I received a Kindle form Santa (Justine). I fired it up Christmas Eve, along with millions of other lucky people and discovered that there was nothing on it to read. It comes with an instruction manual and a dictionary or two and that’s it.
I decided to use the internet in order to load the 3 gigs of space on the thing with books, but it only takes PDF files or MOBI files. The PDF files are useless because the font is so small and you can’t read anything unless you zoom in. MOBI files are rare.
How I loaded up my Kindle with about 500 books, free.
1) Download uTorrent from www.utorrent.com/downloads and install it.
2) Go to thePirateBay.org. This is a site that lists torrents. Many of these are illegal, so if you are concerned with this, stop now. It is, however, easy to find things that are not pirated.
3) Search for ebooks on Pirate Bay.
4) Click the torrent download link of any ebooks that you want.
I discovered several collections of Science Fiction ebooks that were legally downloaded and included in an archive. These books are usually free giveaways, and in some cases public domain books. Many of them I had not read.
Torrents take hours or even days to download, so leave your computer on and be patient. If you click on the uTorrent icon you can see the progress. Some torrents are no longer being shared and will never download. Some are bogus and contain ads or even viruses. Make sure your virus software is up to date before you start downloading. (Don’t click on anything that the torrent downloads. Use the Clibre software to convert it first.)
Most of the ebooks that you will download will be in PDF format. Many are zipped or RAR’ed. You may have to download WinRar to open the .RAR files. (PDF files can contain viruses so don’t try to view these.)
5) Download and install Calibre from calibre-ebook.com
6) Use Caliber to convert the PDF files to MOBI format. Start Calibre and add files to the library. Use the automatic conversion to convert entire directories of books. Make sure that you select MOBI as the target for conversion.
7) Plug the Kindle into the USB port of your computer and copy the MOBI files to the documents directory of your Kindle.
The conversion process may need tweaking. I find that Calibre is constantly confusing the author with the book’s title. There are all kinds of options for handling this “meta data”. There are mysterious line breaks in the books from time to time, but this does not bother me, as it is infrequent.
Calibre can convert almost anything to anything. You can download text files or ePub or any of a dozen or so formats and convert them to MOBI for the kindle.
Keep checking back at Pirate Bay for new ebooks.
There are many websites that convert files to mobi. There is a way to email mobi files to your kindle. You have to authorize your kindle through amazon to receive the files, though.
Keith
I jus got a new Kindle.. my issue is I operate everything through my phone. I don’t have a laptop so I cannot download calibre . Is there any other apps on phone so that I can convert it to mobi file
The books themselves should not have any viruses. At worst they could have an annoying JavaScript that pops up something. Converting from epub to mobi or from mobi to epub should clean up most stuff.
Does converting the books get rid of any viruses?
My kindle does not display PDF files easily and they appear so small as to be unreadable. Kindle works best with MOBI. Nest best is converted ePub, rtf or doc. PDFs, which often just an image scan of each page, seldom work.
Yes… this is actually really bad advice. All that happens is you end up with unreadable ebooks. Pdfs aren’t easy to reverse engineer.
I use bookszz.org and bookos-z1.org (related) to download ALL kinds of different formats and then I convert them to mobi with Calibre. I also use mobilism.org to download books (different formats, then convert with Calibre (you do not need to join to download books).
For my Android phone, I use the UB reader app (which supports epub and pdf publications) and I can download books directly to my phone from bookszz.org and bookos-z1.org.
Happy reading!
Hi,
I you want to download kindle books try gutengerg.org . you can also try look for kindle books on bookzz.org by writing a key work followed by “mobi” you may find something interesting sometimes.
by the way bookzz.org is my best websites for downloading free pdf books.
I hope this helps.
I tried all of that, and opened the books (all 20 of them) just fine with the Kindle app for PC, but still cannot see them on my KIndle touch, although I can see they are there in the Kindle’s document folder. Indicatively enough, since I created my Amazon account (I did it after almost 2 years of reading only the books I already had on my computer), I haven’t been able to see and use the books that I put directly to my Kindle document folder, even though that way worked just perfectly before I opened the account. Strange, isn’t it. Did the Amazon messed that for me, so that I have to go through them from now on?
I don’t use Calibre to convert PDF to Mobi, but I can (and do) read my PDF books and docs on my Kindle Fire. No problems doing so. For this, I just use Calibre to upload PDF to my Kindle, simply to keep track of my books.
Just because the book has the extension .mobi doesn’t mean that it is a good mobi file. There may be some garbage in the file or the file format is somehow wrong. The kindle will not load files that are not in the correct format.
I would download the kindle app for PC and see if that will read the files. Also try converting the mobi to epub and see if it works. If it does, you can convert it back to mobi and it might work.
Keith
BTW, the best file converter when you want to convert PDF files to MOBI format is, in my opinion, the ‘Mobipocket creator’ . 99% of the time the converted files come out just perfect, at least that was the case with the files I worked with.
Transferring ebooks in mobi file to my kindle used to be hassle free. I just drag it to the “documents” folder and voilà! They’re there.
What happened since I opened my Amazon Kindle account was different. I tried to move mobi ebooks to my kindle. The books were transferred fine, I can see them on my kindle drive (in the document folder) on the computer. The problem was when I opened my Kindle to arrange the books I transferred, they weren’t there. I tried reconnecting my kindle to the computer and the books are still there. Even hard restart didn’t do any good. I don’t know what’s wrong. I would appreciate any ideas and hope someone can help me with this problem.
More than slight. Conversion from PDF to MOBI is just awful no matter what you use. I have been using an old iPad for PDF books. It is far better for PDF reading. The reader app sizes things well enough so that they are readable. I have some books that are just scans of old books and magazines and are just images – no text. These sometimes work well with the iPad, but sometimes not so much.
I am lucky in that my sister-in-law updates her technology as soon as something new comes out. I get the old stuff, like two perfectly good iPads, a couple of iPhones, and a new laptop every six months. She has sent me two old kindles so far.
Keith
Slight problem: Calibre pdf -> kindle conversion is *terrible* bordering on totally unreadible. Have you tried looking at any of the books you’ve converted?
My site https://www.globalgrey.co.uk has quite a decent selection of Kindle books, plus, if there is any PDF on there that you want converting, you just have to contact me and I’ll do it.
The Samsung is not a kindle.
I did find these instructions:
1) Drag your files in the /kindle folder on your device
2) restart Kindle for Android application.
You might not see them right away but after you disconnect the device from the USB port and restarted the Kindle app, you are going to find the .mobi books in the “On Device” tab.
The key here is that the kindle app doesn’t look for new mobi files. It only checks when it starts up. You have to stop kindle. On my (cheapo) android phone I have an app that shows the number of apps running and I can “stop all apps”. I do this to reboot the apps so that they will check the disk.
I read another post where it says the kindle folder must be on the devices sd card, to you may have to make a directory if one isn’t there.
I also read a post that says that the kindle app only reads files from Amazon, but I think that is wrong.
Here is what I do to read kindle books on my iPad.
I installed dropbox (it’s free) on the iPad and on my home computer. I then put the mobi file in the dopbox folder on my home computer. I then went to the ipod and started up the dropbox app and I could see the mobi file. I used dropbox to open it with the kindle app.
I do this with PDF and audio files, too. It lets me share files easily without having to use the usb cable.
Keith
Keith
Help
I have the samsung tab3 I have the kindle app– I have followed your instructions but when i go to transfer the files from my pc to the tab– under kindle I do not have a docs folder I have an acw file– I put the files there went to the kindle app & nothing is showing up — now what?? (they are mobi files )
Help
I am using samsung tab 3– I tried to add the mobi files but there is not a docs file when I open the kindle app– I put them into the acw file but that isn’t working either Now what??
Thanks, Keith, for your prompt reply. I stopped then restarted, uTorrent, but still the same issue. It’s sad, because that site was awesome!
I have noticed this. I start up uTorrent before I try to download anything and it seems to work.
Don’t install anything that you haven’t asked to install. You have to be careful – If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, and there are lots of dogs out there.
Keith
Hey Keith,
Thanks so much for this post. I was able to successfully follow your directions and get everything up and running. I have noticed, for the past couple days that the Pirate Bay site is now requesting that I download some type of software in order to get their torrent. I have not done so. Have you experienced this issue? It’s really odd because this is a recent thing; before, it worked like a charm.
Thanks for your help!
The files must be MOBI files. if you have epub files it won’t work.
The files should show up on your kindle when you press “Home”.
Keith
hi… I tried this method and followed everything step by step however I couldn’t see the book anywhere on my kindle once I had copied the file… could you help please
thanks
Try the kindle app for android by Amazon.
I use a samsung tablet for my e-books. I have downloaded many books in mobi format but can’t find a reader to use on my tablet. I can read epub format but I have some in mobi that I cant find in e-pub. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
Kobo takes the MOBI format, but it also takes epub, text and PDF, so you can pretty much search for ebooks and anything you hit will be good for the KOBO.
I don’t own a Kobo, but I am confident that you just have to plug it into a USB port and copy the files to the right folder to get it to work.
I have also been collecting listings of free Kindle books that appear on Amazon and you can pick them up at:
Kindle Mysteries
Kinde Science Fiction
Free Kindle Romance
Free Kindle Computer Books
Free Kindle Science Books
Free Kindle Business Books
These are only good for a day or so. Check that it is still on sale for $0 before buying.
The Mysteries and SF books are 99% crap, but they are free if you see anything interesting. I mostly download the business, computer and science books. Most of them are worthless, but I have found a few gems.
Cant thank you enough I am such a dinosaur in this. Appreciate the step by step. Question is this work to put on to a KOBO I just bought for my Grandson. ?
Thanks. I found the process tricky but doable. Appreciate the step by step. Why in the world spend hundreds of dollars on books and clutter up Kindle? I love to read but found amazon charged almost as much for hardcopy of a book. As far as pirating goes….I read once that isn’t it the same as buying books second hand? The author only gets royalties once.
No truth.
I distribute my own book “Frogs in Aspic” via torrents. I did this on purpose to generate some interest in the book and my other books have increased in sales because of it. This is not a pirate copy, but my own version.
Keith
I heard that you must not register your kindle and that if I did register the Kindle that I would not be able to use torrents and would only be able to used the ebooks purchased through amazon. Is there any truth to this?
Thanks! Got it to work! Definitely going to continue using this method:)
Phoenix 🙂
Books are just there. The Kindle caches its category structure so programs that change that require that you reboot the device. A simple copy just works. The kindle sees the new books right away.
Keith
Hi,
I just found this. After you put the ebooks on the kindle, do you need to restart it or are the books there already? Thanks.