[DarthFader]

Hello,


Does anyone use this service? It claims to have over 200,000 titles and if you have Amazon Prime (£49 a month) you get free access to one title a month to borrow. Trouble is I don't have a Kindle yet and without one and without paying for Prime I have asked but there is no way of browsing all of the titles before you buy so I was wondering if anyone does use it, is it worth the money? Well I know it is free and you do get the benefit of Prime, I just want to know what the book selection is like.

Thanks.

PJ

[PhoenixRises]

Isn't the lending library only available in America - on Amazon.com - the UK Amazon Prime didn't offer this service, the last time I looked (this was a couple of months back though so it might be available now)

Edit: Ooo it does look like it is available now, thanks for the heads up - I will be looking into this now

[DarthFader]

NP. If you get the time, please let us know what it is like

[Mandark]

Prime borrowing available but doesn't seem to offer the books I want to read. Many best selling authors like Stephen King, John Grisham and Stephanie Meyer don't seem to be available. No Fifty Shades either. In fact, I didn't recognise many of the top 30 or so borrowed books. The top borrowed fiction is The Italian Inheritance by Louise Rose-Innes, which looks suspiciously
Iike mummy porn. The Harry Potter series is on though. Interestingly the only store option is to borrow and I'd have to go to the Amazon website to buy.

[DarthFader]

Thanks for that. I was suspicious that they haven't made a list available to potential prime members.


PJ

[mac2708]

Originally Posted by DarthFader

Hello,


Does anyone use this service? It claims to have over 200,000 titles and if you have Amazon Prime (£49 a month) you get free access to one title a month to borrow.

Amazon Prime is £49 a YEAR
Unless you're buying a lot of stuff from Amazon on a regular basis to get free delivery (does not include Marketplace sellers) IMHO the equivalent of £4.09 a month to borrow one book isn't good value.
They were offering a 30 day trial which gave access to the list of books available.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/prime?ie=...=1&*entries*=0

[raymartin01]

It's worth pointing out that Amazon also has over 40,000 FREE ebooks - many of them very good indeed, in all sorts of different categories. And no, they're not just old stuff, hundreds of them are from the last couple of years, and with one-click delivery to your Kindle it couldn't be easier.

[DarthFader]

Originally Posted by mac2708

Amazon Prime is £49 a YEAR
Unless you're buying a lot of stuff from Amazon on a regular basis to get free delivery (does not include Marketplace sellers) IMHO the equivalent of £4.09 a month to borrow one book isn't good value.
They were offering a 30 day trial which gave access to the list of books available.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/prime?ie=...=1&*entries*=0

Oops, yeap sorry I meant year, thanks for spotting. Wasn't trying to slur Amazon honest ;-)

PJ

[Daveoc64]

I've used the library a few times. There is a very large selection, but the vast majority of it is self-published.

[Mandark]

Originally Posted by Daveoc64

I've used the library a few times. There is a very large selection, but the vast majority of it is self-published.

Yeah, I don't know what the US library is like but the economics don't make sense for the big publishing houses. Prime customers buy shed loads of books so why let them have popular books for as long as they want for free?...unless of course Amazon compensates the publishers for some fixed amount but they'll need a lot of Prime sign ups to make it worth it.

Makes sense for the self published though who need to build up a readership before they can risk going commercial.

[Geowitch]

I think it is a rip off. Most of the postage for purchases from Amazon is free anyway and I am happy to wait the extra couple of days to avoid paying. That aside £4 per month to borrow one book is laughable. For that you could have 4 daily deal books or there are many Kindle book promotions for really excellent books going on throughout the year. I am still waiting for Amazon UK to follow the US site in allowing e-books from public libraries to be accessible on Kindle.