Hi everybody!
I just wanted to take a minute to share a potentially useful tool I stumbled onto this morning, and hope you’ll also find it compelling enough to share with family, friends, and your blog-o-sphere buddies. Here’s the scoop:
While surfing around Amazon.com in search of a particular book on plant propagation, I happened across an interesting title which listed the Kindle version as $0.00 in price. Being the thrifty (insert grin here) survivalist I am, I bit. Sure enough, it was FREE to download.
Now here’s the catch….I don’t own (or care to) a Kindle. I decided to click on the “buy now with one-click” button anyway to see what happens. (Recognize that you have to already have an Amazon.com account to use that one-click feature, but you can easily set one up if you don’t use Amazon already) When I did so, a prompt appeared advising me that I did not have an app associated with Kindle, and some options were offered. Interestingly, a FREE Kindle for PC option was among them.
Again, I bit.
The app installed quickly, and I clicked “run” to set things in motion. Shortly, the Kindle software popped up along with three sample books. After I familiarized myself with the app I returned to the Kindle version of the FREE book on Amazon and downloaded it. Yep! Sure enough, now on the PC and all for FREE.
Now here’s where it gets REALLY good! At the bottom of the detail page on each book you select for FREE download, there is a list of “other books “customers who bought this book also bought”. Scroll through this list and you will find multitudes of titles for FREE that other “like-minded people” are consuming.
Recognize that this list grows every time folks add to their FREE library, so much of the time invested in researching these FREE titles is spread across an ever increasing pool of like-minded folks. What a great tool for compiling free data!
I’ll leave the practical application discoveries to your own imagination, but here’s a title to get you started:
So far, I’ve compiled about 40 titles which are inter-related and could be of great value in a time of need. I’m nowhere near finished adding data, and plan to make a search of new information a weekly activity.
You may be scratching your head at this point and wondering why this is so valuable (aside from the FREE thing of course). After all, what if there is a crisis and there is no electricity to run a PC, or what if your PC crashes and you lose all the books?
Well, if you have invested in at least one deep-cycle 12-volt battery and a small trickle-charge solar panel you are half-way there. If you also have an external hard drive where you can back up the data, you’re covered, assuming of course you also have invested in a power inverter to change the 12VDC to AC.
Hope you have a use for this information. I’m always excited when I get something for FREE, but then I’m cheap and easy (insert another grin here)!
One caveat though before I forget…I have found it helpful to read the reviews on each title if they have one. Occasionally a book will be something pretty distant from what the title implies. Of course you can always download it now and weed out the undesirables later. You never know how long these things are going to be FREE. If it’s a promotional thing, this opportunity could vaporize instantly, so get after it now if you have an interest.
Hope all have a great weekend and happy shopping(?) at Amazon!
Mike
I would suggest buying one since it’s only $139 to your door if you accept the ads that run across the bottom of the screen which are easy to ignore. Last night I downloaded the Art of War for free and as soon as you click the button it is on your Kindle. Additionally, it holds up to 3,500 books and you can read 30 minutes a day for two months on a single charge without using the wireless. You can access the Internet also.