# eBooks on a Blackberry!



## AE35Unit (Jul 21, 2010)

AAAAhhh, how hard can it be!!
I got a Blackberry Curve 8900 and you can use it as a book reader. Now all my downloaded books are in epub format (free downloads from Project Gutenberg) but the reader that came with the phone (Mobipocket) uses prc format or something similar, but regardless you can only downaload books to it, you cant read books you already have on the memory card.  Same with Kobo, Barnes & Noble etc etc. Every book reader I download is the same-it only allows you to download and then save the books. The thing is if it can access the memory card to save, how hard is it to make it accessible to read! Ruddy crazy!


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## Vertigo (Jul 21, 2010)

Take a look at a an open source programe called Calibre - it can convert most e-book fomats and, I think, can download them direct to readers. I haven't used this feature as I do most of my reading in MS .lit format and just convert to that and read locally on my laptop. All I know is it has a "Send to Device" button and I think it send direct to a plugged in device.


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## AE35Unit (Jul 29, 2010)

Ah bugger it, I'm gonna have to save up and get a book reader!


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## Vertigo (Jul 29, 2010)

AE35Unit said:


> Ah bugger it, I'm gonna have to save up and get a book reader!


 
Oh dear - failure I guess then


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## AE35Unit (Jul 29, 2010)

Vertigo said:


> Oh dear - failure I guess then


Well I managed to get one story converted with Calibre (The Turn of the Screw) but having read a short PKD story on it I've come to the conclusion that reading a full length novel on it would be more than a little uncomfortable! Small screen and reduced battery life due to having the screen kept at full brightness.


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## Vertigo (Jul 29, 2010)

Ah yes I can see that - I'm afraid my tired old eyes wouldn't cope with reading a whole book on something so small.


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## kcartlidge (Jul 29, 2010)

I'd keep trying if I were you.

I no longer have them, but until recently I had MobiPocket on both a Bold and a Curve. In each case I was reading eBooks from the Baen Library from my 1Gb memory card. Unfortunately it's a long time since I set it up so I cannot remember what I did, but I do remember it was no trouble at all so I suspect something's amiss. All I can recall now is I ended up with a memory card and a single top-level folder called 'ebooks' which contained the documents.

I know it's not much help, but sometimes just knowing something is actually possible has value. Incidentally, switching to white text on a black background and changing the font made a huge difference to long-term readability.


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## AE35Unit (Jul 29, 2010)

kcartlidge said:


> I'd keep trying if I were you.
> 
> I no longer have them, but until recently I had MobiPocket on both a Bold and a Curve. In each case I was reading eBooks from the Baen Library from my 1Gb memory card. Unfortunately it's a long time since I set it up so I cannot remember what I did, but I do remember it was no trouble at all so I suspect something's amiss. All I can recall now is I ended up with a memory card and a single top-level folder called 'ebooks' which contained the documents.
> 
> I know it's not much help, but sometimes just knowing something is actually possible has value. Incidentally, switching to white text on a black background and changing the font made a huge difference to long-term readability.


I have mobipocket but I dont want to buy a book I've not read. If I'm gonna pay £20 for a book I want a hard copy! But as I said above reading books on a blackberry isnt really viable unless you're a mouse!


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