If you've ever wanted to have your favorite websites automatically delivered to your Kindle as an e-book, we've got you covered with this tutorial.
Now, all of this is great, but what if you wanted to take the previously mentioned concept further and say, read content from your favorite websites? Yes, you can use the experimental browser found on the Kindle, but the experience isn't all that great, and to be frank, navigating a website on a Kindle is cumbersome. I'm talking about getting a daily edition of the websites you love, delivered to your Kindle either in the morning or at night, without any extra interaction once it's been set up.
While it's a very specific use case, this is primarily how I wanted to use my Kindle. After some trial and error, I've found a great automated solution that's easy to set up and is extremely reliable. Before we start, you will need a computer and a free program called Calibre.
How to setup Calibre
While the setup process might be just a tad bit complicated, the saving grace here is that everything can be done with Calibre, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- The first thing you're going to do is download Calibre.
- After opening the app you'll see the Calibre setup wizard.
- I'll be using an Amazon Kindle, so I chose the manufacturer, and just set the device option to Kindle Basic (all models).
- You'll also need to set up an email address that the app can use to send e-books to your Kindle. You can use an existing one or make a new one in the app using GMX or Outlook. I chose to set up a new account using Outlook.
From here, you can test to see whether the setup is working by sending a test email from the app. If you don't know your Kindle email, you can get details here. If everything is working, it's time to move onto the next section.
Making your favorite website into an e-book
- First, click the Fetch News button.
- If you see the news outlet you want to read listed, skip to the Scheduling the download section.
- For custom news sources, like adding XDA, you're going to head into the dropdown menu for the Fetch News section.
- When you click this, you should see an option that will let you add or edit a custom news source.
- By clicking on this, a new menu will pop up that will let you add and create a new recipe.
- Create the recipe by adding a title, setting the oldest article time, and adjust the number of articles per feed. The feed URL should be a link to the website's RSS feed. For example, the XDA website RSS feed is https://www.xda-developers.com/tag/rss/.
- Now before you close this menu, make sure to click on the Add Feed button. If you miss this step, the feed won't be added, and you won't be able to create an e-book from the website.
- If done correctly, you should at the recipe in the custom add source menu. You can see an example of this in the image above.
Scheduling the download
- On the main Calibre page, head back to the Fetch News menu, click the inverted arrow, and head to Schedule News Download.
- You should see list of news feeds both supplied from the app and any custom ones. In my case, the custom site is XDA.
- Click the news source, and it will bring up a menu allowing you to create a download schedule. Set it to fit your particular needs.
- You can test the download process by selecting to download all scheduled news sources, if everything was done right, then you should see the website populate as an e-book in the Calibre menu.
- If something's wrong, I'd recommend double-checking the settings, mainly the RSS feed.
Scheduling the delivery
- To get this to work on a Kindle, you're going to want to head into the settings options, then go to the section labeled Sharing books by email.
- It's extremely important to set it to one format. By default, it will have two formats listed: MOBI and ePUB. I set it to MOBI, but you're welcome to experiment with whatever file type you want.
- Once this is complete, ensure the auto send box is checked (it should be by default).
If all of the above steps are done correctly, what you should experience is an automated process that downloads the news website of your choice (the one that was set up in Calibre), creates an e-book, then automatically sends it to your Kindle email address, where it finally lands on your Kindle.
Perhaps the only disclaimer that I can add is that in order to have this process work, you'll need to make sure that the Calibre app is always running. Now for some, this might be a dealbreaker, but if you're looking for a versatile solution that doesn't cost any additional money, then this is probably one of the best solutions out there.