Got me a Kindle.

[JeffinNZ]

A girl I work with gave me a Kindle this week. Her partner works in the airline industry and the device was left on a plane and never claimed. They didn't want so I got it. Wi-Fi, 3G model, never registered. I loaded with some books we had on already as SWMBO is glued to her Kindle Fire and I am up and running. I really like it which surprised me as I am a traditional paper guy. Suffice to say I will be downloading Recluse's book for a read in the near future!!

[snuffy]

Suffice to say I will be downloading Recluse's book for a read in the near future!!

His book is why I got my kindle to start with. It sounded so good, and that was the only way to read it at first. After reading it, I was glad I got the kindle, and it is a great book, a win on both sides.

I always hated paper books, especially the small fine print. The kindle lets you enlarge the font to where you can see it, then no fumbling with paper pages trying to get just one page instead of 2-3

[waksupi]

One of my favorite sites for free books.

http://manybooks.net/

[Dean D.]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the Kindle Jeff. My wife Tammy has one and loves it. I've seen Waksupi using his "Tinder" (the pre-1840 version) and he seems to enjoy it as well!

[sthwestvictoria]

I have never used the Kindle to actually download a book from amazon. I tend to use it for reading articles that I have found online or old, out of copyright pdfs from sites like manybooks.

I also use it for having tutorials or work throughs on that I can take to the workshop, without having to have the whole computer there.

Some of my haunts for cast boolit friendly reading:

http://yarchive.net/gun/index.html - hundreds of articles, mostly in .txt format by the likes of Ed Harris, Bob Barrit

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/Default.htm - paco kelly's collection of articles

http://www.gunsmagazine.com/classic-guns-magazine-editions/ - guns magazine 1955-1962, pdf format

http://www.lasc.us/articlesfryxell.htm - the prolific writing of Glen Fryxell, mostly pdf format

and of course:

http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/default.html - the articles on the Castpics site.

[GT27]

Nice,easy to carry with you too!

[Wayne Smith]

Have had one for several years. Our son's book is on Amazon - just search for Tobias Mastgrave. He has a thing for names, as you will see if you read his book.

I just got an iPad because the office is going all electronic records the first of the year. Needed a pad I could write on. I found and downloaded a free Kindle app and now have my Kindle books on my iPad.

[waksupi]

Have had one for several years. Our son's book is on Amazon - just search for Tobias Mastgrave. He has a thing for names, as you will see if you read his book.

I just got an iPad because the office is going all electronic records the first of the year. Needed a pad I could write on. I found and downloaded a free Kindle app and now have my Kindle books on my iPad.

Wayne, I always shudder when I hear a business of any kind is going all electronic. One serious electrical glitch, and it is all gone.

[alamogunr]

I have never used the Kindle to actually download a book from amazon. I tend to use it for reading articles that I have found online or old, out of copyright pdfs from sites like manybooks.

I also use it for having tutorials or work throughs on that I can take to the workshop, without having to have the whole computer there.

Some of my haunts for cast boolit friendly reading:

http://yarchive.net/gun/index.html - hundreds of articles, mostly in .txt format by the likes of Ed Harris, Bob Barrit

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/Default.htm - paco kelly's collection of articles

http://www.gunsmagazine.com/classic-guns-magazine-editions/ - guns magazine 1955-1962, pdf format

http://www.lasc.us/articlesfryxell.htm - the prolific writing of Glen Fryxell, mostly pdf format

and of course:

http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/default.html - the articles on the Castpics site.

Thanks for those links. My wife and I both have Kindles. She downloads a bunch from Amazon. I download much fewer but between the two of us we have spent over $1000 on books this year. And that is on books that rarely cost over $2-$3. I got the 6 volume series on WWII by Winston Churchhill for $1.99 each. That has kept me supplied with reading material for the last 3 months.

[10x]

There are an incredible number of free books for kindle
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Free_Kindle_Books

[Wayne Smith]

Wayne, I always shudder when I hear a business of any kind is going all electronic. One serious electrical glitch, and it is all gone.

I agree, and I think keeping medical records in the cloud is hugely less safe than paper. Anyone in the world who knows how can steal them. If paper, at least they have to be physically present to steal.

[markinalpine]

Here's an e-book file management freeware program:http://calibre-ebook.com/
Mark :coffeecom

[waksupi]

Thanks for those links. My wife and I both have Kindles. She downloads a bunch from Amazon. I download much fewer but between the two of us we have spent over $1000 on books this year. And that is on books that rarely cost over $2-$3. I got the 6 volume series on WWII by Winston Churchhill for $1.99 each. That has kept me supplied with reading material for the last 3 months.

There are lots of free sites for books. I have over 2500 on mine, all free.

[alamogunr]

Is there a trick to downloading free books? I went to the Gutenberg site and I'm not sure I understood how to do it. Buying from Amazon is so easy I'm afraid that I will expect everything to be like that.

I have not tried to download to my computer and then transfer to the Kindle but it sounds like that would be the most straightforward.

[sthwestvictoria]

Is there a trick to downloading free books? I

No tricks, just knowing your way around the file system on your computer (microsoft explorer if on a PC, finder if on a mac)
For something like the paco kelly link above I would first plug in my kindle and let it connect to the computer.

Then I would go to the website and right click (right mouse button) on the file I wanted to read on the kindle. A menu should drop down near the mouse icon and I would chose save as or save link as depending on your internet browser.
Then another box should pop up, allowing me to choose where to save the file from paco's website.
I could then choose a folder on my computer or go straight to the kindle.
If you choose to save the file straight to kindle, save it in the documents folder of the kindle. If it is a common file type (pdf, txt, htm) you will then be able to unplug the kindle and read it.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Here's an e-book file management freeware program:http://calibre-ebook.com/
Mark :coffeecom

A big 'thumbs up' for Calibre!

It enables you to take other formats like MS Word documents, 'epub' files (for the Nook or other e-readers), text files and PDFs and convert them to Kindle format, AND if you connect your Kindle to your computer while running Calibre, it will handle uploading those books you've converted right into your Kindle.

Another neat trick that Kindle owners need to keep in mind is that with your Kindle account, you get a few email addresses like 'xxxxxxx@kindle.com'. If you have a kindle file you just downloaded on your computer, attach it as a file to am email and address that email to your kindle.com address, and next time your Kindle syncs with Amazon, your new book will load into your Kindle.

Further, you'd be well-advised to download and install the free Kindle applications for your PC. That way, you have your Kindle books on your PC, too. Annnnnnd you can get Kindle apps for your Android phone, iPhone or iPad, as well, so no matter where you are, you have access to your Kindle library.

I bought my first Kindle three years ago. This year I bought an iPad. With all the things that the iPad does besides let me read books, I seldom carry the Kindle any more, but it has some definite advantages, especially in the realm of battery life and the free wireless connect feature.

dale in Louisiana

[10x]

A big 'thumbs up' for Calibre!
snip
I bought my first Kindle three years ago. This year I bought an iPad. With all the things that the iPad does besides let me read books, I seldom carry the Kindle any more, but it has some definite advantages, especially in the realm of battery life and the free wireless connect feature.

dale in Louisiana

So how do I move books from computer to Ipad using caliber???

[Wayne Smith]

How do I connect my kindle to my computer? Is there a physical cable connector?

[sthwestvictoria]

How do I connect my kindle to my computer? Is there a physical cable connector?

Yes there is55118 it looks like this.

One end (the smaller) to the base of the Kindle, one end to USB port on computer. Mine came with the Kindle. You could also use the email trick that Dale in Louisiana mentions if you do not have a cable.

[waksupi]

Places like Walmart will have the cables.

[waksupi]

So how do I move books from computer to Ipad using caliber???

Make a folder on your computer. Plug in the Kindle, and open it. Select all of the document file, and copy it to another file on your computer. Disconnect the Kindle, hook up the Ipad, and copy that folder to that device.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

My inlaws gave us an iPad as a gift, I resisted for a while, insisting that my desktop was just fine, but now I use it all the time. Every now and then it doesn't get along with certain websites, but it pretty cool none the less, enjoy your new tablet!

[XBT]

Another good site for free books:

http://www.ereaderiq.com/free/

[lavenatti]

It should be the same cable that plugs into the charger the Kindle came with.

[Wayne Smith]

OK, thanks. That's the same connector used to power my iPad, connect it to an outlet jack. So now I can link to a computer, too. Maybe I ought to read the tutorial on my kindle!

[waksupi]

Lots of good Kindle tips here.

http://www.collegedegrees.com/blog/2008/06/17/hack-your-kindle-100-tips-resources-and-tutorials-to-get-more-out-of-the-amazon-kindle/