is a pain in the ass, if you live in America. It doesn't seem to be sold by the publisher here for some reason.
As lovely as the physical version looks to be, I just can't do long reading comfortably with them any more. Also, this version is complete-complete in a way that you cannot duplicate with singleton purchases, thanks to all the extras.
So here's the hoops I went through to buy the ebook. If you're not already doing DeDRM stuff for other purposes this may just not be worth the effort. It's honestly an annoying amount of work to Do The Right Thing.1
- Managed to dig up the link, used this one: https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/the-books-of-earthsea-the-complete-illustrated-edition
- Used my normal Kobo account, but changed my Billing Address to London, didn't even require a post code
- Added to cart, went to purchase, but did have to basically re-pick paypal as my option of choice; for some reason the cached info was failing out on the quick buy, but I just re-selected paypal and it did the link-up again and then everything worked fine
- Opened Desktop kobo app, which, handily, grabs purchases made from other stores without issues
- Used Calibre and Obok to accomplish the DeDRM and import, and then side load onto the ereader
In retrospect it'd have probably been equally ethical to just buy the physical version and acquire the digital one, also likely dramatically easier ๐ but also wasteful, so, who's to say.
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Shout-outs to this four-year-old reddit post and its subsequent comments to point me in the right direction and simplify things. Might end up being useful trivia for grabbing other stuff now that I know the process. Sure wish I didn't have to do the process. E-ink ebook readers are probably my favorite piece of technology, they're absolutely wonderful, and everything about ebook purchasing is some of the worst.