My Kindle Stuff

How do I buy books?
Go to Amazon’s Kindle Store.  Make sure your country information is correct before you start browsing.  Your country info is at the top of the leftmost column.  Although you can choose genres from the left, be advised that they are NOT all correct.  I have found that I miss many books when filtering by genres.  I have links in the sidebar to the right that help filter new books each month or just browse Amazon recommendations.

Can I buy Kindle books with my gift Card?
Yes.  Just apply the GC to your account and when making Kindle purchases, the balance will be used until depleted.

How do I get books onto my Kindle?
When you purchase, you will have the option to send directly to your registered Kindle, iPhone (US only), or computer.  If wireless is not offered in your country (see chart here) you will have to download to your computer then connect your USB cord and upload into the <Drive Letter>:\\documents folder on your Kindle.

What if I don’t want to use wireless when I BUY a book?
There are multiple options when buying a Kindle book.  You can choose which device to send to at the time of purchase as long as you are not making the purchase on your Kindle.  You would use this when traveling outside of your home country to avoid the download charges or when outside of wireless range.

What is WhisperSync?
WhisperSync is used if you will be reading on multiple devices whether multiple Kindles or Kindles and iPHones. You can turn it on and off on the Manage Your Kindle page on the Amazon website.  It is near the bottom of the page.  Check out this page for information managing Kindle books on multiple devices.

What are the keys on my Kindle used for?
Use the keys on your Kindle to navigate between books, delete books, subscriptions and other content, navigate to book locations, enter notes, search for books by title or author, search for text in a single or multiple books.  You can also change the line spacing and turn on/off TTS (Text-to-Speech) if available.  See here for a list of keyboard shortcuts.

I have personal documents or non-DRM books that I want to put on my Kindle.  Whats the best way to do this?
The easiest way to do so is to connect the USB and upload your books.  Make sure that the document format is compatible.  I also highly recommend Calibre when converting.  Calibre can convert for upload and/or convert and email to your Kindle if you have configured it correctly.  See this page for document conversion issues.

Where can I get free and inexpensive books?
Here is a list of resources and a list of current Amazon free books, but it is not an exhaustive list.  You can find others by googling, and checking other blogs, websites and forums.  I also link to a monthly list of books that are $1 or less as well as Kindle specific book resources in the sidebar.

What are my ‘archives’?
Archives are Amazon books that you have purchased but which don’t currently reside on your device.  Selecting Archives from your Kindle will bring up a list of all of the books which can be downloaded to your device.  To place a book into your Archives (and remove from your Kindle), press the 5-way to the left and you will see ‘Remove from device’.  Selecting that option will delete the item from your Kindle and place it in your archives available to re-download later.

What accessories are available for the Kindle?
There are covers, stands, skins, cases, travel kits, car kits and chargers(Kindle 1 accessories, Kindle 2/2i accessories & Kindle DX accessories here).  I have a list of recommendations here and images of my Kindles with some accessories here.  I suggest at the very least a cover and skin.

What else do you recommend for Kindle newbies?
I recommend that you play with the line spacing and font size at the very least.  I find that the a slight increase in line spacing (over what is in traditional books), makes reading on my Kindle much easier on the eyes and I also use a single increase in font size.

Well, hopefully the above will get you going with your Kindle.  Also check out the Blogroll in the sidebar to the right, my highest recommendations go to The Kindle Chronicles, MobilReads and Kindleboards.  When you’re ready, you should probalby move on to the articles on Web Apps for the Kindle and the Kindle Hacks page.