The promise of the Kindle Lending Library

I grew up near a library and I loved it. I have plenty of fond memories of strolling through the aisles of books, running my fingers along them and taking a moment to read the first page of a title that intrigued me. I loved the sense of freedom, the sense of possibility, and, of course, the fact that I could borrow any book I liked for free. Until I kept it past the due date and had to pay the late fines, anyway...

The coolest part about the library was that everything was just sitting there for me to look at and use. And one of the things I like about Amazon is that they've done their part to recreate that kind of offering in the online world.

It's called the Kindle Lending Library.

Here's the mission statement: "With Amazon Prime, Kindle owners can choose from more than 300,000 books to borrow for free with no due dates, including over 100 current and former New York Times best sellers and all seven Harry Potter books."

300,000 free books for your Kindle? Sounds a little too good to be true. And it is. To get all those books for "free," you have to be an Amazon Prime member, which costs $79/ year. I'm an Amazon Prime member, but not for the lending library. I'm a member because for $79/ year you get free two-day shipping on everything. So, for me, the access to all those books actually is a free perk.

The best part about the lending library for me, though, isn't the NYTimes best seller's list or the Harry Potter books. It's the fact that many, many self-published authors put their new eBooks on the Kindle Lending Library- so you can read the beginnings of thousands of new books if you are intrigued by the title.

Just like the library I remember.

Happy reading.

Image courtesy of screenshot from Kindle Lending Library