by 
The Curious Bag
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A Kindle book is a book that has been converted to a digital format for use with the Kindle, a line of electronic readers produced by the Internet bookseller Amazon.
Books
Books for the Kindle can be purchased at Amazon.com and downloaded directly to the device. As of January 2010, Amazon more than 400,000 titles available for the Kindle.
Features
The Kindle software allows users to highlight passages, make notes, "dog-ear" pages and otherwise mark up electronic books. A built-in dictionary allows you to look up definitions and synonyms for words in the text.
On PC
Amazon offers a free download, Kindle for PC, that allows users to read their Kindle books on a computer.
Limitations
Under Amazon's terms of use, buyers are only "licensing" a copy of a book, not buying it, which means that they cannot sell their copy to anyone else, the way they could with a real book. Also, the terms forbid using Kindle books with any device not approved by Amazon.
Controversy
In 2009, Amazon automatically deleted copies of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" from users' Kindles after it discovered that the publisher had lacked the rights to sell the books. The ensuing uproar prompted an apology from the company and a promise not to do it again.
Source:
CNET News: Amazon Apologizes for deleting Kindle e-books; Tom Krazit; 2009
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