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Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
How does Freading compare to overdrive (as far as selection?) My library is looking for an alternative to overdrive and I'm wondering if I should mention it to them to investigate? They want to expand their e-reading program due to demand, but overdrive is so expensive, they can't expand very far.
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The library has very little funding and we're in a rural area so they decided that they could not afford to offer Overdrive. So, they offer Freading. So far, I've found no overlap in books between Freading and Overdrive. Publishers that I've seen at Freading are Open Road Media, Algonquin Books, Mysterious Press, Albert Whitman & Company, Poisoned Pen Press, Barbour Books, and Sourcebooks. No best-sellers.
But lots of books that I'm interested in such as the
Phryne Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. Here are some authors I've seen: Mysteries by William Kienzle, Mary Reed & Eric Mayer, Lawrence Block and Steven Havill. SF books by David Duncan, Timothy Zahn, David Feintuch, and William Shatner. Fantasy by Ciji Ware, Octavia Butler, and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Christian fiction by Wanda Brunstetter, Anna Schmidt, and Amber Stockton.
They have a decent selection of books for kids and teens. I don't read non-fiction, but they seem to have quite a bit on various topics.
To borrow a book, you have to spend tokens. Each book costs from 1 to 4 tokens. Generally, a book costs more right after it is added to the catalog and then the price goes down. Most of the books I've borrowed have cost me 1 or 2 tokens. Your library gives you a fixed number of tokens at the beginning of the month. You get additional tokens every Monday, then everything resets at the beginning of the next month.
According to my librarian, the library pays a small amount for each book that is borrowed -- I think she said $0.50 per book, or maybe it was $0.50 per token. And, unlike Overdrive that has a fixed fee every month, Freading only bills when books are borrowed.
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By the way, Open Road is issuing the Cadfael books in August and they've already shown up in the Freading catalog with "coming soon". Over the weekend, I borrowed
The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, which was the one book I was most interested in from the Humble Bundle, so I don't have to feel bad that I can't buy the Humble Bundle due to my 2014 ban on buying books.