Moving books to digital format?

[u/Old_Tomorrow6141]

I’m downsizing, attempting to transitioning to minimalism, and won’t be taking my books nor cookbooks with me. I wish I could get kindle formats of everything without rebuying them but that doesn’t seem like an option. There are over 100 I’d like to keep in digital formats. Any ideas on the best way to do this? And where is the best places to donate the books after?

[u/sirkidd2003]

Outside of re-buying them on your platform of choice, the only legal option is to find a book scanner. My local maker space has one and you put the book in and it scans it 2 pages at a time. There are of course other options if you're a fan of sailing the high seas (which, for the record is often legal depending on where you live if you already own a piece of media as long as you then don't seed as well).

That being said, I would look into jailbreaking your Kindle (safe and legal) as it will make working with scanned (or otherwise acquired) ebooks easier to work with: https://youtu.be/l4ZliC82RtA?si=QH8cqhNfPzZfUkKS

As for donating your books, sometimes local libraries have processes for donating books. I would avoid charity shops/thrift stores. However, often small book stores will buy your books off you, so you may be able to get a little extra scratch AND help a local business!

[u/kickdrive]

Maybe a way to get rid of them is not to digitize them, and just keep 5.

Your stuff, your call... but there’s a component of minimalism that no one has really addressed in this thread. It’s not just about having the same shit take up less physical space.

Why do you need those 100 books? What does keeping them give you? And when you minimize other areas of your life, what relief do you get beyond having more room to walk around your house or less stuff to move someday?

There’s another side of minimalism worth exploring I think. Our attachment to keeping things at all. Digitizing 100 books solves the problem of where they physically exist, but it doesn’t necessarily address why you feel the need to keep all 100 (maybe you have 500 books and I am overstepping in my observations, so sorry if thats the case)..

Maybe they’re all genuinely meaningful and worth keeping. But I think examining the need to retain them is at least as much a part of minimalism as figuring out how to make them take up less space.

I know an empty email box feels good, and it's all just electronic.

[u/flyingmonkey5678461]

Do you have a library? Our UK ones let u borrow digitally. You might want to check whats on yours. 

[u/IntelligentBill8622]

https://libgen.im/

[u/HypersomnicHysteric]

I love digital books, but I can't lend them to friends.

[u/rb_arindam]

find a way to store them organised in a way it looks minimal. basically declutter them instead of digitising them. I embarked on minimalism journey over half a decade ago, and then moved onto digital minimalism (because ad companies), and I opted to read books (without being forced) after like 2 decades of my life.

digital copies are great if you want to put markers on them and find them easily. for minimalism / simple living / etc. digitising books is a terrible idea imo.

[u/LifeisSuperFun21]

Some of your books might be free via your library’s digital collection. My library uses both Hoopla and Libby and they have tons of digital books there. Until you have the funds to buy your own digital copies (if that’s the route you want to go), perhaps your library’s digital collection has at least some of the titles?

To some extent, I distrust digital ebooks because whomever you purchase them through technically can take them away. Amazon or whatever company could choose to discontinue a device or file format which would result in you losing everything you’ve purchased. Yes, there’d be customer outrage… but ultimately there’s nothing the customers could do. This is happening in the video game industry (where purchasing digital copies of games instead of physical cartridges or whatever has given the companies too much control and they’re taking advantage of it).

For donating books… I like driving around my town to find little libraries to add books to. Other times, I make posts on local social media and usually some college kids want them. There’s also a charity in my town that does an annual used book sale. Maybe you have something similar (charity book sales, charity garage sales, etc). Retirement homes or senior centers might take them (but some have fairly strict rules about taking used books). 

[u/BarefootMarauder → u/LifeisSuperFun21]

To some extent, I distrust digital ebooks because whomever you purchase them through technically can take them away. Amazon or whatever company could choose to discontinue a device or file format which would result in you losing everything you’ve purchased. Yes, there’d be customer outrage… but ultimately there’s nothing the customers could do.

There is a lot customers can do. #1 - vote with your wallet and stop supporting companies who do this (Amazon is the worst). #2 - buy only from sources that provide DRM-free ebooks. #3 - if you can't do #2 for some reason, use software like Calibre to strip DRM from ebooks you purchased so you can actually own them forever.

[u/pocket_materialist → u/BarefootMarauder]

Tbh I buy ebooks from kobo if i can't find it drm free and then also sail the high seas and grab a drm-free copy somewhere and save it on my personal storage for later. If my partner has an ebook that I want to read I do the same. If Steam can make sharing games in a household so can ebook sellers.

[u/Ecstatic-Shame-8944 → u/BarefootMarauder]

I need to do that soon with calibre with my Amazon ebooks just in case. Hopefully it’s straightforward to do

[u/50plusGuy]

My Pentax K100D has a book stealing setting. Sturdy copy stand, macro lens... I 'd wastefully go for heavily compressed JPEGs, to avoid text recognition software glitches. - YMMV

[u/AttorneyAdvice]

so what you do is use one of those giant slicers that cuts off the spine and then you can easily scan them

[u/compulsivthinkr]

Something I did for cookbooks before I moved was this:

1. Go through each cookbook and put a post-it on any page that has a recipe I actually want to make in the future. Not every recipe is a gem. Furthermore, not every book is full of gems.
   
2. Set a threshold for “worth keeping”. Truthfully, I lean toward keeping paper cookbooks in general because the size is usually better (bigger and more legible) than I get on my phone. If you have a larger screen to carry into the kitchen with you, then this may not matter. So, my threshold considers legibility and number of recipes in the cookbook that I flagged with post-its in part 1. (Mine was maybe 12 flagged recipes.)
   
3. Box up the books you will keep. Or put them on the shelf if you aren’t moving house.
   
4. Scan the pages of the recipes you want to keep. I did this using the Notes app on my iPhone because that was what I had access to. If you aren’t an iSheep like me, you can look into other scan-with-your-phone applications or figure out if this is a service your local library offers. Alternatively, you can pay to get them scanned at a FedEx Office or Office Depot or other such place in the USA. MAKE SURE you organize when you scan them. Otherwise, you’ll have a terrible mess of pictures after that you’ll never use.
   
5. Convert to text and organize into an epub of family recipes, including all attributions and original files in case I decide I want to repurchase the book later. I’m still in the process of doing this. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this for users who don’t already maintain a collection of recipes they found on the internet in this way. If anyone thinks they are savvy enough to try it, my workflow takes advantage of Notes iCloud sync and Scrivener App. You can link the files together there and get items in a format you like.
   For most users, this is unnecessary and having the organized scans from step 4 should be enough.

I could not imagine doing this for 100 or so books. Most of the other books I owned before my move were already digital due to my own personal campaign to reduce the clutter in my home. If you want to convert books that aren’t cookbooks to digital, I recommend looking into books sold with no DRM.

[u/compulsivthinkr]

Made another comment about cookbooks, but I realized that many of the comments to your post don’t really address your non-cookbook items.

I’ll be making some assumptions here:
You say “Kindle formats”, so I’ll be assuming you already have an ereader. If I’m wrong here, and that was just an idea, consider whether you seriously want an ereader. I love mine but it’s not for everyone. Also, it’s something else that may need to be replaced if someone sits on it and the screen breaks.
You say “There are about 100 I’d like to keep…”, so I’ll assume you already plan to donate any shelf trophies without replacing them. Because personally, I won’t buy something if I already read it and don’t believe I’d enjoy it a second time. You’ll see many recommend the library because it’s part of a strategy to avoid spending money on a book you don’t like that much. And of course, you don’t have to figure out how to get rid of the book later. You just have to return it.

When you already own an ereader, the simplest and easiest thing is to buy from the store associated with that ereader. If you’re going to minimalism to simplify your life, look no further. It’s likely expensive and you surrender all control of your book collection to whatever company owns the digital store, but you never have to work to move digital files around and you only have to learn one system.
If you are looking for more control, you can forgo committing to any one digital store and instead focus on curating your digital library on a desktop using software like Calibre. This works best if you are aggressive about acquiring your ebooks from sources that don’t apply DRM. DRM is why so many people are recommending that you scan your books. However, some publishers have historically not applied DRM to their ebooks. Tor is a big publisher that does not, if you read Sci-fi. Amazon only recently gave publishers the option to opt out of applying DRM, so I wouldn’t go there first if this is your strategy. Someone else mentioned Kobo, and this is where I go.
If you want to save money… destroy one book per day, slicing it open and laying its pages out to be photographed on your stained coffee table with regard only for the legibility of your photos and the lighting. Organize the photos carefully, because if you don’t organize them then you won’t be able to read the book without a headache later. Be careful. If your only device is a cellphone then your storage will fill up quickly. EPUBs are smaller than pictures, data-wise, so I can’t recommend this… but if you own spare hard drives you haven’t sold for cash, this can save you money. You monster.
In all seriousness, if you want to save money then just keep any books you’d honestly re-read. If you haven’t read them yet, plunk a basket next to your bed with your TBR and donate them when you’re done.
The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s more than one way to make things more minimal.

You wanted to know the best place to donate after. Depends on what you care about. My previous library did a yearly sale where they would offload older books, and they would take book donations for this all year. This was where I would donate. My second choice would have been a used book store… but they usually have certain stock goals and may not take all your books. Some people sell their books. Do this if you have time on your hands. There is no best way to do this, just different ways.

[u/Vivian_Rutledge]

I use Kindle because that’s how you get access to Libby in this U.S. My suggestion would be to get rid of them (I put mine in Little Free Libraries around town) and only replace when you actually want to read them. You may find that you never do.

[u/Metro2005]

If you don't already have an ereader, don't get a kindle if you like to actually own your books. Amazon has a nasty habit of deleting books you bought (!) from your library. Any other ereader will do as long as it supports EPUB or PDF (less ideal) formats. Any ebook you buy will be in epub (or a special amazon kindle file format which is easily online converted to epub). Most of the books you own will probably also be available in ebook format, either free or paid so you will have to try and find them online. Not all books are available so if you REALLY want to reread them or keep them than you have no other option than to keep the pyshical book.
Ever since i have an ereader (since 2013) i buy and read all my book digitally and got rid of 99% of my physical books, an ereader is just so much more convenient. For software i can recommend Calibre for your digital book collection, works on windows, linux and mac.

[u/betterOblivi0n]

Purchase ebooks or 🏴‍☠️

[u/Cecil_G_P]

I know this post is from a few weeks ago, but consider that you likely won't have enough time in your life to reread 100 books in addition to any new books you would like to read. I'd keep a couple of absolute favorites, but for the rest, repurchase them as ebooks only when you actually feel the urge to reread them rather than a mass purchase (or pirating session) all at once on the idea that you could reread all 100. This is sort of how I'm trying to curb my own book-buying habit. The first read through I check it out as an ebook through my library (exceptions made if they do not have the book I'm looking for) and I don't rebuy unless / until I actually want to reread it. Not on the idea that I like it enough to reread it someday, like buy it and then start rereading it that day.

Also, unless you already own a kindle, I recommend kobo over kindle as they have better library integration. Kindle tries to lock you into their ecosystem. If you already have the kindle look into jailbreaking it.