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Would you like to read e-books from Amazon but you don’t own an e-reader? No problem. In the last few weeks I’ve received several queries from readers wondering how they can read my e-book Webinars: a Cookbook for Educators, without a Kindle e-reader. Here’s the bottom line:

• You don’t need to own an e-reader to read e-books from Amazon.

• Download the Kindle app for PC, Mac or tablets, and you can read any Amazon e-book on your computer.

• If you can’t (or don’t want to) buy e-books via Amazon, there are alternative sites such as Smashwords, where you can choose to buy an e-book in a variety of formats. Here’s the Smashwords link for my Webinars book.

You’ll find more resource e-books for English language teachers on The Round, with new titles being added regularly.

Another question I frequently get asked: Is it worth buying an e-reader?

That depends. I find that owning a convergence device like my iPad with e-reader apps means that I read more on the iPad. But you can’t beat an e-reader in the summer, when you’re reading in bright sunlight on the beach. And you so wouldn’t want to take an iPad to the beach. But if you already have a tablet where you can read e-books, I’m not sure it’s worth buying another gadget to have a separate e-reader. And now that there are much cheaper tablets on the market (such as the Kindle fire, or Google Nexus), the price difference between an e-reader and a tablet is not as big as it was a year or two back.

Bottom line? Well, let me ask you. If you own a tablet and an e-reader, do you find that you favour reading on one device over the other? If you already own a tablet, would you buy an e-reader? If you own neither, do you think it’s still worth buying a dedicated e-reader device, or would you go for a (cheaper) tablet instead?

Nicky Hockly
The Consultants-E
January 2013