8 thoughts on “Goodnight Oyster, Amazon Preps "Kindle Unlimited" Subscription”
Given that, according to that story, ‘most’ of the books are Amazon imprint books and Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, I can’t imagine it being worth $1.99/month to me, let alone $9.99/month. And I’m a heavy book consumer.
(I have great trouble finding even one Kindle Owner’s Lending Library per month I want to read, and I use a desktop browser to do power searches on available titles. Once you go through the available Michael Lewis, or Hunger Games, or whatever the thing that floats your boat is, it’s pretty Slim Pickens…
Yeah, but my hope is that other publishers jump on – above and beyond what Oyster has managed. But they may have a hard time finding takers and it seems like things continue to be contentious. Although my books are kinda free anyway as mom foots the bill, at least in the crime, mystery, espionage genres. ;)
Like you’ve both said, unless this significantly improves the content that’s currently free on the Prime lending library, this just seems stupid.
“Although my books are kinda free anyway as mom foots the bill, at least in the crime, mystery, espionage genres.”
If she hasn’t already, important to get her turned on to Donald E. Westlake, just so you can read ’em. The ‘comic crime’ Dortmunders are my personal faves, but 95+% of everything he ever wrote is great.
Well this is more than a little bit exciting to me, given how much I love books, and how little money there actually is to go around for said books. So… I hope Amazon gets this moving on sooner rather than later. I’d even be happy to test it if they need more testers.
I use the library for regular books and ebooks. It’s pretty rare for me to buy an ebook. I’ll usually buy if it’s below about $4 a book which makes it worth the effort saved in getting the ebook from the library and waiting on the wait list if there is one.
Kindle Unlimited is now live. But I wonder how many of these titles I already get through Prime benefits or the Kindle Lending library. A quick peak didn’t yet motivate me to flip the switch on my 30 day trial.
Daniel, yeah I need to check Overdrive and my library system again. The previous times I’ve futzed with it either they didn’t have what I wanted or they had very few “copies” all spoken for.
Dave, because I work in NYC, I have access to the NYPL Overdrive and 3M libraries. They’re both very good. I also live in Bergen County, NJ so I have access to their Overdrive library which isn’t as good but is decent. I also occasionally will use my mom’s card for the Queens library so between those libraries I can usually find what I’m looking for or join a reasonable wait list. Wait lists can be long but the NYPL usually has a lot of copies.
Given that, according to that story, ‘most’ of the books are Amazon imprint books and Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, I can’t imagine it being worth $1.99/month to me, let alone $9.99/month. And I’m a heavy book consumer.
(I have great trouble finding even one Kindle Owner’s Lending Library per month I want to read, and I use a desktop browser to do power searches on available titles. Once you go through the available Michael Lewis, or Hunger Games, or whatever the thing that floats your boat is, it’s pretty Slim Pickens…
Yeah, but my hope is that other publishers jump on – above and beyond what Oyster has managed. But they may have a hard time finding takers and it seems like things continue to be contentious. Although my books are kinda free anyway as mom foots the bill, at least in the crime, mystery, espionage genres. ;)
Like you’ve both said, unless this significantly improves the content that’s currently free on the Prime lending library, this just seems stupid.
“Although my books are kinda free anyway as mom foots the bill, at least in the crime, mystery, espionage genres.”
If she hasn’t already, important to get her turned on to Donald E. Westlake, just so you can read ’em. The ‘comic crime’ Dortmunders are my personal faves, but 95+% of everything he ever wrote is great.
(I mean, after you go through the Elmore Leonards, and the Chandlers/Cains/Hammetts, plus the le Carrés for espionage, where else does one turn?)
Well this is more than a little bit exciting to me, given how much I love books, and how little money there actually is to go around for said books. So… I hope Amazon gets this moving on sooner rather than later. I’d even be happy to test it if they need more testers.
I use the library for regular books and ebooks. It’s pretty rare for me to buy an ebook. I’ll usually buy if it’s below about $4 a book which makes it worth the effort saved in getting the ebook from the library and waiting on the wait list if there is one.
Kindle Unlimited is now live. But I wonder how many of these titles I already get through Prime benefits or the Kindle Lending library. A quick peak didn’t yet motivate me to flip the switch on my 30 day trial.
Daniel, yeah I need to check Overdrive and my library system again. The previous times I’ve futzed with it either they didn’t have what I wanted or they had very few “copies” all spoken for.
Dave, because I work in NYC, I have access to the NYPL Overdrive and 3M libraries. They’re both very good. I also live in Bergen County, NJ so I have access to their Overdrive library which isn’t as good but is decent. I also occasionally will use my mom’s card for the Queens library so between those libraries I can usually find what I’m looking for or join a reasonable wait list. Wait lists can be long but the NYPL usually has a lot of copies.