Saturday, May 22, 2010

Kindle Skills

Originally posted May 21, 2010 by Cindy O'Neal

Get A Sample
Amazon makes it very easy for you to check out newspapers, magazines, blogs, all periodical subscriptions with absolutely no risk to your pocketbook. Everything starts with a free trial. If you cancel before the trial is over, you will not be charged at all. It gives you a chance to see if you are going to like it or if it will be useful to you in one way or another. Who could ask for more?

Books have a similar risk free offer. If you are browsing the Amazon Store on your Kindle and find a book you may be interested in, move your 5-way switch down until the words Try a Sample is underlined (highlighted). Press in on the 5-way and a sample (usually the first several pages, or even the first chapter) selection of the book will be as good as on your Kindle in your hands. Getting a sample of a book is a great way to jog your memory if you don't have time to read the book right away but want to save it and purchase it later. A book sample won't go anywhere until you delete it.

If you are shopping the Kindle Book Store from your web browser and happen upon a book you want to check out a little more thoroughly, look for an area just below the purchase buttons. You will see a Send Sample Now button, and below that a place where you can choose which Kindle you want to send it to. Remember, if you have the Kindle software for a PC or Mac (or both), and/or the Kindle software for your iPod/iTouch or Blackberry, you actually have "multiple Kindles" and will have a choice to send the book sample to any one of them.

There are times I feel a little like the heroine Shaharazad in the old set of fairy tales, A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, trying to gain your loyalty with something new and exciting every day. It is a daunting task, but the Kindle is such an amazing instrument, and every day has an opportunity to see it a little differently, and learn something new. I like the concept of little bits of information at a time. It is certainly less overwhelming and I am more likely to remember and enjoy the information. I hope you will too.