Electronics

[teganslaw]

I have an 8th generation Kindle, about 4 years old. Haven't had any problems before, but something unusual came up today. 

I tried downloading a book from the library, and it showed up on my Kindle as "read." Wouldn't let me open it. I downloaded this book from the library several years ago, but I thought that a person can read a Kindle book more than once. 

I restarted my Kindle, returned the book, tried downloading it again, and marked the book "unread" in the Content and Device feature. No luck getting it to open. I gave up and successfully downloaded another book instead. 

This never happened to me before; has anyone else have this issue? 

[QVCkitty1]

@teganslaw Try going to the Kindle store and typing in the book. When you click on the book title and you own it it will say read now, click on that and the book should come up.

[FranandZoe]

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@QVCkitty1 wrote:

@teganslaw Try going to the Kindle store and typing in the book. When you click on the book title and you own it it will say read now, click on that and the book should come up.

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Maybe she doesn't want to buy it though.  She was trying to borrow it from the library.

I always buy my Kindle books so I have no idea.  Maybe try asking Kindle support at Amazon.

[QVCkitty1]

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@FranandZoe wrote:

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@QVCkitty1 wrote:

@teganslaw Try going to the Kindle store and typing in the book. When you click on the book title and you own it it will say read now, click on that and the book should come up.

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Maybe she doesn't want to buy it though.  She was trying to borrow it from the library.

I always buy my Kindle books so I have no idea.  Maybe try asking Kindle support at Amazon.

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@FranandZoe , I'm sorry if I misunderstood, but the kindle refers to books I own as my library, so I thought she wanted to access one she had already purchased.

[Tribesters]

@teganslaw 

Are you saying it won't open at all? I have re-read kindle books before. However, they will open to the last page read. So to re-read it I select "Go To" and then "Beginning" from menu. 

Have you tried re-booting the kindle? That usually helps when there are issues.

[gardenman]

It could be an issue with the library. Libraries buy a license for an e-book and that license typically allows a certain number of reads. In order to make a book available to more library members, it's possible the library restricts books to one borrow per patron. 

A 2018 article by goodereader.com listed the rules publishers used at that time for e-book sales to libraries. Books by Harper Collins could be circulated 26 times on a license before the license would have to be bought again. Macmillan allowed 52 circulations or two years before a new license had to be bought. Simon and Schuster allowed a license to last for one full year before needing to be rebought. Penguin Random House allows perpetual use after purchase, but only one rental per patron at a time. (Which is pretty much the norm for every publisher. Only one licensed copy can be distributed at a time.)

The limits exist because unlike real books, e-books never wear out. They never break, their pages don't come loose, they don't get stained, torn, etc. That makes them eternal, so publishers would only get paid once for an e-book. (And publishers charge libraries a lot for each e-book. $25 and up is not uncommon for each license.) 

I suspect the issue you're running into is library-related more than Kindle-related. The library probably doesn't want one patron using up multiple license slots on an e-book. 

[teganslaw]

Thanks for all the replies. This was a library book, not one I owned. Rebooting the Kindle didn't help. I also tried typing in the beginning page. 

This must have been a library issue. The book was a classic issue of Steinbeck's "East of Eden." I don't know who the publisher was, but it could have something to do with the licensing for this one novel. This is the first time I had a problem downloading a library book. 

I'm thinking of purchasing the Kindle version from Amazon. This is one of my favorite books, so that way I'll have it available whenever I want to read it.

[gardenman]

There are several versions of it available for the Kindle starting at $2.49. The $2.49 version is published by Grapevine India, but is said to be in English. The $9.99 version is published by Penguin Classics. 

[raleighroo]

It sounds like a book you may want to purchase. However, 1 more suggestion is when you borrow from your library instead of choosing the Kindle version download the ePub version.  You can then read in your OverDrive app.  I don't like it as much but do so from time to time when the Kindle version isn't offered. This was how I got started on eBooks since library didn't have the Kindle format for several years.