Feedbooks discontinues Kindle download guide

Feedbooks used to offer a free Kindle Download Guide, essentially a catalog you could load directly onto your Kindle and browse to download public domain titles. It was a great supplement to the Amazon Kindle store when you wanted to look for something new (but free) to read.

Sadly, the Download Guide has been retired. According to a reader on the Amazon discussion threads, Feedbooks threw in the towel after deciding it was too much work keeping on top of any changes Amazon made to the Kindle. Amazon doesn’t share this sort of information, so any developer trying to work with the Kindle on a third-party offering has to figure out workarounds through trial and error.

However, I suspect the real reason for cutting back on Kindle support is that Feedbooks can’t sell books to Kindle customers, so Amazon has become persona non grata. Images of the Kindle are now conspicuously absent from any page on the site, and the Kindle “help” page now just reads:

All free books on Feedbooks are available in a Kindle compatible format (for both Kindle devices and mobile applications), but due to the closed nature of the Kindle ecosystem, none of the files available on our store are compatible with the Kindle. To download a book in a Kindle compatible format, click on the book’s name and then select the “Kindle” download option.

Kindle owners aren’t totally doomed yet: Project Gutenberg still offers its free Magic Catalog in .mobi format, which essentially does the same thing.

I open up a beer and pour some on the ground for you, o Download Guide. Wait a minute, this is perfectly good beer and you took away the guide! I shall drink all of it instead.

(Photo: Jeffrey Beall)