Downloading Kindle and Nook books

They are your books.  You bought them.  Why do Amazon and Barnes & Noble not allow you to download them or read them in anything other than their reader?  What gives them the right to change or discontinue  your access to the books you bought?  What happens if either company removes support for old books?  These are not idle questions.  Music and books that people have purchased have been removed from various platforms for various reasons.  Companies that sold electronic files have gone out of business. 

I also want to be able to read all my books on my Nook.  I don't like reading on a tablet since the screen glare and refresh rate is not conducive to comfortable long term reading.  I like e-ink.  I also don't want to buy a Kindle because I already have a Nook.  It make no sense to me to have to buy a different e-reader for each company that wants to sell me books.

Consequently I choose to keep my stuff on my computer and convert it as needed to the format I want, which is epub for the Nook.

Here's a quick guide to keeping your own stuff.

1. What you will need (this will, of course, depend on what kind of books you have bought):

• Calibre e-book management software https://calibre-ebook.com/
• Nook for PC (no longer available from B&N) from epubsoft.com https://www.epubsoft.com/soft/nook-for-pc.html
• Kindle for PC (1.24 or earlier so don't get the version from amazon.com)  
• 1.17 https://www.epubsoft.com/soft/kindle-for-pc.html (Note that I haven't tried this version)
• 1.24 but had to run some command line stuff to make it work properly https://www.filesoul.com/software/Kindle-for-PC/1-24-3-Build-51068/
• DeDRM tools to allow you to convert your files so that they are readable anywhere https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2018/06/02/dedrm-tools-6-6-1-released/

2. The process for Nook

• Install calibre.  Straightforward and easy.
• Install Nook for PC, synchronize your library by signing in, then mouse over books and choose "Download".  You have to do this for each individual book.  The files will be found in Documents/My Barnes &Noble eBooks
• In calibre, install DeDRM tools by following the directions at:
• https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/calibre-plugins-the-simplest-option-for-removing-most-ebook-drm/
• Make sure to follow the directions to create a key for Nook files using your B&N login and password
• Import books just like you normally would.  Calibre will deal with the details and you will have epub files that can be converted if you need to. 

3. The process for Kindle

• Install calibre.
• Install Kindle for PC (old version that you downloaded).  If it asks if you want to update to the latest version choose "No".  Go into the settings and choose NOT to automatically download updates.
• Here's the tricky part.  You have two choices now.
• Option 1) what I did. Stop Kindle for PC from downloading your files in .kfx format. 
• open a command window by typing "command" in your start/run box
• change directories to the Kindle directory using the cd command (you are now working in DOS)
• Example: cd.. will take you up one directory
• cd  AppData will take you down into the AppData directory.  Be aware that this stuff is case sensitive.
• When you open the command window you should be in directory c:\Users\Your Name
• You want to dive down in the following order
• cd AppData
• cd Local
• cd Amazon
• cd Kindle
• cd application
• You will now type ren renderer-test.exe renderer-test.xxx
• If you get an error you are in the wrong directory (check using your file explorer that the folder you went to using the cd command actually has a program called renderer-test.exe.
• If you don't get an error but it just shows the command line again, then it worked.  It will look like nothing happened but that's normal.  You didn't tell it to tell you anything, just to run the command.  (PS If you have successfully run this program, welcome to how we used to have to do computer stuff for everything we wanted to do, pre-Windows 3.0 which came out in 1989.
• Option 2) What I didn't so I can't walk you through the process. Let DeDRM deal with .kfx formats . If you want to play with the kfx fix, go to this link https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291290
• Finally, you can open Kindle for PC, click on each book you want to download, and choose download.  The downloaded files will be found in Documents/My Kindle Content.  Each book will be in it's own folder and the folder will be titled something like B001EQ5216_EBOK
• To import them to Calibre, select "Add book, one book per directory" and then choose one of the folders.  
• Now you can convert them to any format you want, which in my case is epub so that I can read my books on my Nook.

Enjoy.  If anything here is unclear, or if it isn't working for you, please leave a note in the comments and I'll try to help, with the caveat that I am not a computer whiz, just a guy who's been figuring out his own stuff for  forty years or so on computers.

Who needs books?

I have a Nook. I love it. It's easy to read, easy to carry, and I can carry about 1500 books on the 32GB card I added.

So what am I doing at the library book sale this morning, buying books?

There are, I've discovered, some disadvantages to the Nook. The books on my Nook aren't easily lendable except to other Nook owners, the books on my Nook can't be donated to the library if I decide I don't want them anymore, and the books on my Nook don't make a satisfyingly attractive display that friends and acquaintances can browse through, getting a sense of what I like and maybe finding something new that they want to read. There's just something satisfying about pulling a book off the shelf and flipping through it to see if you want to read it. I go back and forth and today, I went forth.

I know. I'll call it "community support". I'm helping the local library. In a couple years I'll probably end up donating all the books I bought back to the library anyway so it'll be a double.