Let’s say you’re traveling this summer, in a foreign country, and you don’t have your smart phone because it wouldn’t work overseas. Plus you didn’t bring your Kindle e-reader along, because you weren’t sure how well it would work – or if it would work at all. But you do have your laptop. Can you still read Kindle books?
Kindle Cloud Reader
The good news is yes, as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection that lets you access your Amazon account – where you can interface with Kindle Cloud Reader. Of course you may not have the luxury of traveling around the world, which is why this way of reading Kindle books is also a great solution for anyone who doesn’t own a Kindle e-reader, Fire tablet, or an expensive smart phone. Maybe you cannot afford one of those gadgets yet, but are still an avid e-book reader.
That’s no problem, because all you really need is your Amazon account and a computer. Kindle Cloud Reader has a layout or interface that is quite similar to the one you see when you use a Kindle app – there’s a list of your e-books purchased from Amazon and you just select one and start reading. So Kindle Cloud Reader is a really convenient way of staying connected to your personal e-book library – without all the other gadgetry.
Easy Access
Hop on a computer – at a cyber cafe, in a public library, or on your laptop using your private “hotspot” or a public one in a coffee shop, airport, or hotel. Then pen the browser, and go to read.amazon.com – where you will sign-in to your Amazon account using your name and password. Once you’re there look under the tab labeled “Cloud” to view all of the books you’ve purchased in the Kindle store. Pick the one you want to read and go for it.
Using Kindle Cloud Worldwide
You may have heard that you can only use the Kindle Cloud Reader while in the USA, where it first launched. But since then it has become available to Amazon.com customers of Kindle all over the world. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that it depends on which store you enter through once you are online. If you visit Amazon UK, for instance, going to the amazon.co.uk site, you’ll only see books you purchased in the UK. If you purchased your books on the USA site, you’ll have to be sure to log into the Amazon USA website. If you find yourself at the wrong one, just log out and log back on through the link that puts into the store you are trying to access.
What the Kindle Cloud Reader Is Not
The terminologies can be confusing because they all sound so alike, but just to clarify for you, the Kindle Cloud Reader is not an Amazon Cloud Drive. The Cloud Drive is basically a kind of storage center where you can keep data and files for safekeeping or for easy access when you are away from your main computer. Think of it as sort of a portable hard drive that is accessed over the Internet. Anyway, it doesn’t really affect your Kindle e-books and is not the same as a Kindle Cloud Reader.
Limitations of Kindle Cloud Reader
When you are using a Kindle App – or a Kindle E-Reader device – you can typically access more than just the books you bought at Amazon. You might have personal files, documents, photos, and so forth that you loaded to your Kindle library using the special email address that we discussed earlier this year in a different blog. Unfortunately, those personalized features are not available to you through the Kindle Cloud Reader. All you’ll be able to see and read are the books you’ve bought from that Amazon Kindle store.
If you’re hoping Amazon will later add that kind of flexibility, don’t hold your breath. Amazon is in the business of selling e-reader devices, don’t forget, so they are not likely to offer all of the convenient features found on a Kindle or a Fire through the free Kindle Cloud Reader. Like any clever business, they will offer you some freebies, but their main goal is still to convert you into a customer buying their products – and Kindles are the hottest products in the gigantic Amazon inventory.