The Kindle is a game changer for book lovers, and with these Kindle tips you’ll be even more excited for your next read! This e-reader has been around for a while now, and for good reason. The Kindle‘s beloved battery life, ease of use and accessibility make it one of the most popular e-reader devices out there.
Whether you’re new to Kindle or looking to make the most out of your device, these tips and tricks will elevate your ebook reading experience. Let’s dive into some handy hacks and features you might not know about.
Kindle Unlimited & Prime Reading: Affordable Ways to Access Thousands of Books
For avid readers, Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading provide great value and variety. Kindle Unlimited offers a massive selection of books, magazines, and audiobooks for a monthly fee of $11.99.
If you’re a current KU subscriber, here’s a hack: cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscription, and Amazon may offer you a free trial to entice you back. Take this time to tackle your physical TBR. This could be a month or even multiple months of a break, and is an easy way to save yourself some money.
Another awesome way to gain access to tons of ebooks is the Prime Reading selection, included with your Amazon Prime membership. This offers access to a more curated library of free books, with an emphasis on classics and non-new releases, but there’s honestly tons of gems to be found in here!
Now, let’s get into some Kindle hacks, tips and tricks you might not know about to make your reading sessions even more seamless.
Feel free to watch the video for a visual walk through, or see the list of tips and tricks below!
Top Tips for Using Your Kindle More Efficiently
Longer Library Loans
If you borrow a library book and aren’t finished by the due date, enabling Airplane Mode prevents the book from being removed from your device until you reconnect to Wi-Fi. Don’t worry, the library will still technically get their digital copy returned, so you’re not interfering with their systems or wait times. It’s simply preventing your Kindle from refreshing, so no new content is fetched (or returned).
Preserve Your Battery Life
One simple but effective tip to extend your Kindle’s battery life is to switch on Airplane Mode. This stops the device from constantly searching for a network connection, which saves power.
You can also access Power Saver mode in settings:
- Tap the three dots on the Home screen
- Tap Settings
- Tap Device Options
- Tap Advanced Options
- Tap Power Saver
Customize Your Kindle’s Reading & Display Settings
Navigating Kindle’s customizable features can significantly enhance your reading comfort. To access many of these features, tap the top of your kindle screen, then tap the ‘Aa’ button to bring up a multitude of settings for your kindle’s display.
Display Settings: Some users prefer light mode for better contrast, while others find dark mode easier on the eyes.
Brightness and Warmth: Manually adjust these settings to suit your environment or schedule the warmth to change at a specific time.
Font & Layout: You can adjust your font type, font sizes, and boldness to fit your preference. There are also multiple layout options like margin width, spacing, and even switching the Kindle’s orientation to landscape mode for hands-free reading.
Tap the “MORE” section here for a lot of hidden, handy Kindle reading features!
Show Clock While Reading
If you’ve ever noticed that some people have the time displayed on the top of their Kindle while reading, this is where you can turn this feature on! Some people also like to hide it when reading so they’re not distracted. The beauty of all these features is you can change them to suit your needs.
Reading Progress:
When reading your kindle, on the bottom left corner there is a progress tracker, and here you can change what type of progress tracker displays, like time left in chapter, percentage left in book, etc. You can also change this by tapping the bottom left corner while you’re reading a book.
Page Turn Animation
This is personal preference, but you can turn on or off the flashing page turn, or a more subtle realistic page turn while reading.
Helpful Reading Notes & Highlights
When in the main settings, tap the three lines to access more features.
Access the Table of Contents
Here you can jump to page or locations, and see all of the chapters.
Popular Highlights
One fun feature of the Kindle is that you can see what other Kindle users have highlighted in the book. If you make highlights in the Kindle, something to note is that they will be saved to your Amazon account linked to the Kindle. So if you borrow a library book or read a book on Kindle Unlimited, when you buy it, you can go back in and see your saved highlights.
Organize Your Kindle Library
Keeping a tidy library makes finding your next read easier.
Collections: Create collections to organize books by genre, status (read/unread), or any custom category.
Removing Clutter: Thumbnails of undownloaded books will remain in your library but won’t take up storage. This feature allows easy redownloading later.
Send Documents to Kindle
Tap the 3 dots at the top of the Kindle and go to Settings -> Your Account
This will allow you to see your Send to Kindle email, which is where you can send epub files to your Kindle that you have. This is especially great for work or school. This is also what you would use if you want to send a custom Kindle lockscreen to your Kindle to add a little extra personalized touch! You can find the tutorial here.
You’re Kindle is Now Your New Reading BFF
These Kindle tips will make your ebook reading experience tailored just for you! Happy reading.
