This was my flow, except instead of PC I was using Mac. But then, that Mac died and I hadn't also happened to save the proper old version of Kindle for PC. And I migrated to a linux desktop instead of replacing the Mac.
I'm a bit uneasy about grabbing some version downloaded from a random website, even if I ran that in a VM I still have to present my Amazon account info.
So my replacement flow would include "get a macos vm running, install an old version of Kindle for Mac (known good since it's my copy) in the VM" and then do everything in the VM and transfer the converted epub out.
I keep hoping the de-drm plugin will be updated to understand how to de-drm the newer Kindle format. :)
>The Dr. Seuss books were banned not just by eBay but also by their publisher
I don't see the problem here. The copyright owner's no longer wish to distribute certain items in their intellectual property collection? So? I don't see people concerned that Disney isn't pulling "Song of the South" out of their vault, or isn't streaming it on Disney+.
What's the alternative you want? The government to FORCE artists to publish? FORCE Ebay to list these particular Dr. Seuss books? What the hell?? Isn't that worse?
I like being able to resize fonts, I like looking up words immediately, I like carrying around dozens on a phone and/or kindle.
I like the sales. I follow reddit's fantasy and printsf subreddits, and there isn't a week that goes by without a book on sale for $1.99. Pricing could be more advantageous (lower for ebooks) but at the same time, I just bought a few of Greg Egan's books to fill out my collection (Diaspora and Quarantine) and they are right now on the US Store at least, $2.99 ebook versus $12.99 paperback. And, the ebook versions are loanable.
Yeah I could use my library more, and I use it plenty, but it turns out I LIKE AND WANT TO funnel cash towards authors I enjoy. That's how they make their living.
Physical books still offer better random access to content (flipping around from chapter to chapter) but ebooks won me over for technical books as well - simply because I can have them in multiple places (home, work, travel) without lugging them around. Yes I have a physical copies of certain key books but the convenience of having them all over wins out, for me.
>To reiterate, for me it seems that itunes and ebook reader generation of devices and applications don't seem to value custom directory organization.
Do you primarily or only use one computer or one os?
I'm on 3 different OSes regularly, over 5 different computers counting ones at work. For me, the effort to setup custom directory organization is a complete waste of time unless structure and tags can easily travel between computers, filesystems, and OSes.
Letting the app (Calibre for books, Mendeley Desktop for pdf's) organize however it wants lets me just clone the directory and preserve tags, which is actually what is important to me (or in the case of Mendeley, log in and sync documents/tags). I'm not a music listener at work or I'd just let an app organize that too if it syncs my tags.
I was like you, until my library grew to a certain size and I needed/wanted to organize it and display it better. Calibre lets me tag books, so I can pull them up by arbitrary categories which I can't EASILY pull off only using filesystem features. With Calibre I split my ebooks into two libraries (one for computer books, one for not computer books) and tag to my hearts content and requirements. I keep it simple to 2-3 tags for each book so I can later find my computer books that are "python, security" or my "reading challenge, crime/mystery, unread" books without dealing with extended attributes and the find command. Calibre also travels between linux, macos, and windows and so do the tags; unlike the filesystem where I'd get the joy of retagging all this stuff if I am on a different system (say, copy of my stuff on Windows means I have to retag with NTFS alternate data streams).
Same thing with pdf's - I used to keep a bunch of docs in my own subdir, until it got to be 1000+ pdf's and I discovered Mendeley Desktop and its tagging feature. Now I can find stuff much faster.
Same thing with my music collection, same thing my with photos.
Your needs may be minimal enough and your computer skills sufficient enough so that you get by with the filesystem, but I would venture to say the average user is much better off with an app/library method of organization. e.g., I can't fathom organizing a non-trivial photo collection via the filesystem only. I know I'm better off with the app/library method of organizing data, something I came to realize after my initial resistance.