I think most of us know about the Kindle reader from Amazon.com. It’s a portable reading table and you can download books from Amazon to read on it. What I didn’t know is that you can read Kindle downloads on your computer (or cellphone).
I don’t really want to own a Kindle right now. I do most of my reading on my laptop computer. And I do a LOT of reading. Lots of tutorials, music scores, etc. Mainly technical books and histories. But so often I see an option on Amazon for a Kindle download but can’t take advantage of it because I don’t own a Kindle. Wrong!
Can’t believe I didn’t know about this before. Amazon.com has free software downloads to read Kindle book downloads on your PC, Mac or cellphone. I don’t mind paying for a download from an author that’s still under copyright. Doesn’t bother me at all even though I know where to download them for free. In fact, it makes me feel kind of good. One of my side income streams is from my downloadable music projects and yes, the income makes a difference for me. And yes, if download my products for free it means I can’t feed my kids. Ok, I don’t have any kids. But if I did then…you get it.
I was able to download the Mac reader software for my Macbook Pro AND purchase a kindle download book in under four minutes. I mean in four minutes I was reading that book on my computer. There’s a great “highlight” feature that keeps track of all the phrases you highlight (even in traditional yellow like you were using a highlighter from the old college days). And to my surprise, when I copied a section of the book to keep for notes, it retained a footnote of the author name, book and version of publication. Fantastic!
In my case I’m working on a theater project and got stuck in how my plot was arranged. I was actually looking into hiring a professional consultant for over $2,000 USD when I found a highly recommended book they had written. It was available for kindle. I downloaded and highlighted the information I needed. Took about 3 hours to read the whole book and BAM. Everything I needed. If I had ordered the book it would have taken a couple weeks to get to me (I live in China). I’ll probably end up hiring that consultant down the road because his book is so fantastic. But for the meantime I’m happy to know he got a cut of the $10 I paid for the download.
I remember back in 1981 I spent a summer studying a couple operas. I had to special order the records (Yes, those big round things from caveman days) and books from the library. At the time it made sense but looking back it seems so tedious.
The power of the internet really comes to life for me when I cam working on projects. It is unbelievable the amount of information I can get supported with audio and video samples.
If you love reading on your computer and don’t mind spending $10 for a download – get that Amazon.com reader!
I saw that you can download books to the computer awhile ago, but I don’t like carrying around my laptop, so I’m hoping to get a Nook someday, but yeah, that is so cool that you can download books. Think of all the bookshelves you don’t have to buy ;o) (Didn’t they used to call them e-books and one would just pay for the download without a special kindle app?)
Thanks, Conrad! I’ve been putting off getting a Kindle/Nook and seeing your post convienced me that I can wait on that and just download the right app and I’m good to go! Funny how I got to your website…I was google-ing my name and there was a “open call for pit musicians’ for your 2006 Suessical-the musical link. That was 2006!!! My how time flies. Love keeping in tough through FB. Keep smiling…~Sharon
Hi Sharon! Good to hear from you.
Seems like I’m always searching the web for information on specific subjects. Most of the time I find what I need right away but sometimes I really need a full book by a contemporary author. The Kindle reader app for the computer has really helped me out to download that information quickly.
Amazon’s “Fire” was just released a few days ago. A family member has one on order so I’m interested to see how they like it.