Getting books on your Kindle

After using the Kindle for a week, I wanted to talk briefly about how you get books on your Kindle. There are several methods, and all of them are  straightforward.

The first way is to go to Amazon’s site, buy a book, and have it ‘sent’ to your device. I’ve got Kindle on my PC, as well as my Android G1, and you can choose to have it sent to any or all of these places. The process is similar to other online stores. You add books to your shopping cart, then check out. You even do this with the free books. It’s slick and easy.

The second way is to buy a book right from your Kindle. You simply go to the store on your device, type in what you’re looking for, and you’re off and running. It doesn’t matter if you’re on wireless or 3g, the books downloads and you’re ready.

The third way is to send documents to a special address that Kindle gives you. Only authorized people can do this, so you don’t have to worry about spam. It is important to note that if you send a pdf to the address, you’ll end up with a pdf on the Kindle. Reading a pdf on the Kindle is kind of a pain because you can’t mess with the font size, and it doesn’t save your place on different devices.

However, you can convert that pdf or word document to an Amazon document by putting ‘convert’ in the subject line. Again, it’s my understanding that if you’re on wireless, there is no charge to do this. If you send it over 3g, there is a small fee (I think I remember reading 10 cents somewhere).

I’ve used all three methods to get books on my Kindle, and they are all quick and easy. I have over 30 books so far, and I’ve only paid for one of them. 30 books for me is about 30 years worth of reading, and since one of them is War and Peace, it’s more like 40 years.

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