Read Kindle Books on Windows PC

I just bought the Kindle version of the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" from Amazon primarily because it is less expensive than the both paperback and the hardcover versions. And secondarily, I wanted to read it right away. Don't want to have to wait for shipping.

The thing is, I don't even have a Kindle. However, I have an netbook running Windows XP. That is good enough to read Kindle books if you download the Kindle Reading App for the Windows PC. The Kindle for PC application will run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. There are other Kindle Reading Apps for the Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad, Android, and Windows 7 Phone. The Kindle Reading Apps are free download on Amazon.com website.

The minimum requirements for the Kindle of PC application is a PC with a 500 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, 100 MB of available disk space, and screen resolution of 800x600. These are easy requirements to meet. Virtually all PCs and even lower powered netbooks will meet these requirements.

1. After selecting the Kindle Reading App for the PC, it downloaded the file KindleForPC-installer.exe onto my PC.

2. Run the KindleForPC-installer.exe by double-clicking on it to install the application.

3. After the installation completes, Kindle for PC will automatically run. To run Kindle for PC next time, you should see an icon for it on your desktop. Or you can always find it in the Start Menu.

4. After the installation process, it will prompt you to register. You have to register your device. Otherwise, when you try to buy a Kindle book, it will say "we currently do not show a device registered to your Amazon account for which this content is available."

5. If you had not registered during installation, you can register by opening up Kindle for PC and click "Tools -> Sync and Check for New Items". It will again prompt you to register.

6. To register, enter your Amazon account email and password. And click the Register button.

7. Now you can click "Shop in Kindle Store" button in the Kindle for PC app which would take you Amazon.com in your browser. After selecting your product, you will see a dropdown box labeled "Deliver to" where you can select "Kindle for PC". After the purchase, you will see a button "Go To Kindle for the PC". Click on that and it will open up Kindle for PC application and you should see the book purchased.

The Kindle for PC lets you read books in different color modes. Black text on white page is most popular. But you can also set it to white text on black page or to sepia.

You can adjust the font size and the number of words per line. You can view one page at a time (which is the default) or you can view it in two-page mode like in a real book. You expand the application to read in full-screen mode. The text will wrap and flow to fit the size of your application window. That way you don't have to scroll up and down the page, you simply click the left and right arrow to page to the next or previous page.

You can bookmark particular pages and jump to the bookmarks later.  You can also type in notes and highlight as well.

If you come across a word that you do not know, you can double-click on the word and the definition of the word from the electronic version of the New Oxford American Dictionary will come up. (If you are purchasing a Kindle for PC book for the first time, you might notice that the electronic version of the "The New Oxford American Dictionary" was added to your order at no extra charge.)

Right-click on the word and you can also look it up in Google or Wikipedia. The app will open up your browser and take you directly to the Google search or Wikipedia entry (assuming that your PC is connected to the internet).

Also some books have footnotes in the text which you can click on to jump to the footnote. At the footnote there is a link that will take you back to your place in the reading.

This article was written March 2011 and thing may have changed since then.  Author of article may received revenue from display ads or links with content of article.