How To Download Free Amazon Kindle eBooks To Your PC
Are you really jealous of friends who have a Kindle? They are able to download and read completely free Amazon Kindle eBooks on their fancy devices. Well don’t feel left out laptop and net book users!
You can turn your portable computer or even your desktop computer into a full featured Kindle. It may not look like a Kindle but it can let you read, bookmark and annotate your eBooks.
Is it sounding too good to be true?
Well it’s not and it is here to stay! Why would Amazon want to limit their sales to only people who have shelled out the dough for a Kindle?
So with out further ado here it is in all it’s glory – the Kindle for PC, with the Mac version on it’s way!
Let’s take a look at how to download, install and start reading eBooks. Your Kindle for PC will also let you download and pay for books as well. But as we cover free software here we will focus on some free eBook downloading and reading.
I started by downloading the software from here. After the download is completed, run the installer and install the application. Then you will see a screen that looks like this:
You will need to give them a email account or your Amazon account’s email address to speed things along. And you will HAVE to have a credit card on the account. You will not need to buy anything but a credit card is required.
Fill in the required information:
Go ahead and click the register button. That will bring you to your Kindle home screen. On it in the upper right hand corner you will see this:
If you already have purchased or have books in your account they will show up here. If not, hit the shop in the Kindle store button next to the Menu button. From here you can buy or download free books. The ones on the home page are their best sellers and cost money!
But let’s search for some free books. Do you see the search box at the top? Go ahead and hit the go button:
That will return all the results in Kindle Land. Then when you have your search results lets sort them by price lowest to highest like so:
If you see something that catches your eye grab it. If not search for your favorite old world authors. I chose Charles Dickens as you can see below:
Then I went ahead and clicked on Oliver Twist, circa mid 1800’s. To download it click on the Buy now with 1 click orange button. It will deliver to your PC version of the Kindle by default. If you have other devices select the appropriate one.
Then you will see a thank you screen. Next go back to your Kindle screen and hit the sync and check for new items (F5) button as you can see below:
That will get the ball rolling…
Yeah! I have a book! Click on it to start reading…
The right and left buttons will turn your pages. And your other options are bookmark and note. Here is what the text looks like:
Hit the bookmark button to store a bookmark. To retrieve it hit the show notes and marks button:
You can add notes by dropping down that box to say notes and type away! Do you love it or hate it?
We would love to hear how you consume eBooks. Let us know in the comments!
(By) Karl Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry. His days are spent monitoring and maintaining systems on Wall Street. He helps people with their technical issues for free over at AskTheAdmin.com. You can follow him on Twitter
Hate it, unless I did something wrong or until they fix one thing. Your book appears to be bound to that device. So if I’ve got the reader on my iPhone and my PC, I want to read it on both (I take the iPhone places I do not take the laptop). Can I do that?
i set up the kindle no problem however when i went to the kindle store there were no free books, the cheapest available (including the Dickens) were USD2.30.
could my registering with an Amazon.co.uk rather than Amazon.com account be the cause?
Yes, amazon.co.uk may be the problem. Try this direct link
i followed the link to Amazon.com you kindly provided and had the same problem, no free books, until, after a bit of experimentation, i found that if you search for books in the sub-department “Kindle Books” there are no freebies, but if you search for “Kindle Books” in the main department “Books” there they are.
(Comments wont nest below this level)I HAVE to give them access to a credit card? No thanks.
Even the free books require you to click on a button that says ‘buy it’, No thanks.
The whole process sounds intentionally confusing and kinda scammy.
I agree with you man. It’s shady and I don’t trust it.
I have an account on amazon.com. However i can’t find any free books either. The cheapest, including Dickens’, is 2.30.
There is no free beer
Went to Kindle on Amazon and “No Free Books” all books seem to be $2.30, forget that.
There are other sites to search free kindle books.
One of the best is feedbooks:
http://www.feedbooks.com has loads of free books which can be downloaded in kindle format. First download kindle for PC. After downloading the books from feedbooks in Kindle format, double click on the downloaded file to automatically open in Kindle reader. Kindle reader itself does not have open (ctrl+o) option.
I hope I have added something.
Dr Keshav Kulkarni, Radiologist
Why on Earth would I want to go to all that trouble just to get what should be copyright free books into a proprietary, locked, DRM’d, remotely-deletable format on a PC only when I can have all of these and tons more in open formats that I can read for the next several hundred years on many devices including portable ones like my nice, high-res smart phone?
STRANGE!
“the Kindle for PC, with the Mac version on it’s way!”
So having a PC automatically means you’ve got Microsoft Windows? And if you don’t have a “PC” you have a Mac? How quaint.
Elwood Blues: -”What kind of music do you usually have here?”
Claire: -”Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western.”
Check out Barnes & Noble’s “Nook,” to be available for purchase at the end of the month (www.nook.com). Assuming that it does what it says it does, it should blow Kindle out the water!
Thanks keshav. Your tip was really helpful.
Nice to see doctors active on makeuseof. Am an Internist….:)
The installation process was easy. Thanks for the clear instructions. I had an Amazon account, and I’ve downloaded a free book successfully.
Actually, the Kindle for PC is like a lightweight PDF reader. What I like is to be able to access Amazon Kindle store ebooks. And the Kindle is remembering the last location.
But the program is still in early stages. If you go to http://www.amazon.com/KindleForPCComingSoon you’ll see that highlights and notes are coming soon. These are the basic features but lacking in Kindle for PC.
If I’m not buying anything, what’s up with insisting on a cc??
Hello! Thanks for the article. When I downloaded the software (12/12/09) I didn’t haft to put in a credit card #. All I did was enter my amazon account and voilà! Also, now they have lots more free books. Check it out, if you haven’t already.