

Ask HN: Is there a way to access kindle content for a speed reading app? - freefrancisco

I would like to read my kindle books using a speed reading interface like this http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spreeder.com&#x2F; but I can&#x27;t find an API to access the books.  I have seen some iphone and android apps that can read content like that, but none of them can access kindle books.  Is this possible and nobody has done it yet, or is this forbidden by Amazon&#x27;s terms of service?
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lutusp
Why don't you use PDF files, or another e-book format, instead? It's likely
the target app will accept formats like PDF more readily than Kindle.

> Is this possible and nobody has done it yet, or is this forbidden by
> Amazon's terms of service?

You mean a special reader that changes the basic page format? That's doubtful,
and implausible -- I don't think Amazon would want to forbid a potentially
market-increasing technological advance.

It's more likely that the reader designers are interested in keeping their
media free and open-source, and therefore don't support the Kindle file
format.

~~~
freefrancisco
Because the books I bought from amazon are already in the kindle format.
Amazon already lets me read them on a kindle app from a computer, an ipad, and
an android as long as I'm authenticated. I figured they would let me
authenticate via an API and read them from some other app. The issue I have is
I want to consume my content using an interface that is not like a book, and
doesn't have pages or page formats. If you look at the interface I linked,
[http://www.spreeder.com/](http://www.spreeder.com/), they show you one word
at a time in rapid succession, so you don't have to move your eyes in order to
speed read.

~~~
lutusp
Oh, well, in that case, I guess you'll have to wait for someone at Amazon to
decide to include this reading mode as an option. Or an independent software
developer who has an arrangement with Amazon to read and decode the Kindle
format.

> ... they show you one word at a time in rapid succession, so you don't have
> to move your eyes in order to speed read.

For a novel, this arrangement might work, but in technical reading, I find
that I need to reread difficult sentences, sentences that express new ideas,
over and over, until they sink in.

~~~
freefrancisco
I would definitely not read a tech book like that, I want it to read history
books and fiction, the kind of reading I do to relax. I was thinking of
writing something that would let me speed up and slow down or back up with
simple finger movements, and I could use that to read tech books, but for that
I need to access the kindle content. If Amazon won't let me, maybe it's time I
reconsider where I buy my books from.

~~~
lutusp
> If Amazon won't let me, maybe it's time I reconsider where I buy my books
> from.

I want to encourage this on general principles. Many deserving book outlets
are suffering because of Amazon, and Amazon deserves to feel some competition
-- that can only improve their business and the marketplace in general.

So, as the Australians say, "Good on you, mate."

