We have purchased several kindles for people as gifts this holiday season. I love my Kindle (I have a Kindle 3, with the keyboard) as well as the Kindle apps on my other devices. Amazon has done for reading what iPods did for music. They make it fast and easy to buy and read books, and they have done it with (retail stores take notice!) excellent customer service, for the most part. Having been a Kindle user (of both a Kindle 3 and Kindle apps on multiple devices) I thought some new users might find the following information helpful.
One of the great things about Kindle, besides the fact that you can make text bigger, is that there are a lot of free books for it! This makes it worth setting up a Kindle app if you have a compatible device. Sure, a lot of them are fluff romances, but there are also quite a few mystery, thriller, horror, and paranormal-everything genres as well.
Another great thing about Kindles - although this doesn't work for the Kindle apps (I wish it did!) is that you can set the book to read to you! If you're into a book, and have to leave for work or shopping (or even exercise) you can turn on the text-to-speech and the mechanical voice in the Kindle will read to you while you do other things. Some people hate the mechanical voice, some people don't mind it. You'll have to make up your own mind. I mostly don't mind it, but it does sometimes get words wrong. I do wish it were available on the apps, though!
Kindles also keep track of the last page you read. This is a great feature! It remembers where you stopped, even if you sampled several books. It keeps track of your last page read in all of them. It even lets you switch between devices. If you have a Kindle, and a Kindle app on another device, whether it's an iPad or a smartphone, you can start reading on the Kindle, and pick up the same book on your other device (assuming it has had a chance to sync over the WiFi "Whispernet") and keep reading at the same place you left off.
Here are some helpful websites for new Kindle owners (or new Kindle app users, for that matter!)
The first is Pixel of Ink. On their website they have links to free books on Amazon.com and you can also find them (and get their links) on Facebook, or via a daily email. One of their other endeavors is Inspired Reads. That deals with Christian books for Kindle, both fiction and non-fiction.
Please note that not all books offered are free, and that some are free when offered, but prices sometimes change. Follow the link, and if you're looking for free books, don't click "Buy" unless the price says $0.00.
You can also find Kindle-compatible books, some of them free, at other websites. One of these is Smashwords. Most of the books there do not have DRM (Digital Rights Management).
There's also Kobo. Like Smashwords, Kobo has some free books, but most of them have DRM. Only get books that do NOT specify "ADOBE EPUB DRM".
Baen Books has mostly science fiction and fantasy books. They have a bunch of free books as well.
Project Gutenberg has all free books, classics & out-of-copyright books. For books from places other than Amazon, pick Kindle format, or .mobi format. You can also get a computer program called Calibre for free that can do conversions from one format to another. You can then side-load those books to your Kindle. Please ask if you need more information as to how that is done.
You can also download some books from author websites (J.A. Konrath has a few at http://www.jakonrath.com/ ). If you find books in PDF format, you can email those documents in PDF form to yourself at your kindle address (ex. yourname @ free.kindle.com ) It will convert those to Kindle format and put them on your reader. Your kindle address is set up when you first set your kindle up for use. It can be found under the settings screen as "Send-to-Kindle" email.
There is also one particularly helpful podcast - The Kindle Chronicles podcast. It's free, and can be listend to or downloaded on your computer, or set up to download automatically through iTunes. He talks a LOT about hints & tips, and also does an interview in every show (mostly weekly). The last 2 or 3 episodes have included the Kindle Fire. There's another Kindle podcast called Kindle Women that is very chatty and does some read-alongs and book reviews.
Some books are available on more than one website. If you want to search for a specific book, it may be cheaper on a non-Amazon site, from which you would have to download it in a Kindle-compatible format and "side-load" onto your Kindle from a computer. Inkmesh.com is a search engine specifically for e-books and audio books. You can search for a specific title, an author, and even include or exclude by format (audio or e-book).
One thing I recommend unquestionably is a cover. Get a cover that has a STIFF top and bottom. These devices are plastic, and the inherent flexibility of plastic has been known to result in a cracked screen if not protected. People have discovered that doing something like carrying it in a purse or backpack without protection can crack the screen.
For more helpful advice, information on where to find free books, and industry chat, check out the MobileRead Forums - an online website where people can post and talk about their e-reader devices.
Most of the above websites will require you to register and create a login ID and password, but they are all websites that I use regularly and are generally considered safe. If there are other websites of use that I should add, please feel free to let me know. If I can answer any questions, ask away. I'm happy to help.
Just found a Kindle help page on Facebook that seems to cover a LOT of ground. This could be very helpful! https://www.facebook.com/kindle?sk=app_10442206389
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