How To Read Kindle Books Without a Kindle

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A few months ago Amazon announced that they are now officially selling more e-books than print books. For every 100 print books that Amazon sells in hardcover or paperback, they are selling 105 of their electronic downloadable versions, which we know as “e-books”, and that figure excludes any free e-books that have been downloaded. Amazon sells its Kindle reader for downloading and reading e-books, and often times the Kindle edition of a book on Amazon will be almost half the cost of the print version.

But what if you don’t have a Kindle? Are you left with no choice but to buy the pricier print versions?

The good news is there is a way around this problem. In a sense, you can Make Your Own Kindle! Amazon has made available their Kindle Free Reading Apps for PC’s, iPads, and more.  You simply click, download the free reader onto your device, and you’re good to go!

I did this myself a few weeks ago on of my devices and it works just great. You have options to make the print smaller or larger, to make more words appear in a line, to bookmark pages, and you can even change a few colors. The books I purchased appeared with no problems and even better, I was able to download some free e-books!

Want to give it a try? Here’s few more instructions for the process:

1. You can click on this link to get to the page of free reading apps:

= = = = >> Kindle Free Reading Apps

2. This screen gives you different choices for Smartphones, Computers, or Tablets. When I did this for my laptop I used the “Computers” option and clicked on “Windows”.

3. You will then be brought to a screen for downloading the free app. You will want to click on the black box that says “Download Now”

4.The reading app is then downloaded onto your computer (or other device you may select).

5. You will get a screen asking you to register. Don’t skip this step! I closed out of this screen on my first attempt and then couldn’t download any books so be sure to register. If you already have an Amazon account, you can use that same email and username information.

You should get an icon on your desktop of the Kindle reader logo.

6.  When you click on your new Kindle reading app, there might be a few free books already in the “Library”. I had Aesop’s Fables, Treasure Island, and Pride and Prejudice. I immediately ignored them and downloaded a free Chicken Recipes cookbook instead. Ha!

If you are logged into Amazon and click on a Kindle version of a book to purchase it, Amazon should have your account now connected to your reading app because you registered it. On the right hand side you will use the orange bar that says “Buy now with 1-Click” and underneath it will probably say Kindle Cloud Reader. It has always said Cloud Reader for me too, but the books show up on my computer Kindle reading app just fine.

So if you don’t yet have a Kindle, this is a really nice way to still be able to buy e-books and read them on portable devices like laptops or smartphones, or even on your desktop PC if you prefer. Enjoy!

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