How to Get Kindle e-Books in Malaysia

This post is especially for Kindle e-books but actually, most here are applicable for any form of e-books. Disclaimer: The legality and ethicality of the methods below are questionable. Read here to understand more. The most ideal way is, of course, to get from Amazon (for Kindle), book publishers, or recognized dealers.

After dwelling to make the leap from physical books to e-books for quite some time, I finally got myself a Kindle! Read more on the reasons I finally bought a Kindle and my personal review of Kindle Paperwhite.

I know many are on the fence on whether to get a Kindle because unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t ship and deliver Kindles to Malaysia, and naturally, it’s a hassle to get Kindle e-books directly from Amazon.

Nevertheless, don’t let that stop you because there are actually many ways to get e-books for your Kindle (or any device for that matter) in Malaysia!

THE MAIN METHODS

I can’t deliberate in detail on these main methods because I don’t personally use them. This is from my own research, so forgive me for any accidental misinformation.

1. Get and buy e-books directly from Amazon

You can get Kindle e-books, free or paid, directly from Amazon. Unfortunately for us in Malaysia, we can’t without first having to go through numerous steps as Amazon (US) requires registration with US cardholder name, US credit card, US billing address, and US telephone number. What a hassle!

But it is not impossible. Check out these simple guides by Kindle Malaysia where they guide you step by step on how to get e-books from Amazon from the comfort of your home:

• To get free e-books from Amazon
• To buy Kindle e-books from Amazon

2. Get e-books from Kindle Malaysia

Alternatively, if the above is just a hassle for you, you can just purchase your Kindle device from Kindle Malaysia’s website. They provide complimentary service to help you register for an Amazon account after which you can proceed to use the Amazon Store to download e-books into your Kindle.

Otherwise, even if you don’t purchase your Kindle device from Kindle Malaysia, they also offer Kindle Unlimited Subscription and Kindle Malaysia Club Library at a certain price that allows you to access Amazon Kindle Unlimited to read over 1 million Kindle e-books and listen to more than 5,000 audiobooks for free. Because again, unfortunately, Amazon Kindle Unlimited is not available in Malaysia.

For more information, please check Kindle Malaysia out! (P/s I’m not paid)

THE ALTERNATIVE METHODS

I personally go for these alternative ways for convenience purposes.

These alternative ways will require you to-

1. Download e-books to your PC/laptop using any of the methods listed below;
2. Connect your Kindle to your PC/laptop with a USB cable;
3. Transfer the e-books from your PC/laptop to your Kindle.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

But first, download Calibre

This is because Kindle supports the MOBI format the best. By having Calibre on your PC/laptop, you don’t have to be bothered by the type of e-books you have because Calibre will automatically reformat your e-books to Kindle format before transferring the e-books to your Kindle.

So, please download this amazing free e-book software, Calibre, to your PC/laptop. Read here for more guidelines and information:

• How to Put Free Ebooks on Your Amazon Kindle
• How to Transfer Any eBook to Kindle Using Calibre
• 6 Tips & Tricks To Get More Out Of The Calibre eBook Reader

After downloading Calibre, you can now proceed looking for and downloading e-books to your PC/laptop then to your Kindle, using any of these methods.

3. Buy e-books from book stores

As far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong, our usual book stores like MPH, Popular, Kinokuniya, etc., do not sell e-books, yet. It is logically understandable considering that there is a competition between e-books and physical books (of course, e-books can’t ever replace physical books) in this era.

There also many global ebooks store online from which you can buy e-books at the standard price. Check out the stores here. I personally haven’t tried any of the sites on that list.

4. Buy cheaply from online sellers

This one, I’ve tried. There are many online sellers in the popular e-commerce platforms in Malaysia that sell e-books cheaply. How cheap? As cheap as RM0.50 or RM1 per e-book. Yes, that cheap.

I won’t share any specific seller here for obvious legal and ethical reasons, but with a quick search online or on any e-commerce platforms, you’ll find them.

5. Download for free

There are also many online sources that provide e-books, for free! ExpatGo has listed out various free e-book sources that are available in Malaysia.

What I’ve personally used are these:

• PDF Drive – a search engine for PDF files and books. Free download, no annoying ads, and no download limit. There were many times though that I couldn’t find the e-books that I wanted.
• Project Gutenberg – a library of over 60,000 free e-books. This contains mostly older books.
• Just Google it up! If you Google any title, you can often find the PDF copy or downloadable e-book copy from any random site.

And I saved the best for the last – Z-library Project! The world’s largest ebook library. This one really never disappoints. I’ve so far found anything and everything I want.

Conclusion

Some of the above may be unethical (and even illegal). So please, choose according to your conscience. If you have the means, I strongly encourage you to get the original e-books from the publishers, authors, or authorized dealers. Specifically for Kindles, you can get them directly from Amazon.

Oh by the way, the above is for international English books. I’m not sure how to get e-books version for local books. But I’ve seen local publishers that sell e-books for the books they published. Example: Money Stories from Malaysians by RinggitOhRinggit.

So let’s figuringgitout through reading!