Can You Read Any Book on Kindle? A Guide on Reading Any Book on Kindle

I want to buy a Kindle Paperwhite, but I don’t want to be limited to Amazon eBooks only. Can I purchase or download eBooks from other retailers or sources?

Have you encountered this question when you first entered the world of digital reading? I certainly did. Although you can always find newly released eBooks in the Amazon Kindle Store, there are often better deals on other websites, such as Barnes & Noble or Kobo. What’s more, you can also obtain free PDF or EPUB books from online libraries and free download sites.

So how do you transfer these non-Amazon books to your Kindle? Can you put non-Amazon books on a Kindle eReader? Can you read any book on Kindle? Don’t worry—this post will show you how to read both purchased Amazon books and non-Amazon books on your Kindle.

Before adding eBooks to your Kindle, it’s important to understand which eBook formats are supported by Kindle devices.

What’s the Kindle Supported Format?

Did you know that your Kindle can’t read every file you load onto it? Only Kindle-compatible formats will display correctly. Since there are many different eBook formats available, I’ve listed the Kindle-supported formats below:

How to Read Purchased Amazon Books & Kindle Unlimited Books on Kindle?

Step 1. Download Kindle books to your Kindle device

If you’ve purchased books from the Amazon Kindle Store or subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, simply sign in to your Kindle device with your Amazon account. Tap the book cover to download it. Once the book starts downloading, you can open it and begin reading even before the download is complete.

Step 2. Read Kindle books (including Kindle Unlimited) on Kindle

After the books have been downloaded to your Kindle, tap any title to start reading on your device.

You’re probably already familiar with these steps. In the next section, I’ll show you how to read non-Amazon books on Kindle, which is likely what you’re most interested in.

How to read Non-Amazon Books on Kindle?

To read non-amazon books on kindle, we need to share some ways to get non-amazon books first.

Step 1: How to Get the Non-amazon Books?

Before reading these non-amazon books on kindle device, where do you get your non-amazon books usually? Certainly, there are many different ways to get ebooks, but the general 3 methods should be:

1 Buy from other ebook vendors

If you purchase eBooks from other vendors, be sure to remember the store name or website address. This information is important because many eBook vendors encrypt their books with DRM (Digital Rights Management). Keep in mind that even after paying for an eBook, you may not fully own it due to these restrictions.

Not all eBooks are protected by DRM, but nearly 95% of them are. DRM is the biggest obstacle when importing non-Amazon books to a Kindle device.

Note

Due to DRM restrictions, encrypted eBooks cannot be read on Amazon Kindle devices. If you encounter this situation, please proceed directly to remove DRM from non-Amazon books.

2 Download from ebook downloading websites for free

There are always great selections of modern and classic books on the internet for free download. If you are looking for something free to read, then the following free ebook download websites will entertain you.

Different from ebook purchased from online ebook store, the majority ebooks that you downloaded from free resources are DRM-free. Although these books are with no DRM restriction, this doesn’t mean that you can read these books on Kindle directly. The real reason is these books may be in EPUB, pdf or other kindle incompatible format.

Whether you purchase eBooks from vendors other than the Amazon Kindle Store, or download free EPUB or PDF files from online resources, these files are not always in Kindle-compatible formats. The next step is to convert non-Amazon books into a Kindle-supported format.

Step 2: How to Convert Non-Amazon Books to Kindle Format

To make the non-amazon books are readable on kindle, we need to remove DRM and convert non-amazon books to kindle compatible format.

1 Remove DRM from Any books.

There are many ebook stores out there, but we cannot find one tool which can decrypt all online ebooks because they are encrypted with different drm scheme. However, there is still a tool—Epubor Ultimate which covers almost 90% drm type in the market. With it, you can remove drm from kindle, google play, kobo, nook and Adobe pdf & epub books.

   

Benefit from its simple and intuitive interface, you can just drag the books from left column to the right one to remove DRM.

Read The best DRM Removal tools for booksto remove drm from Kindle, Google Play, kobo and Nook ebooks.

2 Convert DRM-free non-amazon books to kindle compatible format

Although there are many formats that are compatible with kindle, not all of them are the best format for kindle. To read them on kindle, AZW3 is your best choice. Hereby, we’ll convert non-amazon books to azw3 format. As an all-in-one tool, Epubor Ultimate also can help you convert the DRM-free ebooks to kindle compatible format.

Step 3: How to Put Non-Amazon Books to Kindle

After getting the kindle compatible ebooks, you can just plug in your kindle to your computer and then copy and paste these books to “Documents” folder. This time, your kindle will display these non-amazon books well.

Pro tip How to sync non-amazon books across different kindle devices/apps?

The above-mentioned method is the easiest way to load non-amazon books to kindle. But this method will keep the book in the local storage of your kindle, it will not enable you to read this book on your other kindle devices or app from where you left off.

Thanks for Amazon’s Whisper-sync, you can use the email-to-Kindle function to email your non-Amazon ebook file to your Kindle’s email address. By doing this you can read a book across devices/Apps and always make sure to be on the page where you left off. Note: If you choose this way to load your non-amazon books to kindle, please ensure your ebooks are send-to-kindle supported file type at first.

Detailed Guide: How to Email Books and Documents to Kindle?

Finally, we have transferred or emailed our non-amazon books to kindle successfully. If you transfer it via usb, you can find your ebook in "Downloaded" tab. But if you use the sent-to-kindle service, then you'll find these books under "All" tab. To read it, you'll have to tap the book cover to download it at first and then read it.

How to Read Library Books on Kindle

Did you know that many libraries allow you to borrow eBooks and read them directly on a Kindle? If you have a library card, you can usually borrow eBooks from your local library at no cost.

So, can you get library books on a Kindle? The answer is yes. Most libraries today offer digital lending through services like OverDrive or Libby. You can visit your library’s website to check whether these platforms are supported, or ask the library about their digital borrowing options.

If your library supports Libby or Overdrive(US libraries only), you can easily get your Libby books to kindle. Once your Amazon account is connected to OverDrive or Libby, simply find the book you’ve borrowed, click the “Actions” button, and choose your Kindle device. The eBook will then be delivered to your Kindle automatically.

   

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