Tag Archives: 電子書

Read Google Play Books on your Kindle

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book-2135769_1920This is an unnecessarily complex way to convert your Google Play book to a Kindle readable version. Why don’t they make their systems interoperable? (Sigh!)

Go to Google Play Books:

Step 1: Click ‘My Books’

Step 2: Hover over the book you’ve bought in Google Play and click the ︙ button.

Step 3: Select download ePub and download it to your computer.

Step 4: Install Adobe Digital Editions (yes, you really have to do this).

Step 5: Once you’ve setup an account, go to ‘File’ and ‘Add to Library’, then select the file you just downloaded and open it.

Step 6: Go back to Library

Step 7: Download Calibre (yes, you also really have to do this.)

Step 8: Download DeDRM Tools (shhh… just do it) and extract files.

Step 9: On the main screen of Calibre, go to Preferences, and then click Plugins, under the Advanced Tab.

Step 10: Click ‘Load Plugin from File’ and select the DeDRM Tools file you just downloaded and extracted.

Step 11: Restart Calibre and Click ‘Add Books’, and select the downloaded file from My Digital Editions

Step 12: Select ‘Convert Books’, and select MOBI as the output file type.

Step 13: On the right of the Calibre app there should be a Path: Click to open link. This will lead you to your newly created MOBI file, which you can transfer to your Kindle.

Step 14: You’ll generally have an email that you can send files to, or you can just do it the old fashioned way via USB.

 

 

E-reading Chinese-language books in Taiwan: Frustrations Galore

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Taiwan has been quite slow to get into the e-books game, but over the last few years, more and more titles are being made available on a range of platforms. Although there is a range of reading devices available, I’m going to look only at e-books available on the Kindle (the only dedicated e-reader device in my possession) and on various mobile phone apps.

A word of warning, expect to be slightly disappointed. The industry seems largely to be dragging its heels, preferring traditional paper copies to digital copies (cue a junior lecturer’s lesson plan on Walter Benjamin). I’m not sure if this has to do with copyright law or if there’s just a general fuddy-duddyness. Anecdotally speaking, I’ve seen a lot of people reading martial arts novels and lots of manga on their phones in the MRT.

Kindle: I was actually surprised when I was gearing up to do this blogpost, how many Taiwanese books are available on Kindle if you search for them. That is the catch though, you already have to know what you’re looking for. Once you do manage to get your book on to the Kindle, it works quite well.

The other options available that I’ve seen are Google Play Books, MyBooks or eBook – the eBook reader launched by books.com.tw (and there’s also ReadMoo and Kobo rated below in the table). Even here, older but famous titles (like 《孽子》  for example) are hard to find. If you know of any other stores let me know in the comments section.

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