# Kindle Fire & school



## romac (Jun 23, 2010)

So it's about to be a very Fire-y Christmas for my family. I got my girlfriend one for, I got my mom one, and mom accidentally spoiled a surprise that she got me one as well lol.

Anyway, the gf is in college and after looking around, her school textbooks are MUCH cheaper to rent/or own on the Fire than they are to have physically. Talking anywhere from $30-$100 savings a piece. That with the added benefit of only having to carry the Fire in her purse vs a backpack full of books has really got her excited about the Fire. All of her ebooks are available directly from Amazon cheaper then they are available from the university, except for one which Amazon doesn't have on the Kindle Store. The university's website sales it fairly cheap, in 'Universal ebook Format'. Will this work on the Fire? How would we go about getting it on there?

If someone can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. I'm decently tech savvy but I've never owned a tablet, and my K2 has always just been used with books I've gotten directly from Amazon. 

For me it was something that I didn't even think about until she started to look for her books for the upcoming semester, pretty cool to think the Fire is going to have some use beyond just 'angry birds/you tube' media consumption like some reviewers say.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

The problem is that there is no ebook format called "universal ebook format".   So, it might mean that it's an ePub, which many consider to be 'universal' but which is not readable by Kindles.  Or it might mean that they have it in a wide variety of formats.  Or it might mean that, whatever the format is, it's got no DRM so is easily convertable to something else.  Heck, it might just be a word or PDF document.  

When you purchase, if it's available in multiple formats, you'd want one called .mobi or .prc if there isn't anything specifically marked "Kindle".  If it's something else, using it on the Fire may be problematic.  PDF is easy, as there are PDF readers available.  ePub is harder as you'd have to side load an app like nook or aldiko.

If it's mobi or prc you can probably send it to the Fire using the 'send to' address and it'll show up in Docs.  If it's ePub you'll have to sideload it -- which I'll let someone else explain (which folder it should go into, etc.) as it's not something I've needed to do.  (My Fire has not yet met any of my computers .)  If it's not DRM'd, of course, you could still send it via the 'send to' address and it'll convert to Kindle format.


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## kcrady (Dec 17, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> ePub is harder as you'd have to side load an app like nook or aldiko.


As long as there is no DRM, an epub formatted ebook can easily be converted to .mobi for the kindle using the free software Calibre and then either sideloaded to your kindle or emailed to your kindle's email address. Calibre makes it very easy to sideload books, as it recognizes the kindle (and kindle fire) when plugged in to your computer with usb.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

kcrady said:


> As long as there is no DRM, an epub formatted ebook can easily be converted to .mobi for the kindle using the free software Calibre and then either sideloaded to your kindle or emailed to your kindle's email address. Calibre makes it very easy to sideload books, as it recognizes the kindle (and kindle fire) when plugged in to your computer with usb.


Yes, as I mentioned, if there's no DRM, it can be sent via Amazon and converted. OR Calibre can be used, as can other conversion programs (Mobipocket Creator comes to mind), but it's not needed.

For me, the easiest way is to send it via the 'send to' address to the Kindle(including Fire) via Amazon. The value here is also that it's then archived at Amazon and available via the 'cloud' if something should happen and you need to reload it but are not at your computer. YMMV, of course.


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