As long time Kindle owners and avid users of the Kindle iOS app we were thrilled to hear about lending coming to the Kindle platform. While we do enjoy using our local public library for eBooks, the waits are generally very long for titles and more lending options are always a good thing in our book. With the lending program now live, it's time to take a look as to how borrowing eBooks from Amazon works.
The Skinny on Borrowing From Amazon
- Prime Membership Required: We all saw this one coming, in order to borrow eBooks from Amazon (they call this borrowing program the Kindle Owners' Lending Library) you must be an Amazon Prime member which costs $79 a year and includes other benefits like 2 day shipping from Amazon.
- Apps Need Not Apply: As the name Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) suggests the lending program is only for Kindle owners. Not folks like my mum who has a Prime membership but uses the Kindle app on her iPad.
- US Only: This is another restriction of the program that is also not going to come as a shock. In order to participate in the KOLL you must be in the United States. Although Amazon Prime membership is available outside of the United States the KOLL is restricted to US Prime members only.
- The 1%: While Amazon is well known for the wide variety and volume of titles available for the Kindle, the selection of available titles for the KOLL is very small. Only 1%, 5,000 or so of the titles in the vast Amazon Kindle repository are available for lending. Want to know which books made the lending cut? Here are three ways to search as suggest by eBookFriendly.
- One Book Per Month: Are you a voracious reader that devours books in a few weeks? Well, with the KOLL you are capped at borrowing one title per month. Thankfully our local public library caps us to 12 at a time and when we return one, we can replace it with another, which is very handy since we're quick readers.
- No Due Dates: Not quite done with that book after a month? Keep it for next month! With KOLL there are no due dates, your reading limitations are 1. Getting the title in the first place and 2. Accessing one title a month, thankfully there are no due dates for your one allotted title per month.
We admit to being a bit underwhelmed and think we'll continue to borrow using Overdrive from our local library as well as peruse our usual sources for free eBooks.
What do you think of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library?
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I feel $79 is too expensive even with other benefits. Free shipping from amazon generally arrives within a few days anyway. I wouldn't read enough "lent" books to justify that cost unless that's all I read. Especially since I would still be doing a combination of bought, free and hardcopies (decorating, photography, cheap friends of the library buys etc.).
It probably wouldn't be worth getting Prime just for this, but since we already have it, I'll happily be using it!
@mauishpgirl If you're anything like me you catch yourself adding another purchase here and there to get up the the normal $25 free shipping limit on Amazon. I figured I did that enough through the year to justify the prime. I think it's totally worth it because it's much quicker than what I experienced with the regular free shipping and, the once or twice I needed it, I enjoyed only spending another $3.99 to bump something up to one-day shipping. Plus there's the videos, bla bla bla, etc.
I use http://lendle.me/
It's awesome and free!
...only one book a month?
I have the roku and use it to stream my entertainment so in combination with the lending library and free shows/movies from amazon, I was tempted to upgrade to Prime.
But one book at a time? No thanks.
The main problem with the amazon lending library is there's nothing I want to read. Most of the titles are already available for free, or very cheaply. Even the best sellers they advertise are only around $5 to buy.
I already borrow books from my town library for free and they have a much much better selection.
However, I'm pretty sure the amazon lending library is a kind of beta and they are working up to a Netflix type deal, but with books. And that's something I'd be very interested in. I already have Prime, but I'd pay an additional amount for that service - assuming they offered titles I wanted.
I agree that there isn't a lot in the lending library that I want to read right now. Hopefully, more publishers will come on board and increase the selection.
For that reason, I'm not signing up for Prime just yet.