Happy New Year! As a New Year's Eve gift, Amazon's Kindle began it's promised lending program on New Year's Eve. Thousands of Kindle users are thrilled to have the oppurtunity to read more - and share their books.
Have you ever read a great book and just had to tell a friend about it? Are you always recomending books to friends? Kindle finally recognized this and made book sharing possible on the Kindle device.
There are plenty of Kindle books that are available for lending. However, not every book you own will be 'lendable'. This is out of Amazon's hands - it is up to the publisher and has to do with complicated copyright laws.
As it stands now, you can loan any 'loanable' book in your Kindle library once for a period of 14 days. The loan has to be set up using a computer. Amazon will probably tweak this and allow the process to work via your Kindle device in the future.
The Amazon Kindle site has an in-depth explanation of the lending process. Let's look at a simplified version:
1.Determine if a book is lendable. If a book can be loaned out it will be marked 'enabled' under the ASIN code. For books already in your library, a yellow indicator will appear at the top with the words "loan this book to anyone you choose".
Click on the 'Loan this book' link to initiate the lending process. You will be directed to page and fill out the requested info. The recipient will get an email from Amazon which includes the link to accept the book.
Warnings:
There are a few things that have come to my attention right off the bat - I think the lending program is going to be great and I am very excited, but with anything there are kinks that need to be worked out.
One of the biggest kinks is the inability of the book owner to access the book when it is on loan. This makes little sense - are we being punished? But - if I am honest with myself I have to admit I cannot read my traditional books when I loan them to friends. Even so...I would still like to have access - what if we want to discuss?
The other warnings are just things you need to keep in mind. As stated earlier, each book can only be lent once. So, you can lend 'A Confederacy of Dunces' to Aunt Slyvia, but your cousin May will have to buy her own Kindle copy.
Also, books are only on loan for 14 days. This is a fairly decent time to read almost any book. But keep it in mind if you are borrowing books. Do not go crazy and borrow so many books at one time that you cannot read them all in the alloted time.
Now, for the exciting part of the Kindle lending program...What are reading and what is in your library? I have close to 300 books on my Kindle and will be posting lendable titles on this site for anyone interested in borrowing a book. I hope readers and Kindle lovers will do the same - a wonderful community of readers and a great collection of books - what could be better? You will come away with new and exciting reads and new friends.
Where have you been reading your Kindle? Where will you be reading your Kindle in the New Year? Post your answers and let us know!
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