Earlier today as I was composing a post on how to create a picture album on your Kindle, it occurred to me that it would be silly of me not to suggest to Kindle Nation readers that you try the same process that I was using at the time, which was to use my Kindle for Mac app to look at The Complete User’s Guide To the Amazing Amazon Kindle 2 as I followed some of its step-by-step user “recipes” on my Kindle. (The truth, of course, is that I am well aware from hundreds of emails that many readers have already tried this with the Kindle for Mac, Kindle for PC, or other device apps, or even with the old-school paperback app of The Complete User’s Guide To the Amazing Amazon Kindle 2).

So, let me just say here that, if you have yet to pick up the applicable Kindle guide for you — either the Kindle 2 guide referenced above or the Kindle 1 guide that was the #1 bestselling book in the Kindle Store for the calendar year 2008 — it’s now more convenient than ever to buy these guides and open them right on your computer screen with the Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC app, then work alongside the screen in trying things out on your Kindle. And unlike the $10-$15 paperback editions shown in the graphic, the Kindle editions are priced at just $2.99 and available for reading within 60 seconds on your Kindle, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod Touch, or (in just 13 days) your new iPad.

There. I hope that was not too painful. And now, since I’ve given the Shameless Plug Dept. of Kindle Nation Daily an opening here, let me say a few words about it. As many of my readers are aware, my books about the Kindle came first, with excerpts like this one that appeared just five days after the original Kindle’s launch in November 27 and the first full book in the Spring of 2008. That book rose to the top of the Kindle store bestseller list and, along the way, I began to develop Kindle Nation in email and blog formats to maintain my connection with existing readers, build new connections, find out what was on the minds of other Kindle readers, and let everyone (or everyone I could reach) know about my books and other books, blogs, podcasts, and other content that I like. When it works, and I manage to keep it all in useful balance, it is a pretty neat loop that keeps me busy, keeps the wolf from the door, and — I am led to believe by the thousands of emails and comments that I receive and read every one of — keep Kindle Nation citizens feeling informed and connected. So, yes, I do need you to keep buying my books, subscribing to the blog, and all of that sort of thing, at whatever levels you can manage. I try to keep the crass hucksterism under control, and I appreciate you, among many other things, for putting up with a certain amount of it.

Thank you. 

And now, back to the program you were watching….