Periodically I want to read on my computer, particularly when sitting at my desk. Amazon publishes a web app called Cloud Reader for reading Kindle books, which emulates pretty closely what their mobile apps look and feel like.

I found out they’ve got a full desktop client also, which seems they’ve had for years but I never discovered or tried it out. It turns out to be one of the better applications for reading ebooks I’ve seen, even though Amazon clearly hasn’t cared about it in years (if they ever really did).

The main reading interface looks just like what you’ll see on the other Kindle apps, but with more flexibility to change the reading pane size and layout given the differences in desktop screen sizes.

Since I’m an aggressive digital highlighter and note-taker, my favorite feature on the full macOS app is the “Notes and Highlights” drawer you can pull up and browse so easily. With that, the full table of contents panel, and fast search, the navigability of books in this app is much better than the mobile apps or the actual Kindle device (I have a Paperwhite). E-books still aren’t a great format for denser material, or for books prone to page-flipping, heavy on footnotes, or with reference diagrams. Maybe this format will make some of the denser material in my library accessible for digital reading and highlighting.