Amazon announced today the release of “Kindle for PC,” a free application for Windows computers that allows customers to view more than 360,000 books on their home computer.

Customers do not need to own a Kindle to use the software, now they can purchase and download books on their PC. If you do own a Kindle and have set up Whispersync, you can access your entire Kindle library as well as your notes and marks. The software supports touchscreen gestures on Windows 7 so you can “finger-swipe flip” through pages and “pinch and zoom” content.

They have initially released a Windows only version, but a Mac version is on its way. They hope the new PC and Mac based software will help widen adoption of the Kindle library, in turn getting more publishers onboard.