How to Use a Kindle

If you're like many of us, you got a new Kindle this holiday season. The different models (Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire) vary slightly in use. This post is about using the $79 basic model, Kindle with Special Offers.

When you fire it up the first time, a set-up wizard will help you, well, set it up. Here you choose your preferred language, hook it up to your Wi-Fi network, register and name it. You will connect the Kindle to your Amazon account or create an Amazon account if you don't already have one. (You will not be able to borrow or buy books without completing this step.)

Now you're ready to go. Except that you have nothing to read apart from a welcome letter from Jeff Bezos and some archived dictionaries in English, Spanish, French and a couple of other languages.

You can either shop for books from your Kindle or go to Amazon's website and browse the Kindle store. Even this basic model can hold hundreds and hundreds of books, so a good way to begin building up your Kindle library is to start stocking it with some of the 2 million or so free titles available. (You can find them here.) These are classic books, out-of-copyright books and books printed before 1923. (Click here for a list of popular classics to add to your new Kindle.) Some of my favorites are:

Dracula by Bram Stoker. Forget Twilight - read the eerie, original vampire story.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. My favorite Dickens story.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. A brilliant cautionary tale.

Tales of Terror and Mystery by Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The mystery stories are better than the terror ones, but they're all enjoyable to Sir Doyle fans.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The best Brontë book.

Popular Tales from the Norse. Change up your kids' bedtime stories with these Nordic tales.

As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. A must-read. And it's only about 70 pages long.

Perhaps the best thing about Kindle is the ability to borrow books from the library. You have to set this up from your particular library's website, and so instructions may vary. My library's guide was confusing, but it was well worth the trouble figuring it out. I checked out three books, placed holds on a couple of others and added a bunch more to my wish list. I will never again run out of reading material!

What surprised me was that when you find a Kindle version to check out, the library's link takes you to Amazon and you complete check out from there. The "Deliver to:" option should already be set to "Your Kindle" (whatever you've named it). When you turn on your Kindle's wireless, your books will automatically download. Then you can organize them into Collections you create. I created several including Classics, Thrillers, Fiction, Cooking, Self-Help and Language (I'm attempting to teach myself Russian and my library has several language learning books in Kindle format that I can borrow).

You turn your Kindle's Wi-Fi on by pressing the Menu button, which is just to the right of the center navigational button. It's a contextual menu so the options will change depending on where you are pressing it from.

The button to the right of the Menu button is the Home button, which brings you to the home page, where you will see all the contents of your Kindle library.

To the very left of the center button is the Keyboard button, which displays the onscreen keyboard.

To the left of the Keyboard button is the Back button, which works like the back button on your browser.

The center navigational button is a five-way controller, the edges moving the cursor left, right, up and down, accordingly. Pressing down the center is selects the link, action, letter or symbol (on the keyboard), etc.

At the bottom edge of your Kindle is the Power button, which put your e-reader to sleep. Sleep is its default mode, and if you have the Kindle with Special Offers, what you will see is an ad. To turn off the device altogether you have to hold down the button until it powers off.

The long buttons on either side of the Kindle are to go to the next page. The shorter ones on either side just above these bring you to the previous page.

So there you have it - the basics of how to use a Kindle in a nutshell. I recommend spending the time to fill it with reading material and then organizing your books (magazines, newspapers or blogs). And remember to turn off the Wi-Fi when you're not using it to conserve the battery.

Resolutions

Already it seems as if I've left resolutions behind and it's not even the end of the January. Sigh. What was on the list? Get in shape. And lose weight. Again. I keep getting out of shape. Next, do something about my, shall we say, unbalanced figure. Why hide it? I want to try natural breast enhancement so I broke down and bought this book on herbal breast augmentation. That's all well and good, but I also need to get a handle on my skin and learn how to get rid of pimples, once and for all. Then to top off the full body transformation, I want to grow my hair long and get a Brazilian hair straightening before the summer humidity kicks in. But it's not all about appearances - I want to learn Spanish and do more writing, articles and blogging and real writing, too. It's a lot to take on. Good thing there are 11 months left.

Blue Diamond Rings

This Valentine's Day, dazzle the woman of your dreams with something unexpected and special - a blue diamond ring.

Natural blue diamonds are rare, one reason the famed royal gem the Hope Diamond is priceless. But you don't have to be a blue blood to own your very own blue diamond. Today, these mesmerizing sparklers are in reach of us common folk - without spending a king's ransom. Blue diamond rings, especially, are all the rage.

The vast majority of blue diamonds are treated to produce a variety of blue shades. This process of treating natural diamonds to bring out intense colors in the stones is more commonplace - and better - than ever before. Don't turn your nose up at treated gems. Because the method is expensive and does not work on every diamond, the stones selected for treatment are typically high in clarity, one of the all important 4 Cs of diamond buying - cut, clarity, color, carat.

When considering a blue diamond ring, the most popular setting choice is platinum or white gold. You can do a solitaire but a setting that includes clear stones - white diamonds, white zircon or white topaz even - accent the blue diamond beautifully.

But if your love is a yellow gold girl, a blue diamond ring in yellow gold will look spectacular all the same. It's the diamond, after all, that's the star of that jewelry show.

No matter what you choose, your sweetheart will be thrilled when a blue diamond ring is sparkling on her finger.