of out of copyright books is Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/
 
Stemar said:
PDF is a bad format for ebooks - and most stuff as it's little more than a graphics file. Almost any test file will work, but Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/download is your best friend for Kindle. It'll convert almost any format into a Kindle-friendly one. It'll even make a stab at PDF, but less than fantastic for that.
Click to expand...

I'd second Calibre as a must have program
 
pdf files can work OK on Kindle, but only if:
no photos or graphic frames;
no columns;
page size is roughly similar to or a little larger than a Kindle screen.

So a pdf of a typical paperback book works OK, but very little else.

As said, Calibre is the answer with most non-Kindle formats.
 
I love the classic literature that is often available for free download onto Kindle.

At the moment I'm reading Moby Dick on my Kindle Fire.

Previously had Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Robinson Crusoe, The Master of Ballantrae (RLS), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (much better than I expected) and some old gothic horror like Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft.

I have actually purchased some books (!) but all of these were free .
 
Two Years before the Mast by R H Dana is full of historical information, about the same time as Moby Dick.

White-Jacket by Melville is interesting about naval life, also Redburn and Typee.

Peter Simple

The N****r of the Narcissus and other short stories by Conrad

and of course, The Last Grain Race by Newby.
 
Stemar said:
PDF is a bad format for ebooks - and most stuff as it's little more than a graphics file.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately often true. But not necessarily so. It was intended (I believe) as a searchable and re-compositable (I suspect that is not the correct word!) text format. Using it as a wrapper for an image file is a rather degenerate employment.

Mike.
 
I find many free Kindle books from Amazon don't display the illustrations or maps even though the Table of Contents has links to them. Seems a bit churlish to complain when they cost nothing but most history books and sailing books are practically useless without illustrations and maps.
 
I have found not all android readers read all formats. If a book scrambles in one, try another.
I've got Alkildo, UB Reader, FB Reader, and Moon+Reader, (all freebies)
I also had KOBO until I learnt the company also owns whaling ships :disgust:
 
Tam Lin said:
Roughing it and Life on the Mississippi. Two free books on Kindle by Mark Twain. Who knew that he was a riverboat pilot, gold miner etc before he was famous?
Click to expand...

You can download everything he ever published for free. Far from boaty, but do try his account of travelling by stagecoach from St Louis to Nevada. A wonderful historical yarn, full of wry observations, and the best put-downs of Mormonism you'll ever read.
 
Sign up on Bookbub.com They've got lot's of free New books.
And don't forget librivox.org for thousands of free audio books. I've listed to many, many of these. Including Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, 20,000 leagues Under the Sea, etc.
 
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macd said:
You can download everything he ever published for free. Far from boaty, but do try his account of travelling by stagecoach from St Louis to Nevada. A wonderful historical yarn, full of wry observations, and the best put-downs of Mormonism you'll ever read.
Click to expand...

That's in Roughing It. Read it recently and agree that it is a fascinating account of life in the USA at a time of great change. Twain records the journey by stage and a few years later that was history when the trains came. They did the same to boat traffic on the Mississippi, thriving places became ghost towns almost overnight. I recommend it and it is good value!
 
'South' by Shackleton is gripping, and includes the less well known second half the story which Kenneth Brannagh forgot
 
I'm not sure of the formats but the 2 best books I have on my iPad are:-

Jack AllAlone: His Cruises, Frank Cowper, 1897. This was obtained from Google.

Under the Cabin Lamp, H. Alter Tripp. 1950. This is a iBook.

At least one of these should be old enough to qualify.
 
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