NOTRECOMMENDED: Any KINDLE or ebook “purchased” from AMAZON

Monday, October 6, 2025

https://www.androidauthority.com/amazon-kindle-e-books-drm-harder-to-backup-3601341/

Your Kindle e-books just got locked down even tighter
With stricter DRM in place, your Kindle library is now even harder to back up.
By Matt Horne aka @SalvaCash
September 25, 2025

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For Kindle owners, this continues a pattern of losing personal control over purchased books. Earlier this year, Amazon removed the ability to download titles for local transfer via USB. Old versions of the Kindle Android app also no longer support downloads, which cut off another method people used for saving e-books. With this latest move, the company has tightened its grip on Kindle e-books even further.

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As much as I linked my old Kindle, which I have misplaced, I can’t understand why AMAZON has locked it down even more.

Until the Gooferment cracks down on AMAZON for its FRAUDULENT practice of “SELLING” books when it’s really just delivering a “LICENSE” to you, we’re stuck with a BIG BROTHER “librarian”.

I’m tired of what I call “CONTENT FRAUD”.  I don’t know how many times in the past I’ve had to rebuy content.  Paper books, books on cassette tapes, books on CDs, and “audio” books are all the same content that we’re stuck buying and rebuying,

Never mind that Disney and Amazon do a big business in “SELLING” streaming content that you don’t have control over.

Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon, but I’m now at the point where I’m not BUYING content where I don’t control the MEDIA that I’ve purchased.

I want my CONTENT without DRM so I can put it in CALIBRE and enjoy it anywhere anytime.  I want to burn that into a MEDIA that is virtually eternal and that I control.

Sorry, but I’m not LICENSING anything anymore.

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P.S.: While on the topic of really free “BOOKS” I use:

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ENCOURAGING: One of my favorite books available for free — The Swiss Family Robinsson

Saturday, March 8, 2025

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/johann-david-wyss/the-swiss-family-robinson/mary-jane-godwin_william-godwin

The Swiss Family Robinson
Johann David Wyss
166,675 words (10 hours 7 minutes) with a reading ease of 56.32 (fairly difficult)
Translated by Mary Jane Godwin and William Godwin.

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I found this book somehow and was totally absorbed by it.  Maybe that’s why I have sympathy for the survivalist lifestyle.  Maybe if I had made different choices, then I’d have different results.  

Amazing all the great, and not-so-great, books that are available here.  I’ve chipped in and hope you do too.

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TECHNOLOGY: Was able to reread Stainless Steel Rat

Saturday, November 9, 2024

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/harry-harrison/the-stainless-steel-rat

The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison

James “Slippery Jim” diGriz is a criminal in a galaxy where crime has almost been eradicated. In his own words, he’s a rat in the wainscoting of society, and now that society is all ferroconcrete and stainless steel only a stainless steel rat can find the gaps. Despite a nose for the hustle and a healthily paranoid survival instinct, Jim’s luck has to run out at some point—and when it does, it isn’t a prison cell he’s offered, but a job with the Special Corps.

The Stainless Steel Rat—a fix-up novel based on two earlier short stories for Astounding magazine—was the first in a long series of books by Harry Harrison to star the anti-hero. It is never less than a breathless ride, with twists and turns at every corner. As well as the twelve novels and additional short stories, the Stainless Steel Rat has appeared in numerous comics and games over the years, and has become Harrison’s most enduring character.

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As good as I remember reading it decades ago.

Funny that the technology makes it so available.

If this had existed when I was a kid, I’d have never stopped reading EVERY sci-fi book available.

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INSPIRATIONAL: The greatest books of wisdom are available free — a donation would be appreciated

Saturday, November 2, 2024

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jean-jacques-rousseau/the-social-contract/g-d-h-cole

The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • 56,521 words (3 hours 26 minutes) with a reading ease of 50.91 (fairly difficult)
  • Translated by G. D. H. Cole.
  • Part of the Encyclopædia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World set.  

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In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau presents a political philosophy based on the principle that legitimate authority originates from the consent of the people. Individuals willingly surrender their rights in order to create a collective sovereign, which embodies the general will of the people.

Rousseau examines different forms of government, addresses the challenges of ensuring that a government executes the general will of the people, and addresses the need for safeguards against the abuse of power. He demonstrates that active citizenship and a strong social compact are crucial for maintaining a just and free society.

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I read this in High School because it was on a summer reading list.  (Those Christian Brothers really knew how to ruin a boy’s summer.  Bless their souls.  It sunk in after one or more decades.) I had to go to the library to read it.  (It was only available in an expensive hard cover.  My money went to comic books.)  At the library I saw a complete set of the Great Books of the Western World from the Encyclopædia Britannica.  I was awed by the row.  Didn’t read them but I could have. (Shoulda, coulda, and woulda!)

It is amazing at the “riches” the net provides if it’s just used properly.

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HEROIC: Remember what WWI was really like

Monday, July 8, 2024
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/robert-derby-holmes/a-yankee-in-the-trenches/text
 
A Yankee in the Trenches
By Robert Derby Holmes
 
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Should shatter any illusions about send children off to war.
 
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INTERESTING: All the world’s literature is slowly coming to the internet — possibly unapreciated

Saturday, February 10, 2024

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/agatha-christie/the-mystery-of-the-blue-train/text/single-page

The Mystery of the Blue Train

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The Mystery of the Blue Train revolves around a set of fabulous rubies, said to have been worn by Catherine the Great, now purchased by an American millionaire as a gift to his daughter. When she takes them with her on a luxury train to the Riviera, she is unaware that among her fellow passengers are her unfaithful husband, his not-so-secret mistress, a quiet Englishwoman who believes that nothing exciting ever happens to her—and the famous retired detective Hercule Poirot. And, possibly, a murderer.

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Standard E Books puts out a huge amount of “free” content.

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This ebook is thought to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. It may still be under copyright in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws to verify that this ebook is free of copyright restrictions in the country you’re located in before accessing, downloading, or using it.

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More than even a fat old white guy retired injineer can possibly consume.  I remember reading the Hardy Boys in my youth and would save my supermarket tips to buy their latest adventure.  Like my comic book collection, those were discarded when I went in the military.   Another “casualty” of the Viet Nam war.  My Charlie Chan’s, my Heinlein’s, and McDonald color series of Travis McGees.  Sigh!

Wonder what they would be worth today?

Anyway, I am rereading some favorites as they come out of copyright.

And, of course, donate to the site.  Small change but every bit helps.  I can imagine growing up today and having the internet as a library of dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) without having to physically trade to the library to find that illusive book that never seems to be there.

Sigh!

I wonder if these resources are “pearls before swine” and completely not used by today’s barbarian culture.

Argh!

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