If you bought any ebooks between April 2010 and May 2012, you may have some Amazon credit coming your way.
This credit is the result of a lawsuit which Amazon settled a while ago. But you must check soon, because this happy windfall will be expiring shortly.
You can read more about it through this link, and learn how to see if you have any credit coming your way. Good Luck!!!
Click here to learn how to check for your Amazon credits
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As much as I love to read, I must admit that I hate the feeling that I get when I FINISH a great book. It’s kind of sad to close the cover on characters you love (or hate), and a plot that kept you thoroughly engaged. The book ends, and the hunt begins. The hunt for that NEXT great book…….
I usually get my next book from one of several sources: a friend’s recommendation, a Goodreads bookshelf that matches my interests, or any one of the books that are “waiting” for me on my own Kindle bookshelf.
I recently discovered ANOTHER source, a website that lists books for you that are similar to the one you love!
As soon as I stumbled upon this site, I typed in some book names to see what kinds of suggestions it offered.
I was pleased with the results.
For example, I entered “Pillars of the Earth” and was delighted to see a list of books generated within seconds. Happily I can report that there were several books included in that list that I have already read and can absolutely agree that they belong there as suggestions for similar books. There were others listed that I haven’t read, and so, ( 🙂 happy time! 🙂 ) I now have more books to explore.
If you are a reader, I think you’ll enjoy giving this a try:
(you don’t have to register or sign in to type in the title of a book and get a list of ‘similars’)
If you are an enthusiastic ebook reader, you have probably developed quite a library. I know I have, with oodles of books in the Cloud, and a long line of unread books waiting for me on my Kindle.
I have so many that I feel the need to do a bit of pruning. I know there are thorns among the many roses. It’s time to let some of them go.
So …… let’s be CLEAR: When you have a book on your Kindle, and you “delete from the device” ….. , you still own the book. Even though it is no longer physically sitting on your Kindle, it is alive and well and resting in your Cloud Library, just waiting for you to download it to your device whenever you would like to read it.
What we are going to talk about now is a different action. A PERMANENT action. We are going to look at deleting a book from your Cloud Library forever. That’s forever.
If you do this, it will be gone. You will no longer own the book. If you want to read it again, you’ll have to buy it again. So before you do this ..be sure!
Here is how to PERMANENTLY delete a book from your Kindle Cloud Library:
Go to the Kindle books area on the Amazon website. Look along the top of your screen. Click on “Manage your Content and Devices”. (You can also access this area through “your account”.)
There will be several tabs, one for content, one for devices, and one for settings. Tap on Content.
Now you see a list of ALL the Kindle books you own. All your books in the Cloud AND all the books on your device are listed, here.
Once you have found a book that you want to delete permanently, click on the little box with dots to the left of the title.
Once you tap on those dots, a menu will appear. Click on “delete”.
Once you click on “delete”, you’ll be asked…. “are you SURE??” and if you are, go ahead and delete.
That’s it! That’s all there is to it.
Just make sure that you are paying attention as you do this, and only delete the books that you really want to toss from your library.
Yay!! BookBub makes me happy. I LOVE to explore sources for free and reduced price e-books.
For long time readers of this blog, you might remember several other eBook websites that I have gushed about in the past. Among them are Book Gorilla, Early Bird books, and my all time favorite, eReaderIQ.
Noticing that the dates on those posts are as old as TWO years ago, I am happy to report that they are all still very active websites, and ….. personally….. I visit them EVERY day. My Kindle is full of books (great books!) that I’ve gotten for free or greatly reduced prices, and the thrill of the ‘find’ never gets old. 🙂
And now I’ve added another website to my list of daily book-browsing stops. BookBub
Once you sign up (it’s free), you will have the opportunity to refine your choices. Are you interested in mystery books? nonfiction? literary fiction? Once you make your selections, BookBub will direct you to the best deals for your interests.
You can also just browse. (ahhhh…. what a pleasure!) and you can also opt in to get emails each day with the most recent deals.
Although I participate in several websites like this, it is always surprising to me that the book choices presented are not usually the same. Yes, there is often some overlap, but in general each website is suggesting a different crop of books. Pure e-book browsing pleasure!!
I’m delighted to have added BookBub to my daily e-book browsing.
When we read a great book, it’s natural to want to share it with others. Unfortunately, this is the one big drawback with digital books. Sigh. 😦
There are a few work arounds. You can form a “group.” And recently Amazon introduced “family sharing” which also involves linking accounts.
But what if you want to simply lend a book to a friend?
You can share a Kindle book ….if the publisher allows it. (note: the recipient does not have to own a Kindle. The Kindle app on their iPhone or iPad will work just fine.)
How to loan a Kindle book:
Bring up your Amazon account, and select “Manage Your Content and Devices.” There are several ways to navigate to that page, but I think that the easiest way is to go to a page with a Kindle book(s) and look across the top of the page, just below your search bar. On the far right, you’ll see “Manage Your Content and Devices.”
Click on “Manage Your Content and Devices” and you’ll be brought to a page that has tabs marked “content,” “devices” and “settings.” Click on “Content” and you will see all the books that you own … and the opportunity to do things with them. One of those things …. if the publisher allows it…. is to lend your Kindle book to anyone at all.
To the left of each book, you’ll see a little gray box with dots, under the column marked “actions.” Click on that box, and the possible actions (for that book) appear.
Here I have clicked on one of those boxes, and you can see all the choices, including “Loan This Title.”
If the publisher does NOT allow lending, the option will simply not be there. So if you SEE the option, you can loan the book.
Click on “Loan This Title,” and you will bring up the screen, below.
As you can see, to loan the book, just enter the email address of your recipient (and a message if you would like).
When the receiver-of-your-book (the loan-ee? 🙂 ) gets the email, all they have to do is follow the instructions to download the book to the device of their choice.
That’s all there is to it! (One note… you cannot read the book while it is loaned out.)
I wish that this option was available for ALL books, but for now, it’s not. It should be, (grumble, grumble) but it’s not. Maybe someday….
It’s here! This is a photo of the box of my new Kindle Voyage. (And as a happy start ….. the box was wrapped in “frustration free” packaging.)
This Kindle comes with the usb cord, but no adaptor. I don’t view that as a problem, however, because after years of living with mobile phones, iPads and Kindles, well, I have quite a collection of those little plugs.
When you order a Kindle from Amazon, it arrives fully registered and ready to go. It takes maybe a minute or two to get through the setup, adding it to your wireless network, and adjusting the time.
I immediately downloaded the book I am now in the middle of reading, and it opened to my “last page read” within seconds.
The screen is absolutely brighter and sharper than the Paperwhite. The print is crisp and sharp. The Voyage is noticeably lighter, too. But the BIG draw for me …. was the side push buttons.
I do a lot of reading in bed, and much of that is done on my side (rather than on my back). This one-handed position makes screen-swiping nearly impossible. As much as I loved the Paperwhite, I missed the buttons on my Kindle of yesteryear.
And now the Voyage brings them back. Amazon has taken the just-about-perfect Paperwhite and moved it up a notch!
The push areas are on the side of the screen. They are not raised, they are not buttons. The area is indicated by a line and a dot on the edge of the screen. When you give the spot a push to turn the page, you feel an ever-so-slight vibration. It’s perfect. I can turn pages with the touch screen when I can…. and push the sides when I can’t. Perfect!
The on/off button is in the back (that’s different) and (to me) irrelevant. Other than that, most everything else feels very familiar if you have used a Paperwhite. Control panel at the top, touch controls, etc. The lit screen is as wonderful as ever (even brighter) and now adjusts automatically to the lighting in the room.
Bottom line…. if you have a Paperwhite and don’t miss the button-ability, I don’t think there is any reason to upgrade. The Voyage is better, but it’s not cheap, and a Paperwhite is still a great eReader.
But if you do upgrade to the Voyage….. you’ll love it!!
I’m not alone in my praise. (“Best eReader in the market” shows up in reviews over and over again.)
Kindle Voyage review: Amazon’s e-reader is too good to be merely a Paperwhite 2
Review: Avid Readers Will Love Kindle Voyage
Previously on this blog, I gushed about borrowing books from your local library for your Kindle. That post was over a year ago, and I still find it wonderfully exciting to sit in my home, browse through library books, and have them magically appear on my Kindle.
Recently, I tried another bit of library borrowing….. and I’m equally thrilled.
With the Overdrive app, you can download AUDIO books from your local library directly to your iPhone or iPad. Then you can take that audio book with you for a walk or to the gym. Wonderful! And all this is FREE.
It is quite easy to do.
First, of course, you must determine whether or not your local library participates with Overdrive. I’m guessing they do …. it seems quite popular. You can call and ask, or go to your library’s website and hunt around a bit. Chances are there will be an “ebooks” section, and you can see if they use the word “overdrive.”
Once you know your library participates, download the app.
You’ll be asked to “add a library.” I typed in my zip code, and my library magically appeared.
Sign in to your local library (probably with your library card number and a pin).
Find the book you want to download, and tap it to start the process.
All done! Your audio book is now on your iPhone and you are good to go.
From my experience, it is MUCH easier to browse books from my computer (rather than the phone). Once I’ve made my choice, I just “search” for it on the app on the iPhone, and tap it to download.
And so now…. from my local library, I can get books to read on my Kindle, and books to listen to on my iPhone. It’s a kid-in-a-candy-shop kind of experience to get books like this from the comfort of your own home.
It’s just as easy to download books to read to your iPhone and iPad with this app. I chose an audiobook because I don’t really enjoy reading on the small screen of the phone. (However…my iPhone 6 Plus …when it arrives… may change all that!).
Just to be clear: you can directly download books to read OR to listen to through this app.
Overdrive is free in the iTunes store
Nothing better than great book deals!
In other posts, I alerted you to eReaderIQ (which I absolutely LOVE) and BookGorilla.
And now…. another discount-alerter for your browsing pleasure. 🙂
Early Bird Books will send you an email each morning with several book deals. Some expire quickly, some may be on sale for weeks, so check the expiration date. These books are limited to ones that are published through Open Road, so the model is a bit different from the other discounters.
It’s always fun to have bargains delivered to your inbox!
Just click on Early Bird Books to subscribe.
I spend a lot of time browsing on Goodreads. I find it is a wonderful place to find my “next great read” by learning from others, reading reviews and looking at the bookshelves that individuals have created.
And now, just last week, they have added a new feature, further enhancing the browsing experience.
You can now PREVIEW any book that has a Kindle edition. Yay!
from the Goodreads blog:
Don’t judge a book by its cover…judge it by what’s inside with our new Preview feature, which launches today! With Preview, you can sample the story before committing to the whole book. Now our U.S. members can get a taste of their next amazing read right on the Goodreads website.
Just click on the book, and notice the PREVIEW button. Tap that button and a significant preview opens on your screen.
Since we have (for years) been able to preview Kindle books on Amazon, I would often go back and forth between Goodreads and Amazon. Happily this back-and-forthing is no longer necessary. I am delighted. 🙂
At the moment, this feature is only available in the US.
I found this GIF at GadgetLove
You can see the evolution of the Kindle, getting better with each new incarnation.
Kind of cool, I think. 🙂
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