various kindle devices

How to Get Great Content for Your Favorite Mobile Reading Device

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various kindle devices
The holidays are over and things have settled down to normal. Perhaps you’re an avid reader, or made it your New Year’s resolution to read more? Either way, you want some great reads to put on your new device. Electronic Book Readers have become so popular that local libraries are offering classes on how to use them and USA Today is weighing in on the “Ereader vs. Tablet” debate.

The ePub format is the open eBook format recommended by The International Digital Publishing Forum and supported by most Ereaders.  If you don’t own a device that supports the ePub format then you can use the add-ons for Firefox or Chrome Internet Browsers and read them on your computer. You can also download Aldiko for Android or Stanza for iPhone & iPad to read on your smartphone or tablet.

Where to Get Free Content

So, where do you get books in EPUB format?  There are many places to download free books in EPUB (and usually Kindle) format such as Google Books or Project Gutenburg website.  You can also buy books from Google books, Barnes and Noble, or borrow them from some local libraries, but where can you get LDS books in the EPUB format?

Here is a partial list of LDS Books you can download in EPUB format… just to get you started.

Converting to ePub or Kindle

What about other stuff? Web pages, and other web content like that of the Maxwell Institute (formerly FARMS) at BYU? Luckily there’s a cool online tool called Dot ePub that makes it really easy. If you use Chrome browser, scroll down and look for the Chrome extension and install and use that. If you use another browser, here’s how to setup and use it:

  1. Just visit dotepub.com.
  2. In the big green bar on the right, leave it on EPUB setting, or if you have a Kindle, switch it to the MOBI setting.
  3. Leave “immersive mode” checked if you don’t want links and other distracting things in your “book.”
  4. Go to the top of the page and drag the site’s logo into your bookmark bar. It will create what’s called a bookmarklet.

It’s basically a bookmark with super powers. It doesn’t just take you to a site you bookmarked, it can do lots of other things. This one converts whatever page you are on to an ePub or Mobi book so you can put it on your ereader/phone/tablet. Here’s a video, if you need an example:

There’s also a cool Python script for converting content from The Maxwell Institute to ePub, if you’re into that sort of thing!

Do you own a Tablet or Ereader? Where do you get great content from?

7 comments
  1. this needs to be updated. The links on http://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=2841&sid=68de57e22004b3930ee700dc11b7945f&start=20#
    are all broken.

    Although I can go to Amazon.com and download a free copy of BOM, I can’t get most of the other resources I’d like, unless I pay extra.
    So, let me get this straight- 10% isn’t enough, I need to pay a couple bucks for each resource I should have access to for free anyway?
    Disgusting. Any church employees reading this, please note my disgust.

  2. the disgust has faded, a bit 🙂 Have you tested the links for mobi there? None of them seem to be active by clicking or right clicking. I assume they are not working due to a glitch on their side as I tried it a couple times.

    1. 🙂 I haven’t. I don’t have a Kindle or anything that I’d need them for. I’d recommend trying to contact LDS Tech. They’re all volunteer, so it’s a little different than a mistake by a Church Employee. But I’m sure they’d appreciate knowing and will work to correct it quickly. Kindle (of the non-Fire variety) is still quite popular, so I’m sure both the LDS Tech community and the Church will be anxious to have those working again and appreciate knowing they’re down.

  3. I have a Sony Reader and am looking for a suite of LDS scriptures and study guide/manuals the interact the same way my Mobipockets works on my PDA. The Church no longer translates the Ensign or new manuals for Mobipockets. Deseret Book doen’t seem to have their suite yet for EPUB. I heard there was a way to make my Reader use Android. Do you have a solution for me?

  4. Also, for folks willing to convert between formats, there is a great tool that makes this a breeze. It’s called Calibre, found here: http://calibre-ebook.com/ So if you have a PDF, you can use Calibre to convert it to ePub or mobi or a bunch of other formats.

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