It hit me like a stack of books…I’ve haven’t helped you organize your books lately! Can I tell you my secret to living simply in this life as an information junkie? Kindle. I’d have a hard time without my Kindle reader to organize books which I wrote about several years ago. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long! Since my third book is now available, maybe this is a good time to help you organize and make room for one more book. 🙂

WAIT!  Don’t click away just yet even if you aren’t a Kindle user. Everyone can learn something here.

First of all, you don’t have to own a Kindle device to have a Kindle reader. For example, I read exclusively on my iPad mini. Just download the free Kindle app from either the Apple app store or the Google PlayStore.  If you buy tons of physical books today, you might like that the Kindle e-books are generally less expensive than a hardcopy of the same book. If you are thrifty, like me, then you are going to LOVE that your local library probably has a digital download service for books. Our library subscribes to something called Overdrive. To use it, I simply…

1. Log on to my library’s public website.
2. Browse from thousands of books available.
3. Check out my book online from the library.
4. Instantly download my book via the Amazon website.
5. The book gets delivered to my Kindle app.
6. At the end of the borrowing period, I can either renew the book, or it gets deleted from my device automatically.

Librarians LOVE to help patrons use the latest technology, and that includes using Kindles and e-readers. If you ask them to help you learn how to use your library’s e-books service, you’ll make their day. And getting books like this through the library for your Kindle is absolutely free!!!!!

If you love to read, you’ll also love that there are tons of services that offer you the latest Kindle books as free downloads. These are legitimate sites, who are helping to get the word out about new books while they are on sale or the publishers are running a free download promotion. Here’s one list of sites where you can download free e-books. I used to think these were all low-quality books being offered for free, but now I realize these are mostly high-quality books that are marketing directly to you, the avid reader. Don’t be afraid of these sites at all!

Smashwords is another great source for books.

There are lots of other ways to get heavily discounted or free Kindle books, including through Amazon Prime. I explained this around Amazon Prime Day.

If you can’t decide what to read, your friends can help you out with recommendations via Goodreads. It’s kind of like Facebook for book fans, and I explained Goodreads in another post, although there have been plenty of updates since then.

Kindle and e-books take up relatively small amounts of space on your digital gadget, so even if you think you are out of space, you probably have room for the app and a few favorite books. (And if you don’t have room, call me, and I’ll help you clear off that camera roll that’s hogging all your space!) Kindle is both a gadget and app made by Kindle, but Kindles aren’t the only game in town. You’ve probably heard of the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader or the Kobo e-reader. You can also add the Kindle app to your PC and your Mac. Once the app is loaded, you can read the same book on any of your devices. OK, those are the basics for how to use a Kindle. If you aren’t sure how to add the Kindle app to your iPad or phone, follow these steps, with pictures.  Once you download the Kindle app, you’ll connect your device to your Amazon account one time, so it knows where to deliver your books. Once that is done, you visit Amazon.com through any computer or mobile browser to browse and buy books.

(I know, it’s a little confusing. You BUY books at Amazon. You READ them on your Kindle.)

If you see a message that you can not download this book on this device, don’t be discouraged. It turns out that you can’t download books on the Amazon App on the iPhone. You must be logged in to amazon.com on the browser in order to be able to complete the purchase. 

Let me just repeat one more time, you DON’T have to own a Kindle device to use a Kindle app. The free app on your phone, tablet, or computer works just like the Kindle device.

Now that you “have” a Kindle e-reader, what can you do with it?

You can carry around literally thousands of books. There is absolutely NO better organizing trick!

You can download SAMPLES of many books. Read a chapter or two before you decide to buy it. You always have a record of the books you read, so no accidentally reading the same book twice.

You can easily find other books by a favorite author. You can delete books that aren’t worth your time. Life is too short to read bad books!

You can receive magazines and other periodicals on your Kindle. A lot of what I help people with is decluttering paper. Folks, if you really want to make a dent in your paper piles, then unsubscribe from all of your periodicals and re-subscribe on the Kindle. You’ll LOVE having them to look at right at your fingertips when you are standing in line at the grocery store. And you’ll adore not having to throw out paper piles, wondering if you’ve read through them!

You can leave reviews for books! At the end of every book, there is a helpful screen to give a review and star rating. This is ENORMOUSLY helpful to other readers. It doesn’t have to be long or poetic, but submitting a quick review will help other readers find great content.

You can stuff your suitcase with tons of great reading material for a trip, and it takes up literally NO extra room. Download before you go, or browse and download while you are the airport if you have a device with a Wi-Fi connection.

You can highlight passages within the book that you’d like to remember or reference later.

You can look up unfamiliar terms and words while you are reading them with just a click or tap. I can’t tell you how much I love doing that! I learn something new almost every day. Some of the photos of places or historical events that I get to research while reading are really amazing, but I would never go look them up if I were reading a print book.

And my favorite…you can read in the dark. Change the settings to the black screen, and the Kindle app and device turn down to a visual level that will be good for reading in the dark, and not wake up your roommate. But I’m not making any guarantees that they’ll keep sleeping if you LOL or gasp during the scary parts!

I have downloaded 332 books into my Kindle app over the last few years, and I’ve read most of them. I currently have a couple of dozen that I’m either reading or waiting to read. If one of your New Year’s goals is to read more and declutter less, I can’t recommend the Kindle (device or app) as one of your best investments.

This article is all about saving to read for later, so feel free to pin… This page may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a portion of sales. Rest assured, these wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love them!