Posted on 09/28/2011 5:48:22 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Seattle-area libraries on Tuesday began testing the long-awaited Kindle feature that lets patrons transfer borrowed library books to the electronic device.
This morning (Wednesday), Amazon.com announced that the program is now available across the country, at more than 11,000 libraries.
Amazon agreed in April to work with OverDrive, a Cleveland company that provides electronic book lending services for numerous libraries, but the companies didn't provide many details of what to expect. Amazon's website had promised the service was coming to 11,000 libraries.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
The main gripe I have is that the Broward Library collection of Kindle books seems to be rather limited right now and most of the books seem to be crappy romance novels. Hopefully the selection will expand in the near future.
go nook
PJ That is great information. Thanks.
There are always a huge amount of free books on Kindle too. Lots of old stuff and of course lots of romances. There are definitely a number of gems. Go to the Amazon Kindle Store and search the top 100 Free. Changes pretty frequently too.
On my dream list is "Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare" which is the absolute BEST guide to Shakespeare's works. Read that book and you really get a profound understanding and appreciation of the Bard's plays.
I tried the kindle lend feature with a family member. It did not work. I used to use overdrive through my local library till they went proprietary with the Nook/Sony format. I cancelled my membership.
I don’t know why it didn’t work unless you didn’t SPECIFY you want the Kindle edition, not another format. I actually made that mistake by choosing another format for a book about the Siamese Twins (Eng & Ang) but couldn’t open it. Realizing my mistake I made sure to choose the Kindle format and absolutely no problems.
This is really going to screw up the meme about library budget cuts when State & local governments cut expenditures. Downloading a Kindle book requires no infrasturcture or Librarian.
Yup! Even a small library in the boondocks has access to quite a few books for very little expense. Perhaps there might soon be a library that is entirely digital. Or a digital branch. Come to think of it, why would you even need a building for a digital library?
Our county library system here in Columbus started it a couple of weeks ago.
Seems like a hundred years ago now. My kids were amazed at the very idea.
Let me know what books you can check out there. I checked out the Darrow book mainly because that seemed to be the best of a limited selection but now that I am well into it, the book is really interesting me. In our system, all too many of the books available via Kindle are crappy romance novels.
Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare is really an amazing book, it not only raised my understanding of Shakespeare but made me appreciate Asimov a whole lot more. Asimovs Guide to The Bible is also recommended.
Yes, even though Asimov declared himself to be an atheist his “Asimov’s Guide to the Bible” is excellent. It actually makes the Bible much more understandable. Even a certain Pastor would appreciate that book. But his Guide to Shakespeare” made me realize that much of the plays can become decipherable when put in the historical context. Just to give you an idea, some humor from as recently as the 1930’s (or even later) would fall flat with today’s audience because they wouldn’t understand the context. One example was in “Hamlet” where Polonius set out an intricate series of rules for performing plays. Now this would go over our heads today but Shakesperian audiences howled with laughter because it echoed the performance rules set forth by the somewhat pretentious King James I. And it makes that part of the play funny to modern audiences as well IF they are made aware of the context which Asimov does.
Now that is pretty danged cool. The creativity of humans never ceases to amaze me.
I've been having a great time reading "The Golden Age of Science Fiction" collections on my Kindle. Clear up to volume XIII. Some real duds in there, but most of the stories are pretty good. I have a lot of Classics and out-of-print stuff, too, including two Bibles and a bunch of other stuff. I love my Kindle! I even got a "skin" for it! :o)
And now back to Clarence Darrow...
The poor also read at times.
First thing I do in the Cub Scout Year is take the new kids to the library for their library cards and an explanation of what the library has to offer.
It’ll always be bricks and clicks. Our library here is packed most days.
I love my nook. I can find lots of free books I can convert to PDF.
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