9 Answers2025-10-07
While I have spent an embarrassing amount of money on ThriftBooks, I hope they won’t be ruined by an Amazon acquisition. Right now, ThriftBooks is a beautifully simple service – you search for a book, you see a few condition options for that book at a set price, and you can buy it. Amazon would inevitably try to ‘optimize’ all of this in order to sell more Kindle books and Audible subscriptions. The potential for books to be listed at fluctuating prices in order to induce more orders would be counter to the interests of used book buyers, and the methods that Amazon uses to promote its various products would mar the already pleasant experience of browsing for used books. I hope Amazon doesn’t ruin this.
8 Answers2025-06-04
I've noticed their free offerings rotate pretty frequently. From my experience, they seem to refresh the 'Prime Reading' section at least once a month, often around the first week. The selection varies wildly – one month you might find hidden gems like 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and the next could feature thrillers like 'The Silent Patient' by Alex Michaelides.
What I love is that they occasionally surprise us with big-name titles or complete series for a limited time. I once snagged the entire 'Hunger Games' trilogy for free during a promotion. They also add seasonal picks, like romance novels around Valentine's Day or horror around Halloween. While not every update brings blockbuster titles, there's always something interesting if you dig deep enough.
8 Answers2025-07-10
It’s all really confusing – Prime, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, Prime Reading – lots of things to choose from and I just get confused. I don’t really know what the difference is, but when I search for a book I click on it and it tells me whether I can read it for free as part of Prime or not. If it doesn’t say ‘Read for Free with Prime’ or something along those lines then I know I’ll have to pay for it to read it. But I don’t know the limits of Prime and what’s included and what’s not – I just search for what I want to read and it tells me whether it’s free or not.
9 Answers2025-07-05
This thread has made me think about my media consumption in a way I try not to. It’s easy to add more channels to the ones you already have, without ever stopping to think about it. And there’s a psychological effect where having more options to consume leads to an expectation that you need to consume more, better, smart stuff. But really, most nights, I just end up rewatching The Office on Peacock.
10 Answers2025-08-07
I see so many people confuse the different ways to get free books on Amazon. I’ll go through the main ones. First, there’s Prime Reading. Prime members can choose from a selection of free books to read one at a time. These are borrowed, just like from a library, and when you cancel Prime your borrowed books will be automatically returned, you’ll no longer be able to access them. Next, Kindle First Reads (also known as First Reads). For each month, Prime members can choose one or two of the pre-release books to keep permanently to add to their library for $0.00. These are actually purchases, so even though you paid nothing for them they are yours to keep even after you cancel your Prime membership. And then there’s Kindle Unlimited. This is another separate subscription service for Amazon, similar to how Netflix supplies hours of movies and TV for a monthly subscription fee, Kindle Unlimited supplies thousands of books for a monthly fee. Just as with Netflix, if you cancel the service you’ll no longer have access to the books supplied under that service. To check if you own a free book, look at your ‘Content & Devices’ page, on Amazon. The ‘Purchase Date’ column will list the date you purchased a book if you’ve purchased it, and the price will be $0.00. On the other hand, books supplied via ‘Prime Reading’ will say that in the ‘Purchase Date’ column, or there will be an ‘Expiration Date’ listed for borrowed books.
I recommend checking the terms (usually on the book’s detail page) before you click ‘Read for Free’ to ensure that it is a borrow or a purchase.
3 Answers2025-07-28
A book to recommend to the members of my book club has to be shared, too. Kindle sharing is a topic which I always come back to. No, Amazon Prime is not needed to share Kindle books. How the sharing of Kindle books is possible, I explain in this post.
Lending books to your friends and family is a bit of an oddity as well. As I mentioned above, not all books can be lent, and you can only lend each book once. I have found it generally works best to email them a DRM-free EPUB copy of the book and then send it to their Kindle via email. It’s not perfect, but it works quite well for me and I’ve managed to recommend a large number of books to friends and family without having to get them a Prime subscription.
11 Answers2025-08-03
In all likelihood Amazon runs a daily script that adds newly Prime-licensed books to the pool of books in the catalog and removes books whose Prime licenses have expired. So the catalog is merely the current snapshot of that very large pool of Prime-licensed books.
The automated updating is happening all the time. It is very hard for humans to get their minds around the idea of something that is constantly updating when we are by nature more inclined to see discrete events rather than a never-ending flow of updates. Thus, the most accurate description of what is going on here is also the least satisfying: it is always updating.
6 Answers2025-07-25
For a mix of free titles to read and others you can purchase at a lower price, Prime members get access to Prime Reading, with a new selection of free books, magazines, comics and more added each month. You also get to choose one free First Reads book each month from a selection of around 100 new releases, to keep forever. Outside of these services, many Kindle Store books are offered at what Amazon call a “Prime Price”, which can sometimes be as low as $0.99 for older titles and e-books by indie authors and many others at just $1.99 or so below the full price of new releases – often hardcovers.
My best experience with books and magazines has been within specific genres such as romance, sci-fi and mystery. These have huge and avid readers lists, and therefore tend to be heavily promoted by publishers. So I build my favourite series around sales of $2.99 and $3.99 books. New releases by bestselling authors have only had a 10-15% reduction from their cover price. As a result, it’s easy to have a very low annual book spend if you’re prepared to wait for a sale and are buying thoughtfully.
10 Answers2025-08-07
I only use it for First Reads though. The rest of the books it lists are all ones I would never actually purchase. A graveyard of waste.
9 Answers2025-10-05
Kobo is owned by Rakuten, a major Japanese e-commerce company that has diversified into various ventures over the years. The story of Kobo began back in 2009 when it was founded in Toronto, Canada. It was created as a response to the burgeoning eBook market, aiming to offer a unique eReading experience. At its inception, Kobo positioned itself against giants like Amazon with their Kindle by promoting both eReaders and an extensive online bookstore. The name 'Kobo' itself comes from the term 'book' spelled backward, which is a fun little tidbit that I found out somewhere along the way.
In 2012, Rakuten saw the potential of Kobo and acquired it for about $315 million, using it to expand their global reach in digital media. Under Rakuten's umbrella, Kobo really flourished, particularly in markets outside the U.S. They’ve built partnerships with bookstores and libraries, enriching the eBook ecosystem. In Europe and Canada, their eReaders are quite popular, rivaling not just Kindle but other local services. It's pretty fascinating how Kobo survived the fierce competition, carving its niche by focusing on reader preferences and a robust selection of titles.
What excites me about Kobo is their commitment to the reading community. They've continually evolved, launching features like the Kobo Plus subscription service, giving readers access to a wide range of eBooks for a monthly fee. They strive to be more than just another platform, creating a genuine reading experience with personalized recommendations and beautiful hardware. It's like they understand what readers are looking for, tapping into the cultural love of books, and that's what keeps me rooting for them!