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BEING HERALDED AS ‘Netflix for books’, Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited service has been launched for the US market.
The e-book subscription service is available at a price of $9.99 (€7.50) a month. It follows the Netflix and Spotify model of offering unlimited streaming for a set monthly subscription fee.
The service is expected to be launced in other countries in the coming months.
Users of the service will have access to over 600,000 e-books and several thousand audio books. The titles available to users of the service will include ‘Life of Pi’, ‘The Hunger Games’ and both the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ series.
Despite these big titles, it appears that some big publishers are still holding back from the service. Titles by HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House are not yet offered by the service.
Books by Hachette will also not be available on the new service. Amazon are currently involved in a dispute with Hachette over the pricing of physical and digital books.
News of Amazon’s new service broke last week when the company accidentally posted a webpage previewing it.
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http://www.gutenberg.org/
over 45k free classics which are out of copyright – and growing every day
Many of the posters on the journal could do with reading a few classics to help them develop their reasoning and communication skills. Never mind they might learn some good, old-fashioned manners
Some classics are beyond boring. Robinson Crusoe to name but one.
Then the likes of Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are over-rated.
True enough… but it is a matter of preference and there are some absolute gems available.
Its all down to preference but I don’t like being told what I should like.
Some classics are great Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer will forever be with me. But there are some really boring classics.
I’m not a sheep I won’t say I love certain well known popular classic books because I hate them with a passion.
What is a gem to one person is like watching paint dry to another.
Reeding is four idiots
I suppose you would love to see them burnt ?
Who is telling YOU what you should like ?
And spelling too I guess ?
Seems like a great idea… for the consumer anyway. I wonder what impact it will have on publishers/Authors?
Fantastic. I joined netgalley and can get books before the are released (for free). I review them on goodreads.
9.99 would save me a fortune in books however I like to buy books I really like.
Why would you buy books you don’t like ?
I often buy books before I’ve read them. Sometimes they turn out to be good books and sometimes they don’t. I read a lot of ebooks too. The ebooks I really like I buy in paperback for my book shelf.
There are some authors that I trust 100% and will buy them straight off. Sometimes I consult good reads.
I have bought books that I haven’t really enjoyed.
Don’t we have something like this already? It’s called a library. Most are free, and have real books and DVDs.
Have to say I bought a kindle paperwhite for my holidays not knowing if I’d like reading full novels on it, but have to say its great I’ve read 5 novels on it no eyes train battery lasts forever and you can pick up some bargains like Gone girl for $1.60, this sounds like another great idea by Amazon.
Scribd already provide this service, have done for a while now!
Takes me about three months to read a book….may not be a great idea for slow readers.
Some Amazon trivia: http://www.ididntneedtoknowthat.com/amazon/
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