The Kindle Owner’s Lending Library is a service for Amazon Prime members that lets you download a book a month for free. There is no due date for the book once you check it out. For $79 a year, you can get free two day shipping, access to unlimited movie streaming, and the ability to check out a book each month.
At the launch I wasn’t totally thrilled with the selection available, but now, it has grown to over 100,000! titles. The collection includes books from both large publishing houses and independent authors. Independent authors have really made a name for themselves with Kindle Direct Publishing.
You will also find a number of bestsellers on the list. Although, I have yet to see the bestsellers that are at the very top. There are still some bestselling books that I have been eyeing for months, but they are still in high demand at the library, and are still expensive by e-book standards.
Amazon has the clout to make a “Netflix for books” of sorts. Netflix offers all of the popular movies, so I don’t see why this can’t be done for Kindle e-books. That service would probably have to come at a higher cost eventually to appease publishers.
The Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and Kindle Library Lending go a long way to help ease the burden of skyrocketing prices that are showing up for e-books. They also reach out to readers who can’t get to a brick and mortar library or bookstore. I hope that these services can work together to provide a delightful reading experience for everyone who reads e-books.
So, just keep an eye out on the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library’s book list. It is growing constantly, so if you hold out for awhile, the top bestsellers will most likely eventually show up on there.
There is one thing I wish that Amazon would do. The page for the service could showcase the genres a little better. The Kindle Store does a good job of this. The Lending Library could do the same. Otherwise, it has a lot of potential, and can only get better.