Here are some thoughts on reading only books borrowed from my local public library and reading them on my kobo ereader (I have the Clara BW model.)
01 - No longer purchasing ebooks - I no longer see value in purchasing ebooks since I rarely re-read books and they would only sit in my ereader or in my accounts. As far as I can understand, when you purchase an ebook, you're buying the rights to read it and that's it. You can't re-sell them because that would require transferring digital rights which frankly, I don't quite know how. But if I really love a book, I might purchase a paper version but I haven't read any books that I love lately.
02 - Library availability
- I have to consider availability from my library when I choose what
books to borrow and read. I can request my library to purchase certain
books but I rather not since it takes so long for them to fulfill the
request and most likely, they wouldn't make the purchase for tons of
reason which most likely budgets.
Public libraries have to
purchase rights to ebooks (for a period of time) to loan them out so
that right can expired so availability is not a permanent thing for
ebooks. I'm wondering why libraries aren't given the privilege to
purchase ebooks for indefinite use. It's not like they are making
profits loaning them out. But I suppose publishers/authors wants to make
money too.
Also format availability - For example, for a series,
book 1 may be available in ebook and audiobook formats but book 2 may
be only available in audiobook format. I don't understand this but this
hadn't changed in years. I think if you're an audiobook reader, you are
likely to have more books available than if you're an ebook reader.
03 - I now waste more time searching for books to read than actually reading them - I don't know why I'm so picky. I usually read a sample of the book to decide if I want to read it. But sometimes I depend on the synopsis or even just by the cover itself. I don't have a definite way to decide, I guess it depends on my mood.
A lot of times I find books that are in the middle of a series and then when I look for the first book, it's unavailable at the library which is a shame as I do prefer to read from the beginning of a series. I don't get why some book series have no book 1 available but others in the series are available - shouldn't book 1 be the one available?
04 - The more popular a book, the longer the wait time at your library - For example, if you place a hold on a book, you might get to read it in a week or in a few months or even a whole year. Even if it sometimes says the wait time is 2 weeks, that time can extend or shorten depending on readers. I don't mind waiting except when I'm reading a series.
And also, the more popular books, the more copies are available which seems unfair. Most ebooks from the library have one or two copies which I guess is the norm. So why are some books have more than 10 copies available? There should be a standard number of copies for all books for equality and besides that, popular authors don't even need their books in the library as much as much as less popular authors but I guess popularity wins out.
05 - Reading on a kobo and sometimes on a kindle - Even though I use mainly my kobo, I sometimes have to use my kindle because not all books available from the library can be read on a kobo since if a book is not listed on the kobo store, you can't get it onto your ereaders unless you sideload them. (Note: Sideload books means you plug your ereader into your computer and download books (from the library's website) and load them into your ereader like you would a file but there are things you have to do before you can even do that because you cannot just load a library book onto your ereader and read it - there are permission issues which I have not been successful in solving so I cannot tell you how to do it.)
So my option when a book is not available through kobo but is available for kindle, then I read that on my kindle ereader.
But if I can't get that book on either devices, then I don't read that book at all which happens a lot but I don't mind it. I guess if I'm desperate to read a certain book, I might purchase it but it's unlikely.
06 - Please don't monopolize books - Having more than one library cards (which is legal somewhat) so you can borrow more books and have more holds is just dumb and disrespecting other library patrons. Since you can borrow more books from so many libraries and have so many holds, you will probably end up borrowing a lot of books at once and probably won't get to read many of them unless you're a speed reader. I just think respecting others by not monopolizing book is the proper thing to do.
07 - No back cover for ebooks - Some ebooks just ends where the story ends, there's not even an The End
- it just stops. Then there are books ending with list of books that
author had written or some copyright info or even the content list
(which is just odd being at the end) but no back cover like paperbacks
or hardcovers. I've only seen maybe two back covers of two ebooks and
not have encountered another one since.
You know how there's
these notices that tells you not to purchase books without covers (front
and back) because they might be stolen goods – ebooks without back
covers is like stolen goods because the back cover is not there. How
hard it is to put a back cover to the end an ebook? I know this isn't
much an issue because most people wouldn't care about it but I think a
back cover makes a book more complete and it gives you a feeling of
having finished reading the book when you see the back cover or am I mad to think this way?
Do you read library books? How is your experience on reading books from your library (digital or otherwise)?
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Some useful links:
• Find your library at Overdrive's website
• Overdrive help
• How to borrow kindle books from your library
• How to borrow kobo books from your library
