21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Your Kindle

F-READ-OM.

Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed

1.

reddit.com

Here's a list of the over 8,000 e-book titles you can read for free. Project Gutenberg is another great resource for free, downloadable e-books.

Pixel of Ink and Centsless Books feature e-books that are free or sold at a deep discount for a limited time. Open Library is a site where you can borrow or read over 1 million titles.

2.

xkcd.com

If you have the older Kindle Keyboard 3G ($139), you can access up to 50MB of cellular data for free all over the world. Wikipedia and the Kindle Store can still be accessed after hitting the 50MB limit. In the menu, tap Experimental > Launch browser.

3.

seekatesew.com

Kate of See Kate Sew crafted a genius DIY zippered book clutch made out of an old hardcover. It's easily adaptable to fit Kindles — just use extra zipper. See the full tutorial here.

4.

Conversely, press and hold "–" for minimum brightness, instead of having to tap multiple times. This feature only applies to Paperwhite and Voyage models.

5.

harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk / Via giphy.com

The Kindle Owners' Lending Library makes over 800,000 titles available to people with e-ink Kindle e-readers or Kindle Fire tablets and an Amazon Prime membership.

To access the free collection on your Kindle, head to the Kindle Store, tap All Categories and click on Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Browse books and, when you've found your desired title, tap Borrow for Free.

6.

Nicole Nguyen / BuzzFeed

On the Kindle Voyage and Paperwhite, press two opposite corners of the screen at the same time to capture a screenshot. For the Kindle Touch, hold down the home button, then tap the screen. If you have the original Kindle, hold alt + shift + G.

To download the images, you need to plug the Kindle into your personal computer via USB. The screenshots are exported as .png files.

7.

images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com

Follow the instructions above!

8.

imgur.com

Like reading in the hot tub or bath? Slip your Kindle into a Ziploc.

9.

hbo.com / Via unignorable.tumblr.com

TheFictionary.net offers comprehensive, spoiler-free Kindle dictionaries for works of fantasy, sci-fi, young adult, and classic literature. A must for those who love A Song of Ice and Fire or J.R.R. Tolkien's books.

10.

Clear up some space on the homescreen. On your Kindle, tap the menu bar in the upper right > Settings > Parental Controls > Restrictions > slide Kindle Store to off and tap OK.

11.

billgatos.tumblr.com

You can send over 10 file types to your Kindle — including .pdf, .doc, .html, .rtf, .jpeg, .mobi, .gif, .png, and .bmp — by emailing the attachment to your Kindle email address.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Download to Send to Kindle for Mac or PC.

2. Find your Kindle address at Manage Your Content and Devices > Settings > Personal Document Settings. It should look like this: [e-mail]. Then add your personal email to the Approved Document Email List.

Enable Wi-Fi on your Kindle. Add "free" to @free.kindle.com to send the document without charge. Without adding "free," you will be charge 15 cents per megabyte domestically, and 99 cents per megabyte internationally.

12.

When creating PDFs, keep your Kindle dimensions in mind. Make a 5.5 x 7 inch document with small margins (like .25). K2pdfopt is a useful online tool that will reformat existing PDFs for smaller e-ink screens.

13.

chicaandjo.com

Repurpose your janky old three-ring binder! Find the full tutorial at Chica and Jo.

14.

amazon.com

Any standard book stand should fit the Kindle. Buy it for $8 on Amazon.

15.

There are many ways to transfer web articles to your Kindle, but the most efficient is via Instapaper, a bookmarking app for iOS, Android, and the web. Once you create an account, go to Settings and scroll down to Kindle for delivery options. Now, every time you save an article to Instapaper, it's automatically pushed to your Kindle account.

Wordcycler is a Windows-only app that allows two-way sync for Instapaper. Once an article is deleted on your Kindle, the app archives it on Instapaper.

16.

movies.disney.com / Via sugaryumyum.tumblr.com

Eligible books can be lent one time, for 14 days. Log on to your Amazon account, then head to Amazon.com/mycd. Select the title, click the ellipses action button, then select Loan this title. If that option isn't available, that book can't be lent. Here's a list of lendable Kindle books.

17.

Nicole Nguyen / BuzzFeed

Reading time is the amount, in hours (or days) that you have left to finish a book. It's based on your personalized reading time. To reset it, type ;ResetReadingTime (caps matter) in the search bar. It'll then show you a search page that will yield no results. Tap the back button and you should see "Learning reading speed..." at the bottom left.

18.

Calibre is *the* file converter for e-books.

19.

BookDrop is a simple way to transfer books to your Kindle. Once a book is dropped into the BookDrop folder, it will be sent to your Kindle.

20.

NOTE: For advanced techies only! The No. 1 reason why most people do this is the ability to use a custom Kindle screensaver or wallpaper. It's the image you see when Kindles without ads are in sleep mode.

Jailbreaking won't void your warranty. This involves plugging your Kindle into a computer via USB and going into your Kindle's Diagnostics Mode. For the full instructions for Kindle Touch and Paperwhite, head here and download the attached zip file named "kindle-jailbreak-1.14.N.zip," then scroll to where it says INSTALL. There is no jailbreak available for the new Voyage model (yet).

To customize your screensaver, follow these instructions and download the attachment named "kindle-linkss-0.21.N.zip."

21.

secretelectriclibrary.blogspot.co.uk

imgur.com

First, make sure your Kindle is jailbroken! The Secret Electric Library is a great place to go for screensavers of famous quotes. The /r/kindlescreensavers subreddit features original art, famous photography, and screengrabs from popular shows. This Imgur gallery has a bunch of geeky ones.

Happy e-reading!

Gadget Love / Via gadgetlove.com