Kindle Help Please

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My aged father (86) is housebound and a voracious reader. He has just announced that he might get a kindle as there are lots of books he wants to read but thinks it would be easier and cheaper on a kindle. He is a complete techno innocent (he waits to get a dialling tone on his mobile phone ) and I have never used a kindle. My main question is - how will he download stuff - will he need some sort of wi fi access in his house? And are all books available as eBooks? He reads mainly War stuff.

Thanks

If he does not have wifi, he can get a 3G kindle and that will allow him to download.

He will need to set up an amazon account. But that's a once off and then he can just click to buy. We set up my dad on a kindle and it works well. It's brilliant for older people as they can adjust the text size etc.

Thank Bling - can he set up the Amazon account on the kindle?

If he has a pc he can just connect the Kindle via usb rather than use wifi, manage an Amazon account on there then download the books. Not all books are cheaper though especially specialist ones.

He doesn't have a pc and would not have the first clue of how to use one. He really is totally in the dark which is why I was a bit shocked when he announced his desire for a Kindle.

I assume from your op that he does not have a computer and certainly would find downloading with a USB hard?

You can set it up from kindle but honestly, I would recommend you simply do it for him from your computer. You just need to create an account for him in his name and with his debit card then you register the kindle to that account and away you go. From there, to buy a book you simply type in the name'/author etc, it searches and if it's available you get a description and a price. Then you just click "buy" and it downloads.

I think he is being very sensible. Setting up is fairly easy but importantly, only has to be done once, and then it's very simple. My dad, who is 75, uses his all the time but would not have a clue how to connect to a computer etc. I just did the set up for him and now he knows that when he buys something it comes off his account.

Variety of books is extensive and getting better all the time.

you don't have to be in receipt of wifi or 3g signal to read one tho, you can download books then read elsewhere.

Thanks Bling - when I googled info about Kindles I found some references to Amazon deleting books from your account after a period of time. Mind you, I suppose once you have read them you no longer need them.

Amazon shouldn't delete any books, they may be in Archive on the Kindle.

Yes, as far as I know, in the US you can "lend" books to friends which are then automatically deleted after a certain time, but that's not available here and would be irrelevant anyway for your dad I think.