I recently posted asking if Kindle Unlimited is a good value for SF because I was reading a lot and it was expensive. Some of you suggested I try the library instead. I’m in Los Angeles, so I got a digital library card for the Los Angeles Public Library.
I had noticed that a lot of the books I had already read were on KU, but not many of the ones on my list to read were. That sort of makes sense because I read a number of series books (mostly trilogies) and KU seems to mostly cover older things but not more recent popular works. Unfortunately my reading list is now mostly up to recent popular stuff.
The library has a similar issue: they have the recent/popular stuff, but there’s usually a waiting list for it. I reserved three books that had different wait times, the longest being two months out, but the shortest came up available the next day.
It works nice. When you get the book, you can read it on their web interface or app, but you also have them send it to your Kindle app, which is what I did. It shows up like an Amazon purchase, but with no cost, and then pops up in your Kindle library. You can have up to 30 books on hold (in your queue, waiting to be available) at a time, so depending on how fast you read, you can reserve a bunch so you’re in line while you’re reading others.
I think this will work good for me. It’s all completely free, and I had spent over $200 on books in the last few months, so it’s a giant savings of I keep this up. Thanks again.
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The purpose of libraries has simply expanded. A lot of people do still use it for books, but this being an online forum there’s likely a selection bias at play. People learn to go to the library when that’s the main place they have access to stuff, often because purchasing or finding it digitally is out of the price-range. As a consequence, those big beautiful libraries in the nice part of town are often pretty empty but the cramped one near us poor folk is full of families and their kids every weekend.
But libraries offer so much more than books. They have digital services, often with access to computers (again, mostly used by those who can’t afford a personal computer), and research assistance. Librarians know how to research and find sources and are an invaluable help when trying to find research on a topic. My local has community events where someone comes in and gives presentations or activities for kids often. Libraries are a community project that brings people together. Unfortunately, public libraries, being not for profit, don’t have extensive funds so they don’t have the reach they used to. Public sentiment has also turned away from libraries for a variety of reasons and in different ways. The capitalist-centric world-view lends to people’s appreciation for owning things and improving your own station while shying away from improving the group condition. Libraries whole purpose is antithetical to that world-view, so they’re ignored at best, actively fought against at worst.
This is, of course, an American centric rant, since that’s where I am and can’t speak to the conditions elsewhere.
When I was very young, my parents took me to the library to pick books to read because (a) I was reading a lot and (b) we didn’t have much money. As I got older, my dad’s business started doing very well, and I wasn’t chewing though books as fast, so most books became gifts and the library was just a place to do research for school reports (no Internet then).
And that’s just kind of what stuck with me - as an adult I’ve never really thought about it for pleasure reading, but it’s nice to rediscover. My only concern is that I’m not really supporting the authors well, and I probably can afford to.