8 lesser-known Kindle features that make reading easier and more fun

Do you miss the old-school experience of seeing book covers now that you read eBooks? No worries—your Kindle can show off the cover of whatever book you’re reading. If your Kindle’s screensaver shows you ads when you’re not reading, upgrade to the ad-free experience, after which you can tell it to show your current book cover instead.

To do that, open the Amazon website in a web browser. Click Accounts & Lists at the top of the page, then click Devices > click option for your Kindle > Special Offers. In Special Offers, upgrade to remove the offers.

After your Kindle is ad-free, go to your Kindle and swipe down from the top of the screen to see the Quick Actions menu. Tap All Settings, then Screen & Brightness. Turn on Display Cover, and now you’ll see the book’s cover when your Kindle is resting.

Whether you want to prepare for your next book club meeting or just better appreciate the literary table that an author has set for you, your Kindle has a feature designed to help you get the most out of the book you’re reading. X-Ray is a Kindle feature that is like an encyclopedia entry about the book you’re reading—it may have details about the plot, locations, characters, and more. Not every book has all those X-Ray details, but to see if the book you’re reading does, tap the top of any page in a book, then tap the three dots, followed by X-Ray in the menu.

GoodReads is Amazon’s ever popular book discovery and recommendation tool—and because it can also connect you with other GoodRead members, it’s like a virtual book club, too. From the Home page, tap the three dots at the top right and then choose GoodReads. Here you can track books you want to read as well as your friends' reading activity. Even better, you can use the GoodReads website and mobile app to take part in book discussions and curate your reading list when you’re not on your Kindle.

You can take screenshots of all your devices including your computer, phone and tablet, and your Kindle is no exception. To capture an image of what’s on your Kindle screen, tap the upper right and lower left corners of the screen simultaneously. When you connect your Kindle to a computer, the Kindle will appear as an external drive. Open it, and look for the folder called screenshots. That’s where you’ll find your images.

Did you know that you can send documents to your Kindle? Whether it's your own self-written novel or a document from the office you want to read on the go, it’s easy to email any PDF directly to your Kindle.

Just go to www.amazon.com/sendtokindle then drag and drop your files. Various file types (up to 200 MB in size) are supported.

X-Ray isn’t the only handy research tool hidden in your Kindle—there’s a dictionary and Wikipedia tool as well. That means you don’t need to read past terms you don’t fully understand; now you can just tap an unfamiliar word and instantly see the definition. And it is just that easy. Tap and hold a word on the page, and after a moment, a window will appear. You can swipe between the dictionary, Wikipedia entry, and a translation tool.

If you’re the sort of person who would group all the books in a series together on a bookshelf, you’ll probably want to sort them together on your Kindle as well. That’s easy to do. Swipe down from the top of the screen to see Quick Settings, then tap All Settings. Tap Home and Library, then Library tab. Finally, make sure Group series is turned on.

You don’t have to buy all your Kindle books—many public libraries let you check out ebooks and send them right to your Kindle. Of course, you’re still borrowing them for a limited amount of time, but at least they’ll be returned automatically, so you never have to bring a pocketful of nickels to the library to pay late fees.

To get started, you’ll need a library card for your local library (many let you sign up online) and to install the Libby app on your phone. Follow the steps to tell Libby your library card number, and select the option to read books with your Kindle. When you select a book to borrow, tap Open Book. Libby will take you to the Amazon website, where you can send the book to your Kindle with a single tap.