Saturday, August 6, 2011

How to read e-books on your computer:

You don't need an e-reader to read an e-book!

There are free Kindle apps to read e-books on all (newer) computers, Mac or pc, (and most phones and mobile devices too).

User requirements:
PC - Windows 7, Vista, or XP
Mac - Mac OSX 10.5 or higher

EASY STEPS:
1. get an Amazon account or proceed to Amazon books if you already have one
2. do a search for: Morning Rituals - How We Awaken - enjoy free 20-page sample and 4,000 word book description
3. on right sidebar - you will see "download free Kindle apps" - to read book on your pc or Mac
4. select and download app for Mac or pc
5. it will ask you to "register your app" - use your same user id as your Amazon account (just username and password, that's all you need)
6. return to/re-search for my book title and click option to "buy"
7. purchase book, hurrah, you are almost there! :)
8. launch Kindle app on your desktop; save icon on your desktop
9. in app, click home, then library to click and read book, there you are!

EXTRA NOTES FOR MAC USERS:
Note: if you want to transfer your book from Kindle for Mac to your iPad:
1. start from iPad
2. install free kindle for iPad app from app store or Kindle
3. register your app with same user id as Amazon acct
4. press synch button to synch computer and iPad
5. launch Kindle app from iPad
6. click Kindle app "home", then "archive" (book is waiting there), tap title to download it, then back to "home" where it is available for viewing.

The difference between buying through iTunes/iBooks vs through Amazon/Kindle:

1. Books with color photography such as mine are great viewed on the high resolution screen of your Mac devices - iPad, iPhone, iPod - however:
2. iTunes/iBooks does NOT allow you to take your books to view them on your Mac computer/laptop
3. There may be new third party apps available to do so, apps are constantly changing - if you know of some, please let me know
4. The key difference between viewing your book on iPad through iTunes vs thru Kindle - is that iBooks offers the virtual touch "page turning" technology which lets you touch and "flip" page corners over as though they are real paper. If you like that as I do, I purchased my book thru iBooks to view on my iPad just for that feature.

I hope you find this useful, meanwhile, please let me know if you have any further questions or updates so I can make this guide as helpful as possible.
~ Kimberly