You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Book Resources & Recommendations
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E-book libraries?
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I'm not sure about where you live Peggy, but have a look into whether your public library does this. If I go on my public library website here in my city in Canberra, I can search their electronic collection. This gives me an option to "borrow" ebooks and digital audio books for a few weeks. I believe (haven't used it yet) that I log in, it lets me download the file that expires after a few weeks.
But otherwise I am afraid I haven't heard of a service like you mention. I would suggest looking at places like Project Gutenberg for free ebook classics or a site like http://centslessbooks.com/ for some free book deals.
Thanks for your suggestions Rusalka! I had a look at the website of my local library, but unfortunately they don't have such a thing. I found another Dutch library website (something more general) which does seem to have ebooks for borrowing, but they write they have around 100 books and all in Dutch. I prefer to read in English, which is often a problem with borrowing real books from a library too, as they have only so few to choose from. I wish I was more technically developed so that I could create my own website like that. It sounds like a brilliant idea to me ;-)
Oh I didn't see you were in the Netherlands. Kat is in the Netherlands and has been for a while. She may have some good ideas for you that are more location specific. And I am assuming she is like most of us Aussies and is reading in English (unless you are a whiz at Dutch Kat, then I stand corrected!).
You might try a service like Scribd or Oyster - they are subscription models where you pay a monthly fee and you can read whatever you want in their catalog. I have used Scribd for a few months now and you can download the books you are reading and there is no limit to how many you can read or how long you can keep them on your device (as long as you are subscribing, I think). The biggest problem I've faced is the selection - Scribd, for example, seems to have a relationship with only one or two major publishers. So there are lots of books to choose from, but when I am looking for something specific odds are it's not available.
I'd just like to point out that Oyster is for Apple products only and only available in the States. It looks good but the rest of us will have to wait for it to expand.
If you have a kindle you may purchase a yearly Amazon prime membership which has a huge lending library. Amazon also has it set up that you can lend your owned kindle books to anyone you want. You may do that without a prime membership.
I discovered my libraries e and audio books recently. Above are great suggestions. Not sure if the sources I'm about to mention are compatible or available in your area but it may be worth a try! I use One click digital. http://www.oneclickdigital.com/ For audio books! Love being able to download an audio book for free onto my iPad. And listen as I do chores or drive around.
Also, BookBub.com offers an assortment of books often for free or very discounted. I've downloaded about a dozen free books now to my kindle.. And I am being very discriminating on my book choices. If I do not wish to purchase it yet, I can save it to my wish list. Usually on amazon.
Your library doesn't use Overdrive then?? Mine recently switched to OneClickDigital and I'm not as big a fan of their formatting as Overdrive. I wish the app had the speed variable button that the regular computer download does though. It would be very nice to speed up those slow readers! :)
mine use both oneclick and overdrive. and i really prefer overdrive. Because:1) oneclick does not allow you to listen to your audiobooks if you are not loggin is a pain.
2) overdrive synchronize my bookmarks between my iphone and Ipad.
Dawn,There is a selection on my Overdrive to change the "speed". It looks like a half of a clock dial with a 1x below it. If you press that, a menu opens and you can pick 1.5x or 2x. Is this what you meant?
My library only uses Overdrive, I think. I download and listen on my iPod Touch. I have to be logged on to get the books and download them, but can then listen anytime.
i get e books for 3 weeks from my library on overdrive - just joined recently and it is saving me a fortune
We have oneclick and while it's great that I can get free audiobooks, they don't stock much fantasy/sci-fi stuff and no speed setting as already mentioned.
I love overdrive. I have 2 libraries to choose from and I can often find what I'm looking for, but not always.I also have oneclickdigital but I haven't used it yet as it seems a more complicated process than overdrive.
Once you have OneClick set up it's not too bad but I find it does take longer to download and transfer.
Cherie wrote: "Dawn,There is a selection on my Overdrive to change the "speed". It looks like a half of a clock dial with a 1x below it. If you press that, a menu opens and you can pick 1.5x or 2x. Is this wh..."
I don't think I've ever tried an audiobook through the Overdrive app, just ebooks. If I can find the speed button though....I might have to try using it.
It's the OneClick app that definitely doesn't have a speed setting.
I can download ebooks from Overdrive on my laptop but don't have anything 'portable' to read them on (and I hate reading on my laptop when I have to stare at it all day at work). I have a Nook, but it hurts my head too much to think about how to go about getting the library books onto it. It would be the only thing driving me to purchase an iPad Mini - just for reading ebooks from the library, when I already have other means and the library is only two miles from my house.
Dawn, there is a speed button overdrive. :)
Dawn wrote: "Cherie wrote: "Dawn,There is a selection on my Overdrive to change the "speed". It looks like a half of a clock dial with a 1x below it. If you press that, a menu opens and you can pick 1.5x or ..."
Audio books on my iPod is the best! I have one of those little square speakers and I can carry it all over the house and listen.
Oh wow, Overdrive sounds seriously cool! I'll have to peek into that. BTW, any other ebook junkies nigh unto obsessed with Calibre? Its that free dl Ebook Library/organizer/reader/converter/editor thing? I'm nutty pants for it, truly. Love that I can spend a minute setting up good tags for a book, and then forever more, I can search for what I'm in the mood for, and see all my offerings on the subject in my library. Plus, killer feature (kinda like same feature on shelves here) where you can click a button and see all the cover art displayed, rather than a line of text about each book. Reminds me of browsing a 'new releases' rack at a brick and mortar library, which I really missed with the ebook experience before I discovered Calibre. Were it not for that software, I'd be ever so befuddled trying to keep series in order and such.;) Plus, it should be said that I'm the least technically inclined human alive, so a software I can learn and utilize this easily is rare, indeed.
Cherie... not sure what format your 'library' ebooks are in, but as long as they're one of the common ones, you should be able to upload em into Calibre. This takes all of two seconds... all of my ebooks 'live' in calibre, but only some also get transferred onto my Nook reader. Once you have a book in Calibre, its sooo easy. Just plug in your reader to your laptop/puter, then Calibre software 'sees' your reading device, and suddenly theres a new column in Calibre that tells you whether that book is already on your device, or not. You can highlight one or a bunch of books from calibre, then just click the button 'send to my device', which also offers 'send to card A', for if you keep books on memory card in your Nook/Kindle/Tablet. Plus, if you run into any ebooks that aren't in a format your Nook will read, Calibre will convert them to a good format (I prefer epub and mobi) with just one button. Its so simple, I promise! Here's the d/l page (its free and safe!), and there's a handy dandy 'tutorial' that walks you thru basic Calibre function. Youtube has some as well. Also feel free to pm me, as I'm a big ole' calibre junkie, and would forever be befuddled if I didn't have it to 'manage' my Nook. Hope this long thing helps! DEMO button at top shows you how it works.
http://calibre-ebook.com/download
OddModicum Rachel wrote: "Oh wow, Overdrive sounds seriously cool! I'll have to peek into that. BTW, any other ebook junkies nigh unto obsessed with Calibre? Its that free dl Ebook Library/organizer/reader/converter/edito..."
I saw your post the other day, when I was on my iPod, Rachel and I just found it again.
I should not have said that I did not have anything portable to read ebooks on, duh...
Of course I do! I have a Nook, and I also have Calibre loaded on my PC here at work. I know that I can download ebooks from Overdrive onto my PC and I do know how to move them into Calibre and then onto my Nook. Overdrive+PC+cable+Nook=reading ebook
What I hate is all of that "overhead". With my iPod, I can open Overdrive, specify which library card I want to use, search for an audio book, borrow it, and load the files directly onto it - all as long as I have access to a WiFi connection. It is just the convienence factor. I can do the same thing with an ebook, but reading on my iPod is not what I bought it for. A Mini-iPad would serve as one-stop-shopping for ebooks, because there are apps for both Kindle and Nook available AND I would have access to ebooks on Overdrive without the overhead of having to use Calibre. I am just not there yet. I can afford it, but I have not talked myself into it yet.
My library is very close and I have plenty of access to all of the print books I want. I share my Barnes & Noble account with my daughters, and with 4 Nooks between us, I have plenty of ebook portability, just not all of it free.
The only limitation I find on Overdrive when it comes to audio books, is you only get what they have available. I ran into this with the Charles Lenox series I started listening to. Only the first two were available. I have to go to the books on CD if I want to borrow them from my library - and I have to request inter-library transfers if I want to listen to them all. Listening to the CDs in the car or on my CD player is not quite as convienent as on my iPod, but not unmanagable. I decided to try to rip the CDs to my PC and put them on my iPod on the last book, and I am not sure I will do it again. There were only 7 disks but it took hours to do it via iTunes. I'm just grateful that I do not have to pay for the Audio books on CD. I have an Audible account, but unless it is a book that I know that all of us might listen to, I don't buy a lot of audiobooks (again - I share the account with my daughters.)
Wow, Cherie, you've got quite the system with that ipod/audiobook/overdrive thing happening! I confess I know virtually nothing about audiobooks. About the only time I listen to them is on long car trips, and I haven't been able to go on one in years. I do like the idea (now that you can use overdrive thru most libraries) of being able to listen to books whilst I putz around the house. That ipod method sounds about perfect for that. ;) And yeah, iTunes transfer thing you're talking about sounds like its way more hassle than its worth, for sure. ;)
RE: free and cheap books...Anyone else a member of BookGorilla? You sign up (free) and choose fave genres. Then 1x a day you get an email telling you which books in your genre are FREE (usually just for 1 day) or on super discount... 99c or $1.99. I figured it'd be mostly tiny self pub titles, but its all sorts, even huge bestsellers. There's a bookgorilla free app, too. Thought it might come in handy for peeps always hunting for cheap (or like me free!) good books. Oh, and if you don't have a kindle (I don't) or can't figure out how to get kindle files onto your nook/reader (took me ages), then you can use the amazon free d/l for kindle reader.
Cherie.... You and my friend Janet have inspired me with your audiobook leanings! lol I'm now listening to Skin Game (Dresden Files #15) as read by James Marsters (who I adore, but not sure I like him as harry, yet)... and doing it thru my Mp3 player, and whilst I putz around on the internet at GR et all. Brilliant! Thanks for killer suggestion!
Janice wrote: "That sounds like Bookbub."I'll check that one out! Thanks Janice! BTW, I'm an idiot. Just referred to you as Janet, above. Sorry! (facepalm!)
Bookbub and Bookgorilla are quite good as they send you alerts everyday for discounted and free books. Pragya recommended booklending.com to me long back. It has a huge collection of audiobooks and e books which you can borrow for 2 weeks.
I also like the Open Library. It has an enormous collection of books, even those which do not have e copies. The registration is free, you can borrow books, and read them instantly. Some rare books are scanned, which are so clear and neat that you will surely be surprised. You can read the books on Internet browser or download the adobe image viewer that the site recommends.
A few minths back I was desperately looking for The Gazebo by Emily Grayson and How to make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto. These books do not have an e copy and they were unavailable at any library in my city. I found both these books here at the open library. The scanned images look like real paper but you can only read them on your tab or I pad.
As these sites are free to register, I have membership of all of them :D
Do bookbub and bookgorilla send the same deals?
No Peggy, they send different books and very rarely the same books or the deals. Bookbub gives an option of buying from google play or amazon whatever is applicable and I think that Bookgorilla is only synced to amazon. You can also choose the genres you like to read and they send you deals only for the chosen categories
Thanks Paakhi! I have a subscription to the bookbub emails, but if they don't send the same I'm going to sign up for bookgorilla too.
OddModicum Rachel wrote: "Janice wrote: "That sounds like Bookbub."I'll check that one out! Thanks Janice! BTW, I'm an idiot. Just referred to you as Janet, above. Sorry! (facepalm!)"
LOL! No problem. I've been called Janet before, also Janna, but this one really got to me: I answered the phone, "Janice speaking." The response, "Oh hi, Donna."
lol... I can alllmooost match that one. My mom remarried my stepdad when I was about 2years old. So my stepdad's parent's inherited a 2 year old granddaughter, basically. My name is rachel... my mom's name was heather. Each and every single christmas for a good 4 years, I'd get at least 3 monogrammed presents from my stepdad's family with the name 'heather' on em. Engraved ornaments, diaries... you name it. All with my mom's name. It was passive aggressive, I swear. ;)
Janice wrote: " I answered the phone, "Janice speaking." The response, "Oh hi, Donna." I answer my work phone by saying "[company name], this is Kim." and have had *on more than one occasion* the caller say, "Hi Jessica, is Kim available?"
To give the different callers a little credit, the name of the company I work for starts with "jes" so I guess they just hear that part and don't listen to the rest. *shrugs*
Do these kind of libraries exist? And if so, do you happen to know any websites?