Kindle Skills - Series books

I love series books. The Vince Flynn  Mitch Rapp series comes to mind immediately. Last year I read my first one (one of the more recent), was snatched up in the action and gore, found out it was only one of many and went on a hunt for the rest, in order of course. The latest, American Assassin has been keeping me very occupied these last couple of days.

Other series of books and authors have grabbed me in similar ways. The Diana Gabaldon Outlander series is another great series of books, best enjoyed when read and savored from the first to the latest. If you are reading this on your Kindle now (and why not?) do a store search for Outlander and you can get the first in this great series for FREE still. Don't know how much longer though!

When you find an author you like and want to read more, or see if a book you are enjoying is possibly part of a series of books, check Wikipedia first (http://wikipedia.org). If you have your Kindle  handy, a "Wiki Search" is one of your main search choices when you type something, then toggle to the right for your search choices. Search for the author's name. When you find the author you are interested, Wiki should have an area with a list of books (Bibliography), series (in order) and most everything else you need to know about that particular author. Seeing a list of books in a series in order makes it much easier to plan your reading, especially if it is a great series or an author you really are enjoying. Wikipedia is an amazing tool and one you have at your fingertips at all times if you keep your Kindle close.

Once you have your list in order, all you need to do is sit back with your Kindle and ENJOY!

Wiki Search

originally posted April 3, 2010 by Cindy O'Neal

Jesse James

Wikipedia Kindle Search:
Make sure your Kindle is connected to the Internet. Type in the name or words you want to search. Search terms are not case sensitive but spelling is important. Toggle the 5-way button to the right until Wikipedia is highlighted. Press in on the 5-way to make it happen.  Happy reading!

Series books

Originally posted February 27, 2010 by Cindy O'Neal 

Some of the best reads I have found have been part of a series. If you find an author you just LOVE, you may want to start at the beginning of a series of books and read them in order. The problem sometimes is being able to quickly find a list of the author's work and the order a series may be in.

An easy way is to look up the author in question on Wikipedia. It is a great resource to look up authors and you can end up with just the information you need.

For example, I did a Wiki search for Christine Feehan. She writes the neatest vampire/romance series. I went through every one of her books (several times). When the Wiki page appears, look toward the top (on the left) for a clickable table of contents box. You will see any series books the author has done under the Bibliography heading. You can either click a series by name and instantly "jump" to that area or you can scroll down the page a bit and get to it that way. If the author has been around a while, Wikipedia should have lots of great information, certainly enough to get you started on a series in the proper order.

Jolene, a new Kindle buddy, told me about a place called fictfact.com. I went to the website to give it a try and was favorable impressed. It is totally dedicated to tracking fiction book series. You do need to register (free) and create a user id and password in order to use it properly, but registering was pretty quick and easy.

I did check the Feehan series and it looked as though FictFact was missing a couple of the last books, but just browsing through the site introduced me to authors I hadn't even heard of yet, and added to my future reading list (of course). It is certainly a place to bookmark as a valuable resource. So many books... so little time! Never ending stories! Geez!

Wiki Searching on the Kindle

Originally posted February 25, 2010 by Cindy O'Neal 

Road trip vacations can be great fun, especially if you take your kindle and let your "other half" drive in peace. Our last trip was great; hubby drove and I read lots of  good stuff on the Kindle (and didn't back seat drive). It was a fantasy trip as far as hubbys are concerned.

Every now and then, we would have a conversation about one thing or another. It happens. And questions would come up, like ... is Mickey Rooney still working? or is he retired? Sometimes it would be something that would eat at us mercilessly until we could find the answer.

Enter the Kindle... connected all the time with Whispernet... just a few buttons away from a Wikipedia search. We found the Kindle would connect even when our cell phones wouldn't. Of course Whispernet is part of the whole package with your Kindle. And with Wikipedia, you can add a huge (free) Internet encyclopedia to the mix. As of this post, there are more than 3 million articles in English alone. It is an amazing addition to your information resources.

Many new Kindle owners don't eat, sleep or dream computers, so they may not be really comfortable using the Internet as a resource. The Kindle makes searching books and the Internet really easy. It really is like having a library in your hands.

With your Kindle turned on (and the Internet turned on of course), just begin typing what you are looking to find out more about. Then toggle the 5-way controller (toward the bottom on the right, between the Menu button and the Back button) to the right until you see Wikipedia highlighted. Press in on the controller and wait a few seconds for a list of answer choices to appear. Toggle the controller button down (or up as needed) until the one you want to explore is underlined. Press in on the button to go to the article. Use the Next Page or Previous Page buttons to go through articles. Use the Back button to go back to the original Wiki search.

It is hard to argue with a Wiki!

Tomorrow: Googling with your Kindle