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!