Kindle Paperwhite for Dummies (19 page)

After you move your book to a collection, you might be surprised to see it appear on your Home screen list. When you sort the Home screen by title, collections are listed alphabetically along with all the books on your Kindle Paperwhite. If you instead sort the Home screen by collections, your collections are displayed in alphabetical order, followed by any books and other content that aren’t assigned to a collection. (See the “Sorting content” section, earlier in this chapter, for details on sorting your content.)

To remove items from a collection or delete a collection, open the collection and tap the Menu icon. You see options to Add/Remove Items, Rename Collection, and Delete Collection. Note that if you delete a collection, any books contained in the collection are not deleted from your Kindle Paperwhite.

Reading on Other Devices

E-books purchased from the Kindle Store can be read not only on your Kindle Paperwhite but also on the following devices, when used with a free Kindle reading app:

PC

Mac

iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch

Kindle Cloud Reader

Android

Windows Phone

Kindle for Windows 8

BlackBerry

WebOS

The list of supported devices is likely to grow over time. For a current list of supported devices, go to the Kindle Support page (
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html
) and choose Kindle Help⇒Kindle Reading Applications.

To read Kindle e-books on other devices, you need to register those devices to your account. Do so from the Manage Your Kindle page (
www.amazon.com/myk
). You’re prompted to sign in if you haven’t already done so. Click the Manage Your Devices link, and then scroll down to the Registered Kindle Reading App section for instructions for your particular device.

You can use Whispersync to keep your reading synchronized across all devices registered to your Amazon account. It synchronizes the furthest page read as well as your bookmarks, notes, and highlights. Remember that for the synchronization to take place, wireless must be turned on in each of the devices to be synced.

Whispersync for Voice allows you to sync between a Kindle edition of an e-book and an audio version from Audible.com. See Chapter 9 for details.

If you want to turn off Whispersync, go to the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon (
www.amazon.com/myk
) and then Click Manage Your Devices. The Device Synchronization area provides a link where you can turn synchronization on and off.

Chapter 5

Loaning, Borrowing, and Gifting

In This Chapter

Letting friends borrow an e-book

Borrowing books from the library

Checking out the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

Giving a book as a gift

Y
our Kindle Paperwhite has several innovative features that give you new ways to lend e-books to others, borrow from libraries and Amazon (through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library), and give e-books as gifts.

Loaning Books

You can loan an e-book to anyone — even if the person doesn’t have a Kindle! All you need is the person’s e-mail address and a book that has loaning enabled.

You can loan e-books from your computer. Follow these steps to lend an e-book to a friend:

1. Open a web browser on your personal computer and go to the Manage Your Kindle page (
www.amazon.com/myk
).

2. If necessary, log in.

3. Scroll down to view the e-books in your Kindle Library.

4. Hover the cursor over the Actions button for the e-book you’d like to loan.

If loaning has been enabled for the e-book, a Loan This Title option appears.

5. Click the Loan This Title option.

6. Enter the person’s e-mail address and name as well as a message.

The borrower of the e-book receives an e-mail from Amazon, similar to the message shown in Figure 5-1. The borrower has seven days to accept the loan by clicking the Get Your Loaned Book Now button provided in the e-mail.

Figure 5-1:
When you loan an e-book, Amazon sends an e-mail to the borrower.

What if the person you’ve loaned the e-book to doesn’t have a Kindle? No problem! You can use many devices to read Kindle e-books. In Chapter 4, we explore different devices that can be used to read Kindle e-books.

The borrower can return the loaned e-book before the 14-day loan is over. If you’re reading a borrowed book and want to return it, go to the Your Orders section of the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon. Click the plus symbol (+) next to the loaned title and then click the Delete This Title link.

Currently, only e-book customers residing in the United States can loan Kindle e-books. Loans can be made to people living outside the United States, but the borrower may not be able to accept the loan, depending on geographic differences in publishing rights.

You can join Kindle community forums to participate in exchanges in which Kindle owners lend and borrow e-books. A popular forum is the Lend and Borrow Exchange link at
www.kindleboards.com
.

Want to know whether a book can be loaned before you purchase it? From a personal computer, view the book’s product page on Amazon. Scroll down to the Product Details section and look for Lending: Enabled.

While an e-book from your Kindle is on loan, you can’t read it. Also, you can loan a book only one time.

Borrowing Books from the Library

Many public libraries allow Kindle e-books to be checked out. How does this work? The e-book is made available to you for a fixed amount of time — the loan period varies by library. When the loan expires, the e-book is no longer available to you, unless you check it out again or purchase it from Amazon’s Kindle Store.

You can make highlights, add notes, and include bookmarks in a borrowed library e-book. Those annotations are preserved even after the e-book loan expires, in case you later decide to purchase the e-book or borrow it again.

To borrow e-books, go to your local public library’s website. If your library supports OverDrive digital e-book services, you can check out Kindle-compatible e-books. Note that you have to use your library card, just as you would when borrowing a print book.

Public library e-books for Kindle e-readers are presently available only in the United States.

From your library’s website, you can have the e-book delivered wirelessly to your Kindle through Wi-Fi. (They aren’t distributed over a 3G connection.) Note that some publishers allow books to be transferred to your Kindle Paperwhite only by using the USB cable. These books also cannot be read on other devices such as an iPhone or a PC (using the Kindle app).

Borrowing Books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you have access to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Amazon Prime is a $79-a-year subscription program that provides a number of benefits to subscribers, including free shipping on Prime-eligible products; access to the Prime video library; and for Kindle owners, the opportunity to borrow books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

At the time of this writing, close to 250,000 books were available, covering topics from fiction, to humor, to travel. For an overview, go to the Kindle store on your device and open the drop-down menu for All Categories. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is the last item on the list.

Books that are available for Prime lending are displayed in the Kindle store with a Prime Members price of $0.00, followed by the Prime logo. You see this information if you’re browsing the Kindle store from your computer or your Kindle Paperwhite.