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You are reading: Reading kindle books offline
If you don’t have a Kindle e-reader, tablet, or smartphone, you can still access your Kindle books. You can do this on any computer by opening a web browser and entering the special url.
kindle cloud reader is a free web application that you can visit at read.amazon.com.
On the one hand, it’s a good thing. you don’t have to spend money on kindle e-reader or amazon fire tablet. you don’t even need to have a smartphone with a screen big enough to allow you to read comfortably. all you need is an amazon account.
kindle cloud reader has a similar interface to dedicated kindle apps. you will see here a list of the books you bought on amazon and you can read them.
Before we go into the details, there is one thing to clear up. Many users confuse Kindle Cloud Reader with other services and features offered by Amazon.
let’s take a closer look at each one:
amazon cloud drive
is a cloud storage service offered by amazon, similar to google drive or dropbox. it has nothing to do with your kindle books.
You can use it to store personal images and documents, so they’re available from any device by simply signing in to your amazon cloud drive account.
kindle cloud library
All books added to your kindle account are stored on amazon’s servers, not on your particular device. this remote file is called “cloud” and you can access it from any kindle device or app and obviously kindle cloud reader.
The Kindle Cloud is everything found in the Manage Your Content and Devices (formerly Manage Your Kindle) section of your Amazon account settings page.
kindle cloud reader
Not the Kindle e-reader, Amazon Cloud Drive, or your Kindle Cloud Library. is a way to access your kindle cloud library via web browser.
so, in fact, it is a web page with a special interface that allows you to read books on a computer.
kindle cloud reader – tips and facts
1. access your kindle books from any computer with a web browser
If someone says “access your books from any device”, assume you mean “any device you own”:
- your own kindle e-reader,
- your mobile device with a kindle app installed,
- your computer with a kindle app installed.
kindle cloud reader is the missing part. you don’t need to have any of your devices with you to access your kindle books.
In fact, you don’t need to have any device. any computer in a public space, such as a library or internet cafe, is enough to access the books stored in your kindle cloud.
Locate your computer, open your browser and go to the url read.amazon.com. sign in with your amazon credentials. that is all. under the cloud tab, you will see all the books you bought from the kindle store.
2. is available to kindle users around the world
kindle cloud reader was released in August 2011. At that time it was available only to registered kindle users on amazon.com.
The web-based Kindle app is now available worldwide, including users of localized Kindle stores (UK, Germany, France, India, to name a few).
No matter which kindle store you’re signed in to, you can access your books in a web browser, from anywhere in the world.
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the pattern for the url is the same in all kindle stores: write “read” before the domain of your local amazon site. here are the examples:
- kindle uk store – read.amazon.co.uk
- kindle italy store – read.amazon.it
- kindle india store – read.amazon.in
- kindle store canada – read.amazon.ca
Users in countries where localized kindle stores have been launched can have two accounts: one for amazon.com and one for the local amazon site. this could be the source of confusion.
some users expect to be able to access kindle books from both accounts. that is not possible.
example. If you live in Germany, when you log in with Amazon.com credentials, you will see only books purchased from the American Kindle Store. To view books purchased from Kindle Store Germany, you will need to log out of amazon.com and log in with your amazon.de credentials.
3. cannot add or read your personal files
Users can usually add personal documents to the connected Kindle app or device by sending them to a special email address. they can also download these personal documents from the kindle cloud to particular kindle apps.
however, this useful feature is not available in:
- kindle cloud reader
- kindle for pc
- kindle for mac
In other words, when you open the cloud tab in the kindle cloud reader, you will only see books purchased from the kindle store.
this is the main disadvantage of the kindle cloud reader. amazon just doesn’t want users to treat kindle cloud reader like a web-based reader of mobi ebook files downloaded from other sites.
I don’t think amazon will enable an option to add and manage personal files in kindle cloud reader anytime soon.
If you are looking for ways to read free books online, the best option is to go for any app that supports epub format, not mobi.
Adding your own files to Google Play Books, associated with your Gmail account, is the easiest way possible. Additionally, Google offers online translation in a web-based Google Books app.
another option for reading epub files on the web are browser extensions, naming just readium or magic scroll.
4. you can add and read books for free from the kindle store
The good news is that you can add any free book found in the Kindle Store to your Kindle Cloud Reader. could be:
- a book in the top 100 free kindle titles,
- a book included in the popular free classics section,
- a free sample of any kindle book.
just go to a book details page, double check if the kindle price is showing as $0.00. then from the green widget on the right, under “deliver to”, select kindle cloud reader and hit the buy button.
You don’t need to send the book directly to kindle cloud reader to access it.
once you add it to any of your devices or kindle apps, it is automatically stored in your kindle cloud library. that means you can sign in from any other app connected with your kindle account.
When you sign in to kindle cloud reader for the first time, you will see all the titles in your kindle cloud library in the cloud tab.
5. get kindle books to read offline
By default, only some books you’re currently reading are downloaded to your browser, so even if you lose your internet connection for a short time, you’ll still be able to access them.
You can, however, decide which kindle books you want on your computer for offline reading. To enable this option, click on the downloaded tab at the top (see screenshot).
click the enable offline button. By doing so, you are in fact downloading a Kindle Cloud Reader web application, which will allow you to manage the books stored in the browser’s memory.
Offline mode is available for all major internet browsers including chrome, safari, firefox and even internet explorer. you can read the detailed installation instructions on this page.
To download the book to the browser, simply right-click (pc) or control-click (mac) a book cover and select download & pin book option from a dropdown menu.
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once the book has been downloaded, you will see it in the downloads tab. it is also marked with a green pin under the cap.
6. a way to copy your best moments from kindle
kindle cloud reader offers very basic functions: highlights, notes or searching within a book.
Like in other kindle apps, there is no way to make the highlights editable. but the cloud reader has one advantage over the rest: you can copy the highlights without leaving the web browser.
once you highlight the text, it is automatically added to your kindle activity account which you can access in your web browser at kindle.amazon.com.
With a couple of minutes delay, all highlights appear in your highlights section. from here, you can copy the highlights to the app of your choice.
Imagine you are going to the library. you don’t have to grab your own computer there. one of the library computers is enough to work with texts from various sources.
open kindle cloud reader in one tab, kindle highlights in the next and in the third tab you will have a google docs text document in which you write your book, essay or blog post.
7. access two kindle accounts at the same time
Previously, I used an example of a German user, who has accounts on both the US Kindle Store and the US Kindle Store. uu. like in germany. This can happen when someone decides not to migrate their kindle account from us to a local one.
In this case, some books are available through one account and others through the other account. not convenient at all.
the kindle cloud reader can be very useful here. let’s say you are using mac laptop. in the kindle app for mac you can sign in with your amazon.com credentials, and in kindle cloud reader on safari, you can use amazon.de.
plus you don’t even need to download the kindle app, if you just use any other browser than safari on your mac. use safari for one account and the other browser for the other.
kindle cloud reader also works well in safari browser on ipad. again, you can use the kindle ios app to sign in with one amazon account and kindle cloud reader for the other.
If you’re interested in whether kindle cloud reader can run in chrome on an android tablet, the answer is no. the page asks to download kindle for android app.
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