Kindle Books - free or cheap old style related

ceridwen

Well - I've had more of a chance to assess my Kindle now. Verdict = yep!:D

I've read my way through the whole explanatory e-book that is there on the Kindle to start with and they've phrased it very clearly. So - there are two dictionaries on there to start with and I've had to change the default one (which is American) to the British one - managed that okay. Duly managed to download a couple of e-books onto there - now got me a free copy of "Jane Austen" as a test run that I can do it okay.

So - I've downloaded both those books from the Amazon website - rather than through the Kindle (havent quite got brave enough yet to download from the Kindle itself - that will be next step). Good to discover I can download whatever I want from the Amazon site though - as I feel confident about using that - and they give all us readers our own individual Kindle account (just one thing they havent yet done - they havent put our bought e-books on the same record as our other purchases from Amazon. So one little improvement Amazon needs to do there).

There's various other things on the Kindle besides reading free e-books. I couldnt be doing personally with trying to download pdf's, share books through Kindle, etc - too much faff for a non-techno like me. But I think I might well download newspapers onto it. I notice there is an experimental feature to check out websites on the Internet too - - so will have to investigate that at some point. Its possible to do things like make notes, do bookmarks, see other peoples notes on the books one downloads - but I'm not likely to use that personally (sounds too complicated to me).

Anyways - all I basically wanted it for was to be able to access loadsa free books on the move easily - and I've got that okay. Wouldnt have wanted to try a wireless-only e-reader personally - its easier for a non-techno like me to have an e-reader that downloads things of itself automatically through 3G.

Got round the awkward to hold factor when reading - I would say its mandatory to buy the Kindle cover one can get and slot the Kindle into that. With that - I can now hold it comfortably in the same way that I do books.

So - there y'are - consumer assessment by a non-techno is a Yes (for the 3G version at least).

Triggles

Thank you for posting those links above to the free kindle books. I currently have the kindle programme downloaded on my computer, but am hoping to have a kindle of my own soon, as a friend is hoping to buy a new one and has offered to give me her old one, as she will no longer be using it once she gets the new one. yay!!

ceridwen

Having just had another reminder re this thread....

Has anyone else got any free Kindle e-books they can recommend that we might like please?:D I've just downloaded a couple of the books Squeaky mentioned in the first post on this thread - but would be interested in having some more...

Someone mentioned that "Walden" by Thoreau is on there for instance?

Has Project Gutenberg got a webpage specifically for Kindle free e-books yet? I'd appreciate a link if so. If they havent got that yet - then a nudge when they do...:D

squeaky

I'm pretty sure that I added that link into the first post, but here it is anyway...

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Pick yourself a topic or an author.... once you pick a book you'll be passed on to a page that lists all the various download formats that are available - and downloading directly to your kindle has been an option for every book that I've tried so far.

ceridwen

squeaky wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that I added that link into the first post, but here it is anyway...

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Pick yourself a topic or an author.... once you pick a book you'll be passed on to a page that lists all the various download formats that are available - and downloading directly to your kindle has been an option for every book that I've tried so far.

Thanks for that.

UPdate - I found Project Gutenberg and can find the author I want and scroll to where it says "Kindle" on the available formats to download. Pressed on the Kindle link and expected it to automatically get downloaded onto my Kindle within seconds (as per Kindle books on Amazon).

I hit a snag. Up came that little box saying "Do you want to save this file, or find a program to open it"

Duh? What? I just want to automatically send it over to my Kindle thinks I...now what to do? So I tried clicking on "Save" on that and got the whole thingie one gets on trying to save something onto the computer (which I've never learnt). So tried clicking on "Find program" and ended up confused that way - as it came up with a Windows page on that - so clicked on that and up comes a Google page of various listings for things like MobiPocket.

At that point gave up and thought - theres gotta be an easier way and I hope its not going to consist of waiting to get free Kindle books until either Amazon has them "on sale" for that author on the one hand OR Project Gutenberg deals with this issue they seem to have of not automatically "sending the e-book over to my Kindle".

Any thoughts?

squeaky

Don't know. I don't have a kindle - I use the kindle software for PC; and this downloads the file straight into my kindle software. In fact it goes into my library and then opens the book ready to read.

I'm pretty sure that Gutenberg has a set of help pages for the various formats - have a read

cbrown372

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011

as regards your Kindle orders they are all stored in a separate account from your other Amazon orders as I have downloaded hundreds of Kindle books I wouldn't like them mixed in with other Amazon purchases.

[Deleted User]

free at the moment, worth £8.99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=simple+amish+christmas&x=12&y=18

I also remember loving andrew langs fairy stories when I was young. I have downloaded most of them for free so far. The yellow book is free today

ceridwen

'Fraid not....guess Amazon realised and promptly stuck a price on it....

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Still checking out my Kindle and have now found out how to use the experimental bit about getting onto the Internet from it. Rather slow and cumbersome and, of course, that tiny screen...but its got its uses to be able to.

Still checking it out...

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Still on the lookout for good free Kindle books:D

squeaky

ceridwen wrote: »

Still on the lookout for good free Kindle books:D

A regular browse of the links at the bottom of the first post should help with that