I have only had my Kindle touch for about a month and have been taking advantage of the free downloads. I have only downloaded about 35 books so far and I will probably never have more than about 200 on my Kindle at one time. My question is should I set up a "cloud" account. I will never be reading books from my PC or phone etc, only from the Kindle.  I am having trouble wrapping my head around this cloud. Any help would be appreciated.  Will 200-300 books slow the Kindle performance? Thanks.

Jane

Amazon keeps your ebooks...just go to Manage My Kindle.  Dont need Cloud.

There's a quick explanation of Amazon's Cloud Here.

Amazon has finally launched a Web-based version of its Kindle reader, allowing users to read their Kindle purchases on any device with a Web browser, without having to download special software. The Web-based reader, called Kindle Cloud Reader, sports both an online and offline mode and can even sync your last page read (among other things) across Kindle devices.

If you have a Kindle, I don't think you need to use the Cloud Storage for ebooks. I think it's more useful for those with tablets and maybe movies and songs. I've never used it.

"The Cloud" idea is basically storing your stuff on a computer that's not your own, but accessible by the internet. Kind of like renting a locker and putting stuff in it you might want to have handy while you're shopping downtown. It's not your space, but you can rent it and put your stuff in it. We use 'Cloud Storage' in that we rent space at a web site called Carbonite and our computer is set up to back up our computer files to it every night. We put in it documents, family pictures, my ebooks and our other files we'd want to keep safe from theft, fire or disaster. It's password protected, and we're the only ones who can get in there. But if the house burned down, or we were robbed (considering they can pick up our safe and walk off with it. Lol) then we have a safe copy stored somewhere else.

People also use other Cloud services to store stuff they want to get to over the internet, so they don't have to have machines with big memories. They can just connect from where ever they are and download their files. While they're out, they can work on documents and save them there before traveling. Some business use Cloud storage for their employees to put their work files while traveling so that their work can access it.

I do trust the backup services, but don't really trust that I can get to my stuff at any time. Sometimes we have little coverage, and sometimes a lot. I just like having my stuff with me, so don't bother with ebooks for my ereaders. But I do appreciate it as an extra backup, beyond the backups we have at home.

The "cloud" at Amazon basically refers to all of your purchases from Amazon, which they store on their servers for you. The "cloud reader" allows you to read that content in your browser without having to download and install the  PC app. You do not have to do anything to "set up" the cloud. It's already there.

Your Kindle will run great with 200-300 books on it. It will run great with 600. You will experience some slowing if you go over a certain amount, say 1000 books....not reading but things like searching, paging through your collections pages, etc.

Cindy, I use Carbonite too. Only on my desk top PC.

Thanks to everyone. I think I've got it now.  Appreciate the responses. 

Jane