I just got a new paperwhite, and am reading my own books on it without registering.
It nags you to register, but if you open Calibre, and then connect via USB, you can put books on, and it all works just as normal.
The only thing you can't do if you don't register is to "buy" Amazon's drm books, or access the ones you've already "bought."
Although it is possible you may be able to transfer said books through your kindle desktop app, I haven't tried,don't really care.
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/6250/mran
I can't speak definitively about this, but my understanding is that you need a kindle account to register the device as new.
The reason is that amazon.com wants to make sure you are able to spend money -- they lose money on the kindles and hope to make up for it with sales of ebooks and apps.
After it is registered, you can connect via USB to a laptop or computer and transfer as many files as you want, more or less (using Calibre, etc).
You don't need to purchase one thing.
You don't need to use kindle to do the transferring (unless you really want to).
So you really only need to connect to amazon.com one time.
You don't need to connect to wifi after that first time.
I'm guessing that you are dealing with a used device wiped clean with broken wifi
or you are in a country where amazon doesn't have a store or you are buying it for a young person and don't want to give him access to your credit card.
If you are concerned about credit card use, you can give a functioning credit card when you register, and then change/remove the credit card later.
By the way, one advantage of being registered is that Kindle will automatically download updates.
See also this thread http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=TxFBK4BK0D6L9Y See also this thread on setting parental controls to prevent kids from buying things http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201423070
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/417/idiotprogrammer
Never register your kindle when you buy.
Turn off wifi by putting into wifi mode.
Then just use your kindle as a sort of usb stick with screen.
Drag and drop pdf and mobi files (use the great free program Calibre to convert epub etc to these formats.
This works for a kindle of a couple of years ago with the square button on the bottom.
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/5831/user5831
Yes, you can use a Kindle (at least Kindles that are several years old) without an Amazon account.
I got a secondhand Kindle that is probably ~4-5 years old.
I connected to wifi to deregister the prior owner.
Then I turned wifi off, and connected to my pc with a microUSB cable and uploaded books using Calibre.
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/11586/jub
I just got a new paperwhite 09/2018 and you can use it without registering although it may not seem like it at first.
You'll see the connect & register screen when first starting up
and it won't let you do anything else.
Pretend like you are going to, search for networks, but don't join anything.
Cancel back out and it will then ask if you would like to continue setup later.
Do that and then never register if that's what you prefer.
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/11816/John
Yes, you can use a Kindle without an account, or without registering it.
You can copy MOBI or PDF or a few other data file formats into the "Documents" directory using USB, and it'll display them just fine.
There are four differences I've found that apply to all the Kindles I've tried this with.
You can't buy books from Amazon Store directly from the device, obviously.
You can't take an Amazon Kindle copy-protected-format file from one of your other Kindles, copy them onto your unregistered Kindle, and read them.
(Not surprising.)
You can't email a file to the Kindle using Amazon Whispernet's my-kindle-name@kindle.com address (also obvious.)
The Collections feature doesn't work without registration (Not obvious, and annoying.)
It's not a problem if you've only got a few dozen books on there at a time, but if you've downloaded half of Project Gutenberg onto your Kindle into one big flat directory mess, it's hard to keep track of stuff.
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/11888/user46642
I'd like to know if it is possible to use a Kindle reader without having an Amazon account, but rather  only  uploading the reader's own files into the device.
Can you use a Kindle without an Amazon account?
ebooks.stackexchange.com
<kindle><amazon>
ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/6149
ebooks.stackexchange.com/users/5193/Dakatine
You need an Amazon account to register the Kindle but you can use the Kindle without registering and without an Amazon account. Whilst it is true that you will need an Amazon account to register your device, it is generally agreed that you can use your Kindle without registering it and, therefore, without having an Amazon account.
You will need an Amazon account in order to register your device. It is generally agreed that you can use a Kindle without registering it.