Quote:
Originally Posted by entropy
I am homeschooling my 5-year-old, who is an avid reader. Unfortunately, our local library's junior selection is abysmal, imo (eg the only non-vampire or non-Harry-Potter-esque fiction book I could find was Charlotte's Web).
My ereader is a Sony PRS-350 that I enjoy using daily. I have thought about giving it to my daughter and perhaps buying a T1 or a Kindle for myself.
The other part is that I used to have access to a regional library here in Western Australia that loaned ebooks (my local library lacks this feature). However the regional library revoked distance memberships recently.
So I would like to know which reader I should buy to get the best library access. I would be happy to pay for access to an excellent English-language ereader library selection anywhere in the world.
(The free classics in ebook format would also need to be available to either reader I choose - I know this is true for Sony but not sure if Kindle is able to access these free books? Perhaps with Calibre? Would it be a problem to use the same installation of Calibre with both a Sony and Kindle device?)
Thanks for any advice!
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The Sony, Kobo or Nook should give you the widest access - all of them seem capable of working with libraries outside the US, and all will handle ePubs. There are lots of free childen's books online - granted, they're all out of copyright so several decades old, but a good story is timeless.
It's a shame the library has revoked the membership - have you tried contacting them to ask them to reconsider and at least allow it for ebooks, even if not physical books? Also, have you tried searching online to see if there are any other Australian libraries that don't have this restriction? Of the 70 or so libraries in the UK, some have similar restrictions and others don't, so it's worth making enquiries. Also maybe try to get together with other parents to put pressure on the library to expand its range of pbooks?