I’ve been a member of ebookfling since December, and though I haven’t used it all that much I really like it so far. Basically, it’s a website where you can lend and borrow ebooks with other people via the “lend” ability of Kindles and Nooks. As such, it only works with Kindles and Nooks (or Kindle/Nook apps) and their corresponding ebook formats and lending rules (two weeks to keep a borrowed book, can only lend each ebook once, can’t read a book you’ve lent to someone else while it’s being borrowed, etc.).
To borrow ebooks you need credits. You get credits from lending ebooks to other people, or from buying them for $2.99 per credit. I think that’s kind of a high price for a credit, especially since you don’t get to keep the book, but I suppose if you’re desperate to read a book it’s cheaper than buying a copy for yourself. (Maybe?) The easiest way to get credits is to just load a bunch of available-to-borrow ebooks to your account, and then wait for people to request them from you. I’ve got about 120 ebooks in my library at the moment, and I get about two borrow requests a week.
To request an ebook, you can either search for what you want or add books to your wishlist, which you can set to email you once a book is available. Once you request a book, the person you requested it from has about a day or so to agree to lend it to you. I’ve only requested one book so far (Those Who Hunt the Night) but it went very smoothly and I got it within a few hours of requesting it. Neat! From loaning books to other people I’ve noticed that you don’t learn anything about the person you’re lending the book to. The process is almost completely automated, and at the most I think you’d only see their username on ebookfling. Maybe their email, too. Continue reading »
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