With a text-friendly screen that you can read in direct sunlight, weeks-long battery life, and feather-weight shell, a Kindle e-reader is truly the next best thing to hardcover or a paperback, and you can snag one for just $50 (38% off).

Amazon’s entry-level Kindle boasts a six-inch anti-glare display that you can easily read outdoors, perfect a Sunday read on your sun-drenched porch. Just a third of an inch thick and weighing in at just 5.7 ounces, the Kindle is far easier to hold than an iPad, and its battery lasts up to four weeks on a single charge. You can download digital books to the Kindle over Wi-Fi, and the Kindle has enough storage to hold thousands of books at once. Last but not least, you can sign up for a free trial of Kindle Unlimited, which offers more than a million titles.

Check out the Kindle e-reader on Amazon!

If you buy something through our Deals posts, we may earn some money. Thanks for the support! Also, keep in mind that the best deals sell out quickly, and that sale prices may change without notice.

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Ready to crack open a Kindle book in your Web browser? Let’s get started.

Opening the Amazon Cloud Reader in a web browser

First, launch your favorite web browser, then visit the Amazon Cloud Reader site at http://read.amazon.com.

Next, sign in to your Amazon account—or, if you don’t have a free Amazon account yet, click “Create a new account” to sign up for one.

Related: How to borrow a Kindle book from Amazon

Once you’re signed into your Amazon account, a window will appear with instructions for setting up your browser to store your Kindle books for “offline” reading, when you don’t have an Internet connection. Again, click the big yellow button and follow the instructions (they vary slightly depending on your browser).

If you’ve already bought Kindle books before, you’ll see them in a grid in your browser; just click a book cover, and presto—you’re reading.

How to buy Kindle books in the Amazon Cloud Reader

No Kindle books yet? Click the “Kindle Store” Button in the top-right corner of the page to begin shopping. Once you’ve chosen a Kindle book to buy, make sure to select your Kindle Cloud Reader in the “Deliver to” drop-down menu, which sits right below the “Buy” button.

Related: How to buy Kindle books on an iPhone or iPad

Don’t worry, you can always send your purchased book to a new device under your account by selecting “Manage Your Content and Devices” under the “Your Amazon” menu near the top of the page.

Managing your Kindle bookmarks, font sizes and background colors

As with the physical Kindle e-reader, the online Cloud Reader lets you add bookmarks as you read, and you can change the font size or background color of the pages.

The Cloud Reader will automatically download the most recently opened books in your Kindle library for when you don’t have an Internet connection (provided you went ahead and enabled the Cloud Reader’s offline reading mode). You can also manually select, or “pin,” a book for offline storage; to do so, just right-click on its cover in the Cloud Reader library.

Related: How to reset the furthest page read of a Kindle book you’re reading

Done reading? Then just close the browser window. And yes—you can always read your Kindle books from another browser or even a different PC or Mac once you log into your account.

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The Fire (which comes in your choice of black, magenta, blue or tangerine) has front- and rear-facing cameras, making it perfect for video calls with your far-flung friends and relatives. You also get access to hundreds of apps through Amazon’s app store (including all the biggies, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). The Fire lets you stream thousands of movies and TV shows via Amazon Video—oh, and it doubles as a Kindle, too.

Check out the $40 Amazon Fire tablet here

If you buy something through our Deals posts, we may earn some money. Thank you for your support!

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You can add the Kindle store to your iPhone or iPad home screen in just a few taps.

The handy tip comes from here’s the thing readers Joshua and Candice, who point out that an iPhone shortcut to the mobile-optimized  Amazon Kindle store “functions like an app would.”

Very true—and indeed, this tip will work for any web site you visit in Safari for iOS, not just the Kindle store.

First, open the Safari web browser on your iPhone, then type this URL into the address bar at the top of the screen:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlemobilestore

Now that you’ve reached the online  Amazon Kindle store, it’s time to create a home-page shortcut. Tap the “Action” button at the bottom of the screen (the one that looks like a square with an arrow pointing up), scroll through the bottom row of buttons and tap “Add to Home Screen.”

You can edit the name of the icon before you add it to your iOS home screen.

Next, you’ll see a preview of what your new home-screen icon will look like, and you’ll also get a chance to name the icon. Just tap the little “x” to clear out the name field and type your own (such as “Kindle store”).

Tap the blue “Add” button, and presto—you now have an Amazon Kindle store shortcut on your iPhone or iPad home screen, which you can move or organize into a folder. (I went ahead and added it to a new folder with my Kindle reader app.)

Click here for more iOS tips!

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Hi Lee! Yep, you can download a PDF file from the web to your iPhone—or an iPad, for that matter. All you need is a PDF-friendly app that’ll let you store PDF files on your device.

For example, you can open and save a PDF in an e-reader app like iBooks or Amazon’s Kindle app.

You can also open a PDF in a desktop-syncing app like Dropbox or Google Drive, perfect for keeping copies of a PDF on all your Dropbox- or Google Drive-connected devices.

Let’s get started

• First, make sure you’ve installed a PDF-viewing app that can actually save PDF files to your iPhone. Plenty are available in the App Store, but I recommend one of the four mentioned above: iBooks, Kindle, Dropbox, or Google Drive.
• All set? Now, go ahead and open a PDF file on the web or in an email.
• If you opened the PDF in your iPhone’s Safari web browser, you’ll briefly see a pair of buttons at the top of the screen: “Open in…” and “Open in [name of app].” Tap the screen to make those buttons reappear, then tap the “Open in…” button. Did you open the PDF in the body of an email? If so, open the PDF, tap the Action button (the square one with the upward arrow) in the top-right corner of the screen.
• Next, a menu of PDF-viewing apps will slide up from the bottom of the display. Tap the one you want to use, and the PDF file will open in the app of your choice.
• If you picked either iBooks or Kindle, the app will automatically be saved to your phone’s memory. To open the PDF again, just launch either app, then browse the “PDFs” section of your iBooks library or “Docs” in the Kindle app.
• For apps like Dropbox and Google Drive, make sure to save the PDF for “offline” viewing. In Dropbox, open the PDF, tap the three-dot menu button in the top corner of the screen, then tap Favorite. For Google Drive, tap the little “i” button next to the file’s name, then make sure the “Keep on device” setting is switched on.

Looking for more iPhone tips? Click here!

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Sure, there is a way to buy Kindle books on an iPhone or iPad by navigating to the Kindle store from the Safari web browser, but it’s a clunky solution.

But while you still can’t (and likely won’t ever be able to) buy Kindle books directly from the Kindle iOS app, the app will, in fact, let you download free samples—no Safari required.

The trick? Here goes…

• Just launch the Kindle app, go to the main Library screen, tap the Menu button in the top-left corner, then tap Search.
• Next, type the name of any book or author.
• Any matching books in your personal Kindle collection will appear at the top of your search results. Below that, though, will be a second list labeled “Kindle Free Samples.”
• Tap a title in the list, and the free sample should start downloading instantly. Once the download is completed, you’ll find it in your Kindle library, or you can just tap the title directly from your search results.
• Want to buy the complete book? Well, you can add it to your Amazon “wish list” by tapping a button, but you’ll still need to jump back to Safari to hit the “Buy Now” button.

Click here for more iOS tips, or click here for Kindle help!

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Hi Merwin! Great question. The answer: Sure—but depending on the scenario, it could be a bit complicated.

Now, I have a few of questions for you, Merwin…

1. Do you and your wife purchase Kindle books with the same Amazon account?

If the answer is yes, you’re in luck. Kindle books purchased under the same account can be easily shared between dedicated Kindle devices, iPhones, iPads, Android phones, you name it—and with no restrictions, either.

Sharing the same Amazon account? Make sure to tap the “Cloud” tab on your devices to see the Kindle books available for download.

That leads me to my second question…

2. Is your Kindle for iPad app signed in to the same Amazon account as your wife’s Kindle?

If so, you should both see the same library of Kindle books on your respective devices. On your iPad, for example, make sure to tap the “Cloud” tab at the bottom of the screen to see the purchased Kindle books you haven’t downloaded yet.

Of course, there’s another possibility to consider…

3. Do you and your wife have separate Amazon accounts?

In that case, the only easy way to share Kindle books she’s purchased under her own account is to sign in to your Kindle for iPad app using her login credentials. (Tap Settings, Deregister this Kindle, the re-register with your wife’s Amazon username and password.)

Conversely, if your wife wants to read Kindle books purchased under your Amazon account, she’ll need to deregister her Kindle and re-register with your Amazon login.

Keep in mind that deregistering your Kindle or Kindle app will wipe any existing Kindle books off your device; that said, your purchased Kindle volumes will still be sitting in your in-the-cloud Kindle library.

Note: While I doubt the Amazon police would burst into your house if you borrowed your wife’s Kindle account, they’d probably frown on those who share their login credentials with friends and family who don’t live under the same roof.

Merwin replies: “Ben, thank you for the quick response. Your column is great. I’ve learned a lot reading it.” Thanks, and you’re welcome!

Bonus tip

Yes, it’s possible to loan a Kindle book to a friend without sharing your Amazon login credentials, but there are several strings attached and caveats to consider.

For one thing, you can’t loan just any Kindle book. Book publishers are the ones who decide which of their Kindle books are loanable, and which aren’t. In my experience, only a fractions of Kindle books have the “loan” option available.

And even if you can loan a given Kindle book, there are typically several onerous restrictions. The loan period is usually only 14 days, and some publishers will only let you loan a specific title once—as in one time, ever.

Still interested in loaning a Kindle book to a friend? Click here for step-by-step instructions.

Click here for more Kindle tips!

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(Update: the deadline to enter the contest has expired. Thanks for playing!)

This year, the prize is especially enticing: a 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX tablet.

We’re talking a svelte, 12.2-ounce tablet with a razor-sharp display, Dolby sound, a speedy 2.2 GHz processor, a front-facing camera, and “Mayday,” the handy new feature that lets you video chat with an Amazon support rep if you ever need help.

You’ll also be able to load all your Kindle books and Amazon Instant videos, as well as install thousands of apps.

Sound good? If so, just sign up for our daily tips newsletter by December 29, 2014 for a chance to win.

Click here for a chance to win!

Thanks again to all our readers, and I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday.

Read the official contest rules…

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Maybe the Kindle’s popular highlights feature (which underlines oft-highlighted passages from other Kindle readers) comes in handy when you’re trying to skim a dense non-fiction book or if you’re cramming for a test; personally, though, I’d rather discover hidden gems in a novel on my own rather than have them pointed out to me.

Luckily, you can turn off “popular” highlights in just a few clicks, taps or swipes.

Here’s the trick…

On a old-style, non-touch Kindle reader:

• Go to the Home screen, click the Menu key, then select Settings.
• Turn to page 3, then switch Popular Highlights to “off.”

You can hide “popular” highlights on a Kindle reader or app (such as the one for iPad) in just a few taps.

On a newer, touch-enabled Kindle reader (such as the Kindle Touch & Paperwhite):

• Go to the Home screen, then tap the Menu button in the top-right corner of the display.
• Tap Settings, Reading Options, then switch Popular Highlights to “off.”

On a Kindle Fire:

• Tap the middle of the screen, then tap Settings, More Options.
• Switch the Popular Highlights setting to “off.”

On the Kindle app for iPhone/iPad:

• Tap the Home button in the top-left corner of the screen, then tap the Settings icon (the one that looks like a gear) in the bottom-right corner.
• Scroll all the way down to the bottom, tap Other, then switch Popular Highlights to “off.”

Note: The Kindle app for Android doesn’t seem to have a setting for Popular Highlights, nor does it appear to display them—or at least, not that I can see.

Still have questions? Post them in the comments below, or send me an email.

Click here for more Kindle tips!

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