Maybe you’ve seen the preview links next to your favorite books and wished you could have a preview sent to you even though you don’t own a Kindle. Or maybe you want to take advantage of one of the many free books available on right now for the Kindle, many of which are new releases by bestselling authors. Or maybe you love ebooks but you aren’t ready to commit to a device yet with the Apple Tablet iPad coming out and the eBook reader wars just getting started.

Newly released books are often free for a limited time when they first come out and I like grabbing them to read later or at least peruse. I also like to request previews to see if I will like the whole book, even if I’m only going to take it out of the library. I do this frequently and yet, I don’t own a Kindle.

Luckily, you don’t actually need a Kindle to read Kindle books. So if you want to pop over to Amazon and download all the free books while they are free, you can and still be able to read them. If you later decide to buy a Kindle, no problem, you can still sync any books your download now as well as bookmarks and notes you make on them to your Kindle if you want to.

How do I read Kindle books without a Kindle? Well, you have a few choices.

Kindle for PC
By far the easiest option, this simple and free download just takes a click and then you can access the entire Kindle library on your computer. Hundreds of free and cheap books are immediately available for your perusal and you can read them all on your computer screen. The best part about Kindle for PC is that you can use it on multiple computers and it will sync all your notes and bookmarks between them all. I like this because I can read a chapter of a book at lunch time at one computer, say, at work, and then later at home continue from where I left off. Lots to like there.

Kindle Apps for your cell phone or music device
While a Kindle Android App is still in the works, there is already a free Kindle App for your Apple products and Kindle for Blackberry which means that if you have any Blackberry or Apple phone including the iPhone or any other Apple enable device such as the iPad, iPhone Touch or similar, you have access to all the features of a Kindle there too. Amazon has been pretty committed to getting a Kindle app on every major cell phone or hand-held device with app support which is a very good thing because it lets you carry all your books in your pocket. While reading on your cell phone may not be your eye’s top choice, your cell phone or music device is the item your most likely to have handy at all times which makes this a very useful option.