Ask HN: Where do you buy your eBooks or have eBook subscriptions?
I want to see what other options HN readers use, especially any DRM free formats for eBooks, or slightly more affordable eBook formats.
My local libraries (via overdrive and libby).
https://openlibrary.org/ for very obscure things, though it's mostly image scans rather than epubs.
Humble Bundle
Bundle of Holding
Google Play Books is IMO the most consumer-friendly standard ebook service overall right now, but I admit I don't really give as much attention to DRM factors in this area. Reviews from customers are not super helpful there so check elsewhere if you are a review-optimizer. But the deals are honestly really amazing; search for "the" or some favorite topic, enable price drops, set max price to .99 and ask yourself how much you care about DRM in these cases :D (I do care myself but it's a nuanced sort of caring). Their comics bubble navigation (swipe up) is great too. They don't take the price-obscuring approach Amazon does to upsell Kindle Unlimited or promote authors who pay more, or however Kindle's obscurantist search/browse is supposed to "work".
A weird issue with Google Play Books seems to be caching-related though...I often have to force quit and reload the app so I can view the items I just added to my wishlist xD
Project Gutenberg always...I have a daily excerpts page which draws from almost 500 of my favorites there (profile)
Oh and various other publishers like Evil Hat, Green Ronin, Steve Jackson Games, Troll Lord, Goodman Games, etc. Some of them host mind-blowing deals on their sites occasionally. IMO if you are a publisher you should always do this, it's one of the best ways to leverage being a small publisher in a big world.
Speaking of which, get on email newsletters for ebook publishers, they'll often include links to every service they sell on. If you like Star Trek books then get on Simon & Schuster's email list, this is like the best time in history to be a fan of Star Trek books... it's like a constant fire sale. Great strategy IMO.
B) No idea what you mean by downloading, e.g. do they cache locally, probably, do they generously export to a copy you can read on your Dell Axim, no idea. They do show a bucket-arrow download icon and progress spinner for free after each purchase.
P.S. If you buy some coffee table monstrosity like "Visual Dictionary of Marvel Universe VFX Contractor .tmp Files" you will get to know the download spinner very well...
Gutenberg is wonderful, especially for history. I've been using them a ton to stock up on non DRM stuff.
Do you use an eReader? I just got one of the newest Kindle models and I'm having a really hard time getting things to convert or whatever - even stuff that is, like, already formatted for eReader purposes gets mangled. Should I have not bought the Kindle in the first place? Haha
Thank you for all this, that newsletter tip is great.
Unfortunately it couldn't be more obvious that the distributors think readers don't GAF about covers beyond the shopping spree though, which is pretty frustrating when I want to stare at a nice cover and let the imagination soak it in for a while.
Good Q about the eReader. I was looking at picking up one of the randomly interesting ones that I saw on Aliexpress a while back, but got then sidetracked and ended up with an ODROID-Go Super. lol.
And then some publishers got into special hardcover editions, like Palladium Rifts Ultimate Hardcover Edition. But someday I'd like to get back on that ereader path. Doubt I would buy a Kindle though, personally. I did notice that the bundle sites and indie publishers are the go-to solutions for solving layout problems, since you get PDF, MOBI, EPUB, and sometimes other formats too.
Not to mention Archive.org which also has some phenomenal collections and pretty much everything is in multiple formats.
Also use Amazon Kindle, Google Play books if I can't find the book on Safari.
*if it has too many images that are important to understand the subject I still prefer paper.
There's some older DRM strippers for it that no longer work, I'm guessing anybody that has a working set of key extraction won't tip their hat on it.
Of course lo-tech methods can work well enough.
And FWIW: Kindle seems to be switching over to ePub as the default method.
I bought a book from Taylor and Francis that used VitalSource; I hadn’t been aware of this format; it is horrible. I couldn’t find a workable DRM stripper, but fortunately T&F gave me a refund.