Tag: amazon

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Despite, or perhaps because of it being a crappy year, last year was very much a year of reading. I enjoyed just over 80 books. And as a bonus almost nothing of my spending on reading went to Bezos’ Amazon. Dropping Amazon meant some reorganisation of maintaining my ebooks collection, and a rebalancing of how I acquire books in general.

At the start of 2025 I stepped away from Amazon for purchasing (e-)books. What looked hard at the outset, like it did when I quit Gmail in 2014, turned out to be much easier than anticipated. It does require shifting your attention to other things. There is more friction compared to when you live your entire bookish habit in a silo. In return I experienced a much bigger sense of wonder and exploration, which I realised is way more important to me. Additionally, it brought the way I experience my book store browsing and my online book browsing much closer together. That was unexpected but a big benefit.

The Numbers

I read just over 80 books, mostly fiction, a dozen non-fiction. Originally I had hoped, as I’ve hoped for years, to read more non-fiction, but on average one per month is not bad in comparison to previous years, and certainly not given the year it was and the amount of bandwidth I had for new input.

During the last year I acquired 128 books. Of those 48 were paper books, and 82 e-books (meaning I added 2 titles in both digital and paper version). Of the 48 paper books, 22 were fiction and 26 non-fiction. The 82 e-books were exactly half fiction and non-fiction.

I read fiction in the evenings, at least half an hour before I fall asleep but usually more. One or two books per week, depending on their length and time available, is the average, and has been for a number of years.

Amazon silo quit

At the start of last year I decided to leave Amazon, and get my books elsewhere. Originally when I started buying books with Amazon, it was because they were basically the only reliable online source for new English language publications, and especially for Science Fiction. My first order of paper books was in February 2008, my first e-book order with Amazon was in December 2010. From 2015 on the Dutch Amazon store exists, before 2015 I used the US store, and also regularly the German and UK store. Most paper books I buy come from local bookstores, but e-books I bought almost exclusively from Amazon.

After my decision early 2025 I did not buy anything at Amazon anymore. Except one paper book, from a used bookstore in the USA, that was delivered through Amazon fulfillment, as I found out when the parcel arrived with their logo on it.

Once I realised that what 15 years ago was a rare convenience, can now be fulfilled by many others, it was easy to quit. It did involve some work though. What helps is that, while Amazon has its own e-book format for Kindle, the rest of the world uses one single other format, epub. So, next to Amazon there are many options.

Leaving Amazon meant two things:
1) creating my own environment to manage my e-books, including ones I already have. Calibre is my go to tool now. For each book, including all the paper ones, I also have a note in my notes tool. I brought my Kindle e-books over to Calibre too. All new e-books go into Calibre, sometimes with the help of the tool Epubor. When I select a book to read and load onto my reader, I now start in my notes to see what I have, and then Calibre to get the book.
2) find new ways to acquire e-books. These days many more platforms and book stores sell e-books online. In the Netherlands, across the EU and elsewhere. For most English language e-books the Kobo platform is useful.

I use a Kobo reader and an Android e-ink device to read.

Nature outside the Walled Garden

Cutting my own path created more friction at first. Most of that however is a one-time thing to figure out and set up. For every online platform and book store you need to find out which e-books have watermarks, which have DRM, plus which type (Adobe, lcpl, or something else), and if you can handle that. Each and every platform comes with its own account to keep track of too. The book sector pretends there is no single European market, but 27 separate markets. In part that is because of differences in how prices are set at national level. In part that is because e-books are electronic services in the single market, and the VAT of the customer’s country of residence applies. When I buy an e-book in Belgium or Cyprus, I will pay the Dutch VAT rate. It seems many platforms avoid the admin of dealing with different VAT rates by only selling domestically. You get around that by lying about your address. A bit like back when you had to fill out US zip codes on various sites and everyone used 90210 as it was the only one everyone knew by heart from the 90s tv series.

Frequenting different online book platforms brings a bigger sense of wonder and exploration in return on that initial friction. While the Japanese, Ireland registered, Kobo platform is most like Amazon in that it has ‘everything’, I’ve bought on a range of different platforms this year. Each platform, especially if they have a specific niche, or if they are tied to a physical book store, has its own flavour, and shows different books on its front page or in the context of the book I am searching for.
Some of the books that serendipity brings in front of my eyes that way are in languages I can’t read, but it does mean I know it exists, and may find a translation somewhere.
Especially since I read Libraries of the Mind by William Marx (see below) I’ve come to see translation also as obscuring the untranslated, and I am more on the lookout for other languages just out of curiosity as to their existence.

In the past I felt a big divide between exploring physical bookshops and buying an e-book (on Amazon), and there was always some guilt involved in coming across a book in a store and then later buying an e-book. This has changed.

Yes, I buy at the generic Kobo platform (although the sales accrue with the big Dutch Bol platform), but there are plenty bookstores who have their own online platforms for e-books. When I was working in Berlin for a week in October, I browsed the Dussmann book store, taking notes and pictures of books I thought might be interesting. I didn’t buy anything, there are only so many books you can fit in carry-on luggage. Afterwards I check out the books in more detail online. I keep a list of things I’ve come across online and in stores that I may want to buy (also helpful to avoid buying a German edition of something I already have in English e.g.). I then buy the ones I want to have as e-book, at the store’s own online platform. It works as an extension of the experience of browsing the store, while transitioning from the physical to the e-book.
It brings browsing book stores and online together. That feeling persists across stores, where I jot down a title in one book store, see it someplace else and then buy it in yet another. It was an unexpected effect. Yet it makes the experience much more pleasant and continuous.

The books I most enjoyed in 2025

Out of the around 80 titles last year these are a few I enjoyed. Not a ranking, not a limitative list.

I came across the author Elif Shafak because of her discussing multilingualism in an article. Then I searched out her books.
There Are Rivers in the Sky I read first (which I bought for Kindle in late 2024), a beautifully written book of the past and the now. And later in the year The Island of Missing Trees (bought on Kobo), making the separation of Cyprus tangible. Beautiful language.

Playground by Richard Powers (Kobo via Bol.com), was a fun read. Life is the stories we carry and tell. This one builds an arc from oral cultures to statistically probable AI output, from friendship and turns not taken, to restoring our earth and oceans which technology has consumed. Beautifully woven and told. It also led me through references in the story about gaming and virtual words to reading Johan Huizinga’s 1938 work Homo Ludens.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Kindle, bought December 2024), seemingly loosely inspired by the mathematician and later hermit Alexander Grothendiek. An agent provocateur for hire is tracking a group of activists in southern France. But this gig is changing her too. The weaving of different stories and layers, in social stratum, geography, mental health and alcohol abuse, and time was fun. A story I’d like to have continued reading.

Vor aller Augen by Martina Clavadetscher (paper, bought in Zürich), is a bundle of short stories centered around the women in famous paintings. Some were misses for me, some were full hits. Some felt too long, others felt too short and deserving of their own entire book.

Libraries of the Mind by William Marx, a professor of comparative literatures, was a fun and inspiring non-fiction read. It led me down the path of exploring non-fiction in languages I cannot read, and in general focus on reading as a path of exploration, not merely the act of reading a book. (paper, bought in Groningen)

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan I appreciated and enjoyed a lot more precisely because I read Libraries of the Mind by William Marx two months before it. A century from now two scholars of comparative literatures in a post-climate collapse England look back at our years to figure out if a famous poem that no-one ever saw or read, it was just read by the author to a group of people once at a birthday party, might still exist somewhere. While their students can hardly read and protest against having to read more than a handful of books during their entire education. Came across it in an Antwerp bookstore, but read it through the Kobo Plus subscription that E has.

Berghonger by Fleur Jongepier (non-fiction, paper, bought in Utrecht), I came across right after our return from a trip to the Alps this summer. The author, when not in the mountains, lives around the corner from our office in Utrecht.

Biedermann und die Brandstifter by Max Frisch (1953, e-book, bought online from a Vienna bookstore). Arsonists are wreaking havoc in town, Biedermann houses the arsonists in his attic after they wriggle their way into his life, in the vain hope they at least won’t burn his place down. Originally I read this in 1987, but since a number of years there are plenty arsonists on the move again, and getting re-elected. So a re-read was in order, and one of my first attempts to buy from bookstores online across Europe.

Rouwdouwers by Falun Ellie Koos, raw, sharp observations. While being very different I associate it with another book by Max Frisch, Homo Faber (1957), that as a teenager I read in one sitting more or less like a manual on how not to feel. I read this with a lot more compassion. Moving. (paper, bought in Utrecht)

Then we get to the SF / fantasy books, of which I will name five.

Extremophile by Ian Green (paper, bought in Utrecht), was a cool ride. Biohacking thriller set in climate-collapse London. Picked it up because it had an endorsement of Adrian Tchaikovsky, whose books I usually enjoy. This is Green’s first SF book after writing mostly fantasy. Very enjoyable.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky usually does some amazing world building in space opera settings. This is a more whimsical story in comparison, grim and fun all at the same time. (Bought for Kindle still in 2024.)

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys, a first-contact story set in a near future hope punk world. The aliens distrust you if you don’t bring your kids to negotiations. Her site says she recently moved to the Netherlands. Bought as e-book through the Dutch Bol.com platform.

The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein On recommendation by Cory Doctorow read this, and the three next volumes. A fantasy story that is also a terraforming and colonisation SF story. High-tech will look like magic to those not in the know. Two additional books have been announced. (read through the Kobo Plus subscription that E has)

Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta, the 2014 debut novel of this Finnish author (e-book, through the Dutch Bol platform). Finland is very arid and part of a future-China occupation. Water crimes are punishable by death. Tea Masters have a special relationship to water. Strangely enjoyable mix of the stillness and quiet rituals of tea ceremonies with the tension of a brutal regime, while we follow a woman growing up and become herself.

I appreciate how 11 of the 13 living authors in this list have a personal website on the open web.

Looking forward to the stories that lie ahead in 2026!

Per the start of 2025 I stopped buying ebooks from Amazon. This means trying to find other ways outside of the Kindle ecosystem to acquire ebooks, preferably without lock-in. I maintain my library using Calibre and Epubor, and use those tools to be able to manage my book files locally and to read them on any device I have, in the right file format.
I read in three languages, fiction and non-fiction, and buy 50 to 100 books per year.

There are several ways to buy ebooks outside of Amazon. All options outside Amazon use the EPUB standard, sometimes with DRM and/or water marks. These are the options I’ve used since I’ve stopped using Amazon:

Directly from authors

Various authors sell their ebooks directly from their own sites. This has the benefit that more money goes directly to them, and there will be no DRM on the files.

  • Cory Doctorow (sf, non-fiction)
  • Michael W. Lucas (sf, non-fiction)

    • I’ll keep adding authors I can buy directly from to this list, suggestions are welcome too.

    Directly from publishers

    There are publishers that directly sell from their sites.

  • Verso Books, a UK based self-proclaimed radical left publisher, of fiction and (mostly) non-fiction. I have a monthly subscription which gives me access to all their ebook publications. I don’t find something of my liking every month, but often enough. DRM free.
  • Maven Publishing, Dutch and translated into Dutch non-fiction. DRM free, I’m not sure if the books are water marked.
  • Standard Books, a USA based publisher of English public domain works (fiction and non-fiction), released for free and as public domain (you can make donations, I do). Public domain works in the USA may still be copyrighted elsewhere.
  • Reclam Verlag, German literature and non-fiction, aimed at school use. DRM free with water marks.

    • I’m looking for more publishers that sell their own ebooks, feedback welcome.

    Other independent platforms

    Some platforms that aren’t tied to specific ecosystems sell ebooks. Be aware of what type of DRM they use, and determine first if you can handle that type of DRM.

  • ebooks.com, a USA based seller, using Adobe DRM although the site itself suggests they have their own type too.
  • Beam, German platform for DRM free ebooks, with water marks. Large selection of SF. By the looks of it German language only. Only accepts account holders with addresses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
  • Libris.nl, the platform of a chain of Dutch booksellers. Adobe DRM for English books, DRM free and water marks for Dutch books. Fiction and non-fiction. You can select your preferred actual book store first, and have your purchase accrue with them. Libris collaborates with the German Tolino e-reader maker.
  • Morawa, Austrian chain of booksellers (since the 19th century), ebooks can have DRM, but also many with water marks. They don’t sell outside of Austria . However you can add any Austrian address, as that doesn’t affect your downloads.

    • From other silo’d ecosystems

  • Rakuten Kobo, a Japanese company, selling ebooks for their Kobo ecosystem. DRM’d (Adobe). Sometimes cheaper than the main Dutch Kobo platform (Bol.com). Sales to EU through their Irish legal entity.
  • Bol.com, the largest Dutch online platform for books. Part of the Kobo ecosystem. Fiction and non-fiction, Dutch and English. DRM’d for English books, DRM free and water marked for Dutch language books.
  • Tolino, the German e-reader manufacturer Tolino works with the German book retail sector, like e.g. the Thalia and Hugendubel chains, or non-chain bookstores like Dussmann in Berlin (although Dussmann also works with the Ukrainian/Swiss Pocketbook ereader company. Adobe DRM is in use but many works are also DRM free and water marked. It seems a German residential address needs to be added to an account at these stores before buying ebooks is possible.

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    This year I decided to no longer spend any money with Amazon. Over the years I’ve spent quite a bit at Amazon on mostly e-books, and some paper books.
    I’m exploring other options of buying and acquiring ebooks. Today I decided to divert some of the money I would otherwise have spent at Amazon as donations to Standard Ebooks.

    Standard Ebooks is a US based ‘low profit‘ organisation that creates ebooks from books that are (considered to be) in the public domain in the USA, and releases those ebooks into the public domain themselves.
    It ensures works are available as ebook, also when there’s no commercial entity willing to market an ebook version.

    Creativity builds on creativity, creators mutually influence each other across borders and across time. The public domain is a key societal boon. In my voluntary work for the Open Nederland association, the focus is on facilitating the use of Creative Commons licenses for makers in the Netherlands. Creative Commons allows you to set generic permissions for various types of use, thus allowing creative works to flow more easily, both to the public and to other makers.

    Making public domain ebooks from public domain books is a similar act. It ensures that human creativity available in the public domain keeps growing, despite various publishing houses actively campaigning against it (or even aiming to limit library access to works).

    Much better to spend money there than at Amazon.
    I’m diverting about 25% of my previous Amazon spending to Standard Ebooks.

    There are various kinds of RSS feeds that I can access as a patron, as well as an OPDS feed for their entire collection. Such an OPDS feed, like with podcasts, allows one to distribute books and book collections as feed payload. My Calibre library tool (as server) and various e-readers (as client) can work with such feeds.

    There is one caveat: whether something is in or out of copyright, depends on your location as you download a work. Works can be in the public domain in e.g. the US, where Standard Ebooks is located, but still in copyright elsewhere and vice versa. Your location determines if you are breaching copyright when downloading a work.

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    In several jurisdictions (certainly the USA and Australia, Germany too) Amazon Kindle customers are told that by February 25th the ability to download books to your computer (for later transfer to your device over USB) will be disabled. I haven’t seen it in my Dutch Amazon store yet. That makes me wonder if it is a phased roll-out. This won’t prevent you from reading your e-books in any way, but will prevent you from storing them in useful formats outside of the Amazon silo (so that Amazon no longer can remove them at will).

    I realise my steps to move all my Amazon bought e-books to an environment I control have been timely (yet, also late by several years one might say).

    Within the next 10 days downloading Kindle book files and using Epubor to move them into your Calibre library should likely be a priority if you care about long term autonomy over your e-readings. Enshittification avoidance is a civic duty I’d say.

    Where enshittification happens it must be made to hurt the companies choosing it. Like by no longer sending money their way. So this step just makes avoiding Amazon purchases easier to keep up for me.

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    Last week I talked about not sending money anymore to Amazon. Today was international Switch Day, to encourage people to leave enshitified platforms for saner and cleaner alternatives. I don’t have much to switch away from left though. From FOSDEM, this weekend in Brussels, I’m hearing rumours about some well known US internet services seeking to relocate to EU jurisdictions. A different type of switching, but highly interesting.

    I, in line with today’s theme, made some steps to improve my Amazon hygiene.
    Making it easier for myself to read outside of Kindle world will go a long way of leaving Amazon behind. Moving towards new routines makes leaving old routines behind more doable, I hope.
    With that in mind I centralised my e-book management fully in Calibre. A tool I have been using for years, just not for all my e-books yet. I changed that today.
    Using the Epubor tool it was easy enough to ensure the e-books I bought in Kindle world and in Adobe world can be accessed by Calibre. All non-fiction titles (some 500) I bought over the years from a range of sources have now been added to Calibre.

    This brings two immediate benefits:

  • I can now move all of these titles to my NOVA BOOX e-reader directly
  • Using the Calibre content server, I can search and read my collection directly from within my Obsidian notes. (I already have a note for each book)

    • I will organise the non-fiction books in Calibre a bit more, and then also move over the 800 or so fiction titles from Amazon for similar easy findability and access. [UPDATE 20250202 I added all the fiction e-books I have to Calibre as well. Every title of the 1200 e-books or so I bought since 2010 is now accessible in Calibre for me]

    Meanwhile I also initiated my ‘books to maybe buy’ list in my notes, to counter instant gratification urges.
    On the e-book purchasing side of things, I noticed that ebooks.com has a search filter for DRM free books, but Dutch platforms Bol and Libris don’t. Bol and Libris use watermarks for Dutch e-books (meaning they’re DRM free but the files contain a reference to the buyer) and Adobe DRM for books from outside the Netherlands.