Amazon announced today they are launching a new service called the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. This new service will get you thousands of books to choose from and instantly download them to your e-reader.
The new service from Amazon basically is an expansion on their Amazon Prime program which you pay roughly $75 a year for. This nets you their Video on Demand service to watch streaming movies online, get discounts on shipping and now free ebooks.
You would think with instant downloads a few times a month the company might offer second rate or egads, classic books. According to Amazon the will be offering thousands of current and former bestsellers. I managed to see Suzzanne Collins, James Patterson and various other famous authors book available.
This new program will initially be available on the 4th generation line of e-readers such as the new $79 Kindle. It will also be incorporated into the firmware at launch for the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch. Firmware updates are planned in the next few days that will give you access to this new program if you have Amazon Prime.
If you have a Kindle and Prime and want to access the new service you want to visit the Store option on your reader. Next hit the settings button and a new feature will be at the bottom called Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. You can then navigate and find books you want to borrow for up to two weeks. Once you download the book it will automatically be synced to your device and accessible on any other Amazon App platform including, iOS, Android, webOS and more. Check out the new Amazon page with tutorials and more information on the new program.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
