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GERGE · 12-19-2016, 01:00 PM

After using Scribd for 3 months, let me update the topic with a small review.

First I will say that I have been really happy with my subscription. My local monthly price in iTunes is TL20, which ends up being between $5-6 depending on the day's rate. For that I get 3 ebooks and 1 audiobook.

Let's get audiobooks out of the way first. Audiobook segment is in no way limited. It has, for example, all the Malazan books. It even has new releases like Rogue One. It offers many popular audiobooks in their day of release. It is not as extensive as Audible, of course, but still very extensive.

E-books are much more limited, but still very extensive if you compare it to services like Kindle Unlimited. You can check the library yourself, the first month is free. But I could say that I managed to find many books I wanted to read as I also discovered many good books. It recommends to you depending on what you have read so far and recommendations are surprisingly accurate.

You could consider Scribd as an inexpensive library (at least with Turkey pricing, it is $7.99 in USA) from which you can borrow 4 books in one month. Also, credits survive to the next months to a maximum of 9 credits.

Archive is good, probably better that you would have expected. I used all my credits so far and managed to read books unavailable in Kindle Unlimited. Scribd ended up being much much cheaper compared to buying them outright, especially with audiobooks.

This month I am reading Titan, Loteria and Star Trek: New Frontiers.

So, it is indeed much closer to a real library. You are limited with how much you can borrow each month, but what you borrow stays with you as long as you keep paying.

There is also a limited and free selection, under Scribd Selects name. It changes monthly, but you can read as much as you want. I don't know many of the books there, but this month I have read The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Little, Big. I wanted to read both of them for a while now, so it isn't that bad. Selection is nice. There is a Scribd Selects for audiobooks too, but I have never used it.

There is also magazines. But they are different from what you recognize as magazines. TIME, People, Bloomberg... You can read the last issue without using any credits, but article by article; not like a classic magazine. Like this.

There is also an extensive library of sheet music from classics to pop. All free.

Now, technical details.

I read on my iPad, and reader is passable. It isn't that customizable, but has nice typefaces with managable sizes. Not being able to modify margins and line-spacings is an issue, but they have good defaults for them. I don't really mind this on iPad, but could be a problem on smaller screens.

There are 6 typefaces. Nothing with a known name but covers all popular styles well. One oldstyle serif, one modern serif, one slab serif, one latin serif, one geometric sans and one humanist sans.

There is hyphenation, but you can also set the justification. Colors are also limited; sepia, classic black-on-white and night mode. But you can set the colors within their classes, a little darker white, a little grayer black, or a little redder sepia. You do this by something similar to a bar controller, so you are free to set it as you like. There is also a build-in brightness controller.

Bookmarks, notes and offline reading are all available.

Library is easy to browse. There are clear cut genres, with a great many sub-genres. There are also thematic selection that always change like Dark & Broody, Relaxing, Space Exploration and such. You can also preview both the books and audiobooks, sometimes up to a 100 pages or 2 hours of audio.

In the end, I recommend them. It is well worth the price. This might just be me, but having a nice library-like service, especially in a country where I don't have access to a English library, is very nice. Those of you who lives in English speaking counties might not get that much use out of this, but otherwise it is great. Really great.

12-19-2016, 01:00 PM	#9
GERGE Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 5797160 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Istanbul Device: Kobo Libra	After using Scribd for 3 months, let me update the topic with a small review. First I will say that I have been really happy with my subscription. My local monthly price in iTunes is TL20, which ends up being between $5-6 depending on the day's rate. For that I get 3 ebooks and 1 audiobook. Let's get audiobooks out of the way first. Audiobook segment is in no way limited. It has, for example, all the Malazan books. It even has new releases like Rogue One. It offers many popular audiobooks in their day of release. It is not as extensive as Audible, of course, but still very extensive. E-books are much more limited, but still very extensive if you compare it to services like Kindle Unlimited. You can check the library yourself, the first month is free. But I could say that I managed to find many books I wanted to read as I also discovered many good books. It recommends to you depending on what you have read so far and recommendations are surprisingly accurate. You could consider Scribd as an inexpensive library (at least with Turkey pricing, it is $7.99 in USA) from which you can borrow 4 books in one month. Also, credits survive to the next months to a maximum of 9 credits. Archive is good, probably better that you would have expected. I used all my credits so far and managed to read books unavailable in Kindle Unlimited. Scribd ended up being much much cheaper compared to buying them outright, especially with audiobooks. This month I am reading Titan, Loteria and Star Trek: New Frontiers. So, it is indeed much closer to a real library. You are limited with how much you can borrow each month, but what you borrow stays with you as long as you keep paying. There is also a limited and free selection, under Scribd Selects name. It changes monthly, but you can read as much as you want. I don't know many of the books there, but this month I have read The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Little, Big. I wanted to read both of them for a while now, so it isn't that bad. Selection is nice. There is a Scribd Selects for audiobooks too, but I have never used it. There is also magazines. But they are different from what you recognize as magazines. TIME, People, Bloomberg... You can read the last issue without using any credits, but article by article; not like a classic magazine. Like this. There is also an extensive library of sheet music from classics to pop. All free. Now, technical details. I read on my iPad, and reader is passable. It isn't that customizable, but has nice typefaces with managable sizes. Not being able to modify margins and line-spacings is an issue, but they have good defaults for them. I don't really mind this on iPad, but could be a problem on smaller screens. There are 6 typefaces. Nothing with a known name but covers all popular styles well. One oldstyle serif, one modern serif, one slab serif, one latin serif, one geometric sans and one humanist sans. There is hyphenation, but you can also set the justification. Colors are also limited; sepia, classic black-on-white and night mode. But you can set the colors within their classes, a little darker white, a little grayer black, or a little redder sepia. You do this by something similar to a bar controller, so you are free to set it as you like. There is also a build-in brightness controller. Bookmarks, notes and offline reading are all available. Library is easy to browse. There are clear cut genres, with a great many sub-genres. There are also thematic selection that always change like Dark & Broody, Relaxing, Space Exploration and such. You can also preview both the books and audiobooks, sometimes up to a 100 pages or 2 hours of audio. In the end, I recommend them. It is well worth the price. This might just be me, but having a nice library-like service, especially in a country where I don't have access to a English library, is very nice. Those of you who lives in English speaking counties might not get that much use out of this, but otherwise it is great. Really great. Last edited by GERGE; 12-19-2016 at 01:12 PM.