book matrix

member ($99 per year), Amazon o ers a free lending library that allows you to borrow one e-book per month—but you can check out only one book at a time and must use a Kindle or Fire tablet for reading.

Playster gives you access to 250,000 e-books and audiobooks for $9.95 per month after a 30-day free trial. A $24.95 unlimited subscription unlocks millions of movies, songs and games.

Library And Nonpro T Freebies

The price (free) of a library card can unlock access to tons of material from the convenience of your tablet. Find the website of the library you belong to and click on “digital media” to access untold volumes of material.

OneClickDigital is your library’s audiobook source and o ers e-books as well.

Axis360 and Freading are e-book borrowing depositories.

Whether you’re a casual reader or a more voracious type, here’s a look at your digital reading options.

The Best Libraries Money Can Buy

Several subscription services o er access to hundreds of thousands of books. If you’re not sure whether subscribing is a smart money move for you, consider how long it takes you to finish a book: At an average of $8 per e-book, you’d need to read 15 books per year to make that $120 yearly subscription worth it. (The Pew Research Center estimates most Americans read an average of four books per year.)

24Symbols runs $8.99 per month (after a three-monthsfor-the-price-of-one trial) for access to more than 500,000 e-books and audiobooks, with no checkout limit (just one audiobook per month, though).

Kindle Unlimited allows access to more than a million titles and thousands of audiobooks with a $9.99 monthly subscription (after a 30-day free trial). Users can check out up to 10 titles at once. If you are Prime

Scribd costs $8.99 per month after a 30day free trial and o ers a million books, comics and audiobooks. Users are limited to three e-books and one audiobook per month.

Open Library and Project Gutenberg are nonprofit e orts to digitize the world’s library. Open Library, run by the Internet Archive, has now digitized more than half a million books, with free access to anyone.

Zinio connects readers to subscription magazines.

And finally, Overdrive isn’t a library service per se but a free e-book app that facilitates borrowing e-books through libraries. One drawback is that, like actual library borrowing, the book is due back in a few weeks, disappearing from your reader unless your request a renewal.