[!NOTE] This blog post is from my drafts archive.
I was initially researching leaving my Kindle in Quarter 1 of 2025 when Amazon removed the ability to download your purchases from their website. I never ended up pulling the trigger for this and as of this posting, I still use my Kindle and the Amazon Kindle store heavily.
That said, I think my reflections and research are still valuable enough to others to share.
My Kindle “Addiction”
I have a confession to make, a weird confession. I am a Kindle junkie. Oh, how I love my Kindle. I have thousands of books purchased through Amazon’s Kindle store. I read my Kindle every day for hours. I digest over a hundred books and manga a year and take notes on each one.
I don’t stream music, TV, or movies; instead, I buy them directly wherever I can online. I don’t shop at questionable big-box stores when I have alternatives (and oh boy, do I have them in Las Vegas). I don’t use TikTok, Facebook, or X. I run Linux whenever possible. I buy my TTRPG games through indie distributors or directly from crowdfunding. I don’t use Google (as a Kagi paid user), I self-host, and I pay for services rather than being the product. All of this is to highlight how much effort I actively put into being as much of a reasonably ethical consumer as possible.
But Amazon Kindle books? That is my thing.
It’s convenient and fun and easy. I can buy any book at any time right from my Kindle. It’s there whenever I need it, and even with hardcore reading, the battery is always ready for more. The reading status is flawlessly synced in case I want to catch up on my phone for a bit or read comics on my iPad. It has almost everything. Everything except for that one thing you are probably thinking of right now.
I have leased 1,839 books from Amazon, with not a single one bought and owned. You don’t buy books from Amazon; you lease a license to read them for now.
But lately, I want to give up my creature comforts.
These are not brand new feelings. I have always struggled with what Amazon has become for a long time. I fought being a Kindle user by using several generations of the B&N Nook before I succumbed to the temptation. And once you make that switch, Amazon knows how to keep you hooked; it’s their whole deal. My point is, it’s been on my mind for a while —a nagging, background thread reminding me that my excessive Amazon Kindle usage isn’t in line with the rest of my consumption morals.
And yes, I do believe that your morals are directly reflected in how you spend your money. I don’t really believe in “pure” ethical capitalism either. Still, the lack of pure ethical capitalism doesn’t absolve anybody from the repercussions of their actions. “All my choices are flawed” doesn’t lessen the impact of my choices.
You might think that after everything I wrote above, the rest of this post is all about how I overcome my attachment to my Kindle and what I switched to… but this post doesn’t end like that. It’s not always victory.
Wait, but Amazon is Good for You, Actually?
Around the time I was working on this post, an author, editor, and promoter I greatly respect in the sapphic romance genre released a series of blog posts encouraging people to reconsider hastily dumping Amazon Kindle books, as a significant portion of a small author’s income comes from them.
Now, I want to state the fact that I do not agree with a lot of Jae’s opinions on boycotts or ethical consumerism. A lot of the post towards the end starts sounding like hardcore copium huffing. I refuse to accept the justification of “well, if you are going to boycott this, you also have to boycott everything you love,” because all changes come in steps, one at a time.
My frustration with some of her writing aside, she does have some good points about how Amazon built a system that tore down the walls of self-publishing and small-scale publishing, allowing small publishers to grow.
Also… I just wanted to have this one thing.
🥺👉🏻👈🏻
Can I have this one thing?
Squirrels Can Have a Little Kindle, as a Treat
The answer is yes.
That’s right. I didn’t leave Amazon Kindle. In fact, if you ever see me out and about, I promise it’s in my purse. I even bought a new one.
So, then, what is the rest of this post? This is the compiled list of notes, thoughts, and research I was doing to help me drop Kindle. It is incredibly biased to my own reading habits, which have a lot of Queer romance, manga, tech books, and PopSci books.
Everything below is research notes from the time and may age like wine or milk. Only time will tell, so keep in mind the date on this post.
My Notes on Moving on Dropping Amazon Reading
Stores that Look Super Appealing
I spent an evening searching and building myself a reference guide for leaving.
| Store | DRM | Content | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book Walker Yuri | 🔴 | Manga | Complete EN+JP, Hardcore DRM |
| Bookshop | 🟡 | Everything | Trendy new General, mixed DRM |
| Rakuten Kobo | 🟡 | Everything | Native Store, mixed DRM |
| Craphound | 🟢 | Author | Nerd Author, sometimes good |
| Smashwords | 🟢 | Everything | Has lots of Kindle Indies. annoying website |
| Itch.Io | 🟢 | Indie Fiction | Trash UX, but creators like it |
| StoryBundle | 🟢 | Indie Fiction | Humble Bundle for Indie Fiction |
| eManga | 🟢 | Indie Manga | Has Lilyka’s manga |
| Irodori Comics | 🟢 | Indie Manga | A fave but small |
| J-Novel Club | 🟢 | Light Novels | Super light on Yuri & LGBTQIA |
| 2600 | 🟢 | Magazine | It’s been a while |
| Denpa | 🟢 | Manga | Has some really good series |
| Bold Stroke Books | 🟢 | Queer Fiction | HUGE Queer Bookstore |
| Nine Star Press | 🟢 | Queer Fiction | |
| Humble | 🟢 | Refbooks | Random Lotto as to what you can buy |
| LeanPub | 🟢 | RefBooks | Hit or miss |
| Manning | 🟢 | RefBooks | |
| No Starch Press | 🟢 | RefBooks | Personal Fave |
| Packt | 🟢 | RefBooks | Also Fan of |
| PragProd | 🟢 | Refbooks | Big Fan |
| Clare Lydon | 🟢 | WLW Author | Good Sapphic Author |
| Harper Bliss | 🟢 | WLW Author | My favorite Sapphic author direct |
| Bella Books | 🟢 | WLW Fiction | Huge |
| BywaterBooks | 🟢 | WLW Fiction | |
| Desert Palm Press | 🟢 | WLW Fiction | Several Trans, large pool of authors |
| DreamSpinner Press | 🟢 | WLW Fiction | |
| Ylva Pub | 🟢 | WLW Fiction |
Meta Drm Free Lists
Buying Notes
Don’t forget renting books from library too
Kobo books and manga are reported to be very high quality and likely can be fixed.
I could focus on indie manga and kobo to put all that into Komga. I read manga on the iPad Primarily so Komga covers me.
I can buy everything but my Light Novels and Major Pub books through the large amounts of direct publish and organize it in Calibre-Web
For Major Pub and LNs I would ideally fix files from Bookshop, but fall back to fixing files from Kobo
Self Hosting
Fixing Stores
- NoDRM For Major Stores
- Guide to Manga/LN Offline Reading
- Mac Friendly Guide to Android emulator for kindle
Kobo Tuning
Kobo technically has it’s own EPUB format which is an extension on EPUB3, which is recommended to use before sideloading for battery and performance
Kindle Fixes
If you have an eink Kindle and are able to download ebooks directly to your Kindle via WiFi, it is possible to then connect the Kindle to a computer via USB cable and import the ebook file (.kfx, .azw3, .azw, .mobi) from Kindle into calibre.
If your Kindle was released in 2013 or later running firmware v5.6.5 or newer, you will get mostly KFX (older books may result in older formats, like .mobi). Make sure you have the KFX Input plugin installed.