Why I Cancelled My Kindle Unlimited Subscription

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A few weeks ago, I was reminiscing about my favorite science fiction book from my childhood. It was an anthology of short stories, and some intense Googling determined it was out of print. My search led me to the local library, and after poking around for just a few minutes, I canceled my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

First, the library had the Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction, and that’s enough to make me love them forever. This is an anthology that includes Jules Verne’s “In the Year 2889”, where an author from the late 1800s predicted everything from crowd-sourced journalism to Skype.

No joke, he predicted video calling at a time when telephones were still a big deal.

And my personal favorite science fiction story of all time is As Necer Was, which is a haunting and classic time loop story. It’s fun just finding and revisiting an old favorite for free. It’s also probably the first print book I’ve read in a very long time!

But since I was already on the library website, I figured I would check out their eBook section.

It had been at least a year since I last checked it out, and they’ve added a whole slew of new titles. In just a few minutes, I stocked up on several titles. It inspired me to try something new since if I hated it, all I had to do was delete it.

Best of all, it only took a few clicks to electronically send it to the Kindle app on my iPad, and once it was in my Kindle library, I could access the books on my phone and Kindle Paperwhite as well.

It made me realize Kindle Unlimited wasn’t worthwhile for me; after all, why pay for unlimited eBooks when I could snag a significant number from the local library?

Plus, the library has far more mainstream titles (like several Michael Crichton titles), and with such tight Kindle integration, there’s really no difference from Kindle Unlimited in the end experience.

Are you still using Kindle Unlimited? What’s your experience with your local library and eBooks? Let us know!

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About the Author

Zek
Zek has been a gadget fiend for a long time, going back to their first PDA (a Palm M100). They quickly went from researching what PDA to buy to following tech news closely and keeping up with the latest and greatest stuff. They love writing about ebooks because they combine their two favorite activities; reading anything and everything, and talking about fun new tech toys. What could be better?

6 Comments on "Why I Cancelled My Kindle Unlimited Subscription"

  1. Interesting Carly – I have never used my library for ebooks, will have to check it out … but I have such a massive backlog now I don’t know when! haha

    I never touched Kindle Unlimited due to my (lack of) reading volume, but I have heard not so many great things.

  2. I have cancelled Kindle Unlimited (which I kept for about three months) because I realized that half the books I was “borrowing” were books I could get for free if I kept my usual eagle-eye on the daily specials! =P

  3. I wish I had more time to read….sigh.

    I still have it but I don’t use it. Probably should cancel it.

  4. Good for you, you actually found available ebooks at your local library. Let me inform you that the NYPL (New York Public Library) offers so few titles, with those few reserved for months in advance, that I gave up trying to get one. Where is your public library and how can I sign up? I do, BTW, use Kindle unlimited, but then there are three of us (my wife, my daughter, and I).

    • I think if you have a family of three sharing Kindle Unlimited it’s probably got more application for you.

      I live in NJ, and based on a very brief scan of my county library’s catalog it looks like there are around 11,000 titles available now in ebook form (9,000 or so in fiction with another 2,000 non-fiction).

      I just checked the NYPL and it looks like they’re claiming to have around 58k currently available for download; obviously no guarantee it’s 58,000 titles you’d want to read but it does look like they have a decent collection.

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