Written on 1/29/2016 at 1:09 pm by eBook-mom
This Christmas I bought my mother a Kindle Fire and the first thing she wanted to know, after I explained to her about e-books, was where can I get these e- books? My answer was that you can buy, borrow or even rent and e-book. The following post tells you how to find an e-book.
First things
The first basic thing you need to know is that the internet is where you can find e-books. You may or may not need your computer to download the e-books to your e-book reader if you have one. Remember, you don’t need an e-book reader like a Kindle or a Nook to read your e-books. If you have a smart phone or a tablet you can download an app that will enable you to read your e-book. And, of course there is always the fact that you can read on e-book on your computer.
The e-book store
Just like there are book stores for printed books, there are stores for e-books. One of the biggest stores for e-books is Amazon.com where you can buy books for your Kindle or Kindle Fire tablet. E-books purchased on Amazon can also be read on other devices, like your tablet or smart phone, if you download Amazon's Kindle app. Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble sells e-books for their e-book reader, the Nook. Amazon and Barnes and Noble are just two websites that sell e-books, there are many other websites that allow for e-book purchases. I will talk about those places in another post.
Beg and borrow
The next option is for you to borrow an e-book. The best place to borrow an e-book is from your local library. Usually you can get to the e-book lending website through your libraries webpage. Most libraries are powered by Overdrive Media Console. Overdrive is an app that you will download on to your device or your computer to gain access to the e-books your library has to loan. Check with your local library to see if your library card can gain you access to the e-book lending library.
Other lending options
Amazon lets you lend books to other Kindle owners; so if one of your family or friends owns Kindle e-books, you can borrow from them. There are also websites like Lendle that will let you lend and borrow Kindle books.
Also, Amazon will lend you select e-books if you are a member of Amazon Prime. You can also pay an additional fee for their Amazon Unlimited books to have access to a large Amazon lending library. I subscribe to this service and I’m very happy with it.
Renting e-books
The last option for accessing e-books is to rent. Right now what is mostly available for rent are textbooks which you can rent for a period of time. There are many textbooks that are available for rent. Visit websites like Textbook Rush to rent your textbook.
Just a primer
This post is just a primer to figuring out where you can find e-books. In the future I will have more detailed posts about where to get e-books; including where you can find free e-books. For now, where do you think you are most likely to get your e-books? Will you buy or borrow your e-books? I’d like to know. Please leave your comments below.