Pandora's Box for the e-bibliophile: Epubor DRM Removal

What would a Pandora's box look like to a bibliophile who has a huge library on different apps and e-readers, across a plethora of devices?

For you kindle users, you know how difficult it is to read your books if you are changing devices. For long, I have wondered how I'd continue to live with my books if and when I change my phone. For most of you too, it would be so intimidating to imagine a life without that huge e-library of yours.

A sigh of relief came when telling users how to strip the DRM from their legally purchased ebooks was declared legal, and not contributory copyright infringement in 2014 in a New York Judgement. Control became a thing of the past. And here we are: spoilt for choice over the various DRM removal softwares available. 

I receive a lot of ARCs i.e. Advanced Review Copies. They are all DRM protected. And using my email that I've used to log in into, say, Netgalley, I get a DRM protected copy only. Much of my reading happens during travelling and commuting, which is tricky considering I have only Adobe Digital editions on desktop and Kindle on laptop. 

I have been reading .acsm files on ADE for too long. And the lack of mobility was starting to get on my nerves.

Image credits: Booknook.biz

Epubor has come to our rescue. With its software, EPUB and PDF DRM Removal, it enables you to remove DRM from EPUB on ADE and transfer EPUB to iPad, Kobo, Sony Reader, Nook, Kindle, Android, etc.

The supported OS are Windows 98, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Win7, Win8 Desktop Mode

And THIS, just magically solved all my problems. Could you ask for more?

How does it work?

It is so simple, you'd question if it is even real. That is how surreal it feels. You just need to drag the encrypted files and it does the conversion. The conversion speed is also decently fast. I converted all the encrypted files on my laptop within half an hour, and believe there were a lot of books!

Anything that eases my reading is a godsend gift, so is this software. If you are not fond of too many technicalities and hassles, and just want your work done in a no-nonsense fashion, I'd strongly recommend this software.

Yay:

• Convenience? Check
• Ease? Check
• Speed? Check
• It performs what it promises, and might just surpass your expectations in terms of its efficiency.
• Solves the problem of mobility and transfer-ability
• Tested with ADE for a bulk conversion too!
• Friendly customer service in email responses
• Scans the computer for ebooks on its own
• The User Manual is a BIG plus

Nay:

The only problem I faced is the fact that it does not ask for the destination folder, and I have to actually copy my converted files back to the folder of my choice. I'd really really want to save some time here too, although its speed in its function otherwise makes this hurt a lot less! 
I can set the default folder in settings but it saves in my mentioned folder as well as in the C drive. 

Also it minimizes in the system tray.

Comments:

Sometimes, there are books in formats, or with such graphics which might hinder a flawless conversion and decryption. I haven't come across such instance myself, but I still think it will pinch someone who really needs it. i'd love to mention that the books I have converted were no less tricky- they had these huge graphics, complex fonts etc, but everything worked so exceptionally fine! This possibility is all but a conjecture though.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been given a trial version of this software, and although no monetary compensation has been received by me, I would be awarded a license for the product. This fact has in no way affected my review because, come to think of it, why would I like to get a license of a product that doesn't deliver what it promises?!

About Epubor:

Epubor is a worldwide business dedicated to satisfying customers' needs with diversified software products and services.

They  provide both the best DRM Removal and format conversion software for eBooks

To get your book reviewed, read my review policy here. And then contact me here.

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Bookish Apps

Well, none of us is untouched by technology. And we, as bibliophiles, read voraciously, e-books abound, we read through reviews online on blogs and websites. So, there is no gainsaying that we have become dependent on it too.
If websites start dominating our bookish lives, app developers couldn't be far behind. Who wouldn't want to have access to a repository of books, reviews, barter and other such bookish services.
Here is a list of apps we recommend:

1. The Must-Have App :: Goodreads : Well, goes without saying, a bibliophile is incomplete without updating her reading statuses on goodreads, then writing a review and rating when we are done, and then browsing through other people's reviews to find consolation that we are not alone, and seeing it through other people's perspectives.

2. For the audio-book Junkie :: Smart AudioBook Player: If you don't mind shelving out a few bucks for complete pleasure, it is heaven on earth. designed specially for playing audio books, this app is the best audio book app we have out there.

3. Lending was never this easy :: barter.li : This app helps you to connect with books, the ones you need, and their owners, and then it lets you chat with them to exchange the books at preferably a coffee shop. Now that revives the romantic idea of reading and coffee!
More about it here

What are you waiting for? Get these apps NOW!

Where do I get free ebooks???

As a regular book blogger, and a bibliophile, I have often been asked by people: Where can I find ebooks for free?
Not everyone can spend a fortune on buying every other books, and students can even legally download the .pdf versions of certain books in their curriculum.
Here's a list of websites where you can get books for free!

1) Project Gutenberg
If you are looking for classics to read, then this is the place to go. Project Gutenberg offers over 42,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online.

They are also diversifying into audio books.

2) Readanybook .com

If you can manage the hassles of downloading across extensions that dont work immediately but require further treatment, go ahead for this one.

3) FreeBookSpot

With genres ranging from non-fiction to programming to management to fantasy novels, it has a database of a huge variety.

4)  ManyBooks.net

 Browse through the most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviews from our visitors. Perhaps you'll find something interesting in the special collections. There are more than 29,000 eBooks available for Kindle, Nook, iPad and most other eReaders, and they're all free! If you still can't decide what to read you might want to browse through some covers to see what strikes your fancy

5) Get Freeee books 

 With the tagline 'All the ebooks you need', do check out their list '183 ebooks you must read before you die'.

6) You can also search for books at http://en.bookfi.org/ or bookza.org

7) https://www.free-ebooks.net/
Not every book is available, but some lesser known books, which you not find anywhere else on the internet might be buried here. Across numerous genres, we have free e-books and for an upgraded account you can also access audiobooks.

8) http://manybooks.net/

TANGIBLE AND LOVABLE

While the war of ebooks versus physical copies continues unabated, here's a short story that reflects upon the issue in an entertaining, yet emotional light

As I sit beside my window, with Anna Karenina resting on my lap, the sunrays bake me in their scorching heat. Within moments, I turn away to glance at my bookshelves. Just five years back, the shelves, which now cry for want of space, scarcely harboured not more than twenty books. But that was five years back. Much has changed. Transmogrified, like quite.

As I steadfastedly behold my own envious collection of gem-like books, my legacy, I descend into a reverie. The past comes alive on the celluloid of my life.

 

“Stop straining and paining your lovely eyes under the glaring light of that ugly gadget.”

I barely managed to hold on to my ‘gadget’ and rescue it from shattering to pieces at the staccato crispness and wrath that the words exuded.

Even if he wouldn’t have berated me in that hackneyed fashion, I would have known that he’s here by his paradigm cardamom scent. Grandpa’s here and he is referring to my kindle. I guess I just didn’t whisper those words to myself. I blurted them out loud enough to be heard by grandpa!

“Yes, grandpa is here and now put that crap away. Grandpa has brought you some real books. Paperback and hardcover.” he proclaims with an exacerbating emphasis on real.

“Tangible and lovable”, joining him as he repeats his catchphrase verbatim, for the nth time, I make a futile attempt to sound elated, while in reality I moan in half anguish and half chagrin, concocted with mortification and agony. His parlance, on the contrary, is adorned with pride at one level and laced with genuine loath at another.

I was in the middle of reading Strike @ 36 by Aparna Pednekar on Google Play. The fledgling novelist’s story was gaining momentum and the arrival of “the relentless foe of e-books” was the last on the list of things I wished for, at least then.

Since the day I started reading eBooks, I’ve been a witness to his intense detestation for the same. Now, its gravity and longevity is also proved.

Neither cannons, nor pinpricks, nor caresses could bring us to a consensus.

Our love for each other was unconditional, but when it came to books, we had dramatically agreed to disagree.

He would justify his stand by crying aloud that one day my Smartphone or kindle would be destroyed rendering me insane at the loss of the gems that books are.

“What if your paperbacks are terminated by termites?” I retort, surprised and glad at the unpremeditated rhetoric.

“I hope you know that, and I’m telling you because I am a well-wisher; you aren’t able to touch the pages, smell the book, you’ll lose all your aesthetic sense.” At this point, he’s almost yelling at me.

“For god’s sake, eBooks are NOT conspiring against your paperback and hardcover breeds. Only they are more convenient, and occupy some digital space on my kindle, weighing hardly 500 grams. I can have a long discourse on the environmental damage that I am preventing this way. It’s all rational.” I retorted rather blatantly.

Remember, using a pencil to mark down heart-rending dialougues??

He cursed the creators, called them idiots and blockheads, but not willing to prolong this skirmish, retreats to murmuring. An archetypal puerile versus senile war ends.

When we went on vacations that month, he was jubilant when I lost signal amid the hills, which forestall my further downloading. It was annoying, though, because I possessed just as ardent a soul of a compulsive bibliophile as him.

During our commute to the hotel, he expressed his discomfort about not being able to read books in distractions, while I relished my audio book aggravating his consternation.

Suddenly the crass cacophony of a crow breaks my reverie. The past retreats away into the blinding sunrays. I can sense the perambulation of lachrymal fluid originating from my eyes, peregrinating from the cheeks to the book in my hand. I try to smile, but manage to do so only faintly. I close my eyes and embrace the book, hugging the gem to my heart, despite the murky dust it has gathered and savouring the cardamom scent, but only after glancing at the library shelf, my only legacy.

I can hear a faint echo of the words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” followed by the lugubrious words of grandpa, “Tangible and Lovable. . .”