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07-18-2014, 05:52 PM
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#1
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Southern California
Posts: 3,999
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Amazon Kindle Unlimited
Amazon today announced Kindle Unlimited, a service that offers unlimited reading (or listening) to books within a collection of about 600,000 titles. It's not the entire set of books available on Amazon by any means, but with 600,000 titles there are a lot to choose from in many different categories. The fee for this is $9.99/month, with no requirement to commit beyond month to month. If you read about one book per month, it's a break even. But it seems like a nice opportunity to browse some books that you might not want to read from beginning to end but might be curious to skim through some chapters.
Has anyone signed up yet?
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07-18-2014, 06:06 PM
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#2
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,228
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If you're going to read one book per month, you ought to just sign up for Prime. It's a bit cheaper, you get video as well, and free 2 day shipping.
I guess you don't get the month to month pricing.
I found that Amazon Prime didn't have all that great of selection for books, and it wasn't easy to search the Prime library. Does Kindle Unlimited have a greater selection?
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07-18-2014, 07:25 PM
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#3
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: San Diego
Posts: 712
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My public library has an ever expanding collection of e-books and the cost is exactly $9.99 less per month.
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07-18-2014, 09:20 PM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,500
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That's sort of what I was thinking. Also those of us with Amazon Prime do have access to Prime's free Kindle lending library.
Still, it's good to know about Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. Thanks!
Edited to add: I just checked the five Kindle books at Amazon that are on my wishlist, and NONE of the five are available through Kindle unlimited. That wasn't too encouraging, to me. I'd suggest others might want to do the same, to see if the type of books that you really want are included.
I doubt my library has any of them either.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.
Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
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07-19-2014, 05:24 AM
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#5
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Georgia
Posts: 2,240
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I'm a bit disappointed to see Amazon not make Kindle Unlimited a service of Prime, as they have with so other things (like Instant Video).
Several major publishers are not participating in Kindle Unlimited, so I surely won't be subscribing to it. Also, it's a bit expensive for a reading service, which has such limitations, where you don't get to keep anything when you unsubscribe.
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07-19-2014, 06:41 AM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,229
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RunningBum
If you're going to read one book per month, you ought to just sign up for Prime. It's a bit cheaper, you get video as well, and free 2 day shipping.
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My understanding is that to get the selection of books from Prime you have to have a Kindle device, with the unlimited plan it will work with the kindle reader on any device. In any case I will stick with ebooks from my Library for now, the selection is good and always growing and they have been very good at adding my book request.
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07-19-2014, 07:08 AM
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#7
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Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 40,725
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This is an interesting offer and I imagine many readers will benefit.
One great pleasure for me has been buying and reading a good book, then passing it along to family or friends who will enjoy it just as much. And getting similar good books from them in return. I do not miss the texture and musty smell of the printed book, but not being able to share so freely with others is something I will miss.
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07-19-2014, 07:59 AM
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#8
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 327
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DH received a free, one-month Kindle Unlimited subscription for testing. I looked for five books on my wish list (mix of fiction and non fiction, all at least two years old). None were available. But I did search on an author I enjoy and found one of his backlist books I have not read yet. I've ordered it and will do more searching during our free month. (And I'll read the book double-time as it will likely disappear once we end the free trial without subscribing.)
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07-19-2014, 09:09 AM
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#9
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Gone but not forgotten
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Sarasota,fl.
Posts: 11,447
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I looked at it as I am constantly reading . It does not have many books that appeal to me . I do much better with the library and supplement it with occasional purchases .
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07-19-2014, 09:39 AM
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#10
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 920
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Yup, Greater Phoenix Digital Library's collection of books I'm interested grows much faster than I can read 'em.
This might be a good option if lived in (or moved to) a much smaller town that didn't have the same public library resources.
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07-19-2014, 05:51 PM
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#11
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Southern California
Posts: 3,999
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I signed up for the 30 day trial. I have downloaded a few books and already read one short one. I admit it's not the greatest selection. So far every book that I've specifically looked up to see if it's included has not been. However, with 600,000 books, there are likely enough that I would enjoy reading to justify the $9.99/month fee. In any case, I have thirty days to explore before spending any money, so what the heck.
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07-19-2014, 06:15 PM
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#12
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: San Diego
Posts: 712
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I did not find any of the books that are on my wish list. Mostly there seems to be a lot of the self-published books. I'll stick with the library, even if it means sitting on waiting lists.
I like to read electronically, but paying paperback price for something that I can't hand off to someone else bothers me. They should be considerably cheaper than physical books since they are essentially read-once.
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07-20-2014, 08:42 AM
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#13
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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I think this is like streaming Netflix -- poor selection relative to other alternatives. There are a huge number of titles you can get on Netflix DVD that you can't get streaming. In this case, publishers have to negotiate separately and differently for digital rights compared to rights for physical media like books and DVDs, and some are playing hardball.
This is why we haven't given up our Netflix DVD service yet -- too many of the things we want to see just aren't streaming. I suspect this will be the same, at least for a while.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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07-20-2014, 01:19 PM
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#14
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 920
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Ziggy we ended our DVD service, you should check out the cost of pay for view a movie on Vudu/Amazon/Redbox, depending how often you watch movies you might find you would be break-even on just renting specific movies you wish to watch instead of dropping $12/month or whatever.
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