Hi guys :), first off im not a fan of making help threads but ive helped a good few people on here before so i figured before i go and sign up on another forum let me see if i can get the help i need from my forum community of choice

Okay, so a few days ago my dad comes and tells me about this amazing device that has over 6000 books on it. Aparently you can type in any name of a book and then instantly read it if its avaible, for free. You probably already know by now that im talking about the Amazon Kindle e-reader. But i have a hard time believing those books are all free? My question is...how does the whole reading and buying books for your kindle work? Do you get access to free books? Do you only pay for new releases?

Im pretty clued up about most tech things, but ive just never really taken note of e-readers before so thats why im wondering.

My next question is on the kindle fire, which does a lot more than e-books. But i know that the kindle fire is suposedly  heavily intergrated with many of the amazon cloud services in the US and since i dont live in the US i was wondering would that effect me?

Also the kindle fire is not up for international shipping...but i do have a friend in the US who i could ask to purchase for me and ship it to me. I know the cost of the kindle fire is $200 but what would the cost of shipping be for my friend in the US to ship to South africa?

Im thinking of getting this for my dad for christmas (or helping my mom to get it for him), hes very into reading and books, so whether or not he gets access to some of the music and video services wouldnt be a major factor, as long as he had access to the reading and books features these kindle devices are known for.

Any thoughts, suggestions and general information would be great! Thanx

First off not all Kindle books are free. But there are a lot that are. They may not be the best books but they are still free.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Afree%20kindle%20books&page=1

Give me a sec and I'll look up your other two questions :)

Unfortunately you can't use a lot of the features of the Fire outside of the US. You won't be able to stream music or movies

The best estimate I could find was $50 for Fedex... but that was some random site so I don't know. I've sent packages from the post office here, in NC, to Israel for about $23 at around the same weight

Hope this helped :)

Thanx for the info so far guys. From what i gather you guys are saying that 1. There is a range of free books available for kindle users. and 2. E-readers come preloaded with books on it.

Thanx that really puts me at ease regarding the books on the kindle. I suppose new release books will have to be bought, which is what i initially expected.

Edited the thread title to elaborate the subject matter.

As for the Kindle Fire, it's a great device and an excellent value. It sounds like it would make a great gift for your dad.

Thats okay though as long as it has access to the e-reading capabilities and services. Could i stil perhaps copy a movie from my pc onto the memmort stick? And use the kindle fire as a media player/usb storage device?

Doesnt seem to expensive, taking into account the exchange rate which is actually quite favourable...$50 seems okay. And yes you've been a great help TadpoleJackson :)

Yes! ^_^ 

http://androidadvices.com/kindle-fire-transfer-pictures-movies-music/

The only thing that you might have to worry about is import fees. I'm not sure how SA handles those though