[haertig]

Hi. New member here. First post.

I'm looking for recommendations for the best ways to acquire eBooks.

History: I started out with a B&N Nook Simple Touch (and I'm still using it). Recently added a Kindle Fire HD8. I was into eBooks at first, but they fell into disfavor for me as prices got higher and higher, and I could find my books as used mass market paperbacks for less than buying a eBook (significantly less). Fast forward several years, and here I am, willing to try eBooks again. Prices haven't come down, but there are other ways to acquire eBooks (library loans, Amazon Prime, etc.)

There are a couple of ways I've found in my recent endeavors to acquire eBooks. And I'm looking for recommendations to improve what I'm doing, or suggestions for other routes that I haven't discovered.

From worst to best (IMHO):

(5) Buy the eBook from Amazon or B&N. Expensive. DRM-laden. I can't move them between my Kindle and Nook. I am familiar with Calibre and the DeDRM plugin, and have used that successfully, so DRM is not a technical hurdle for me, just an ethical one. Best selection of all methods. Can take as long as you want to read a book, since it's yours (well, kind of).

(4) Borrow from Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Looks like a good selection. But at the monthly cost, I might as well just buy the eBook, because I don't get many chances to read a lot. If I'm going to spend $10 a month to rent one book (about my reading speed), I might as well buy that book for the $10 purchase price instead. I don't know the details of how many, or how long you can keep a rented book through Kindle Unlimited, as the price turned me off from the get-go. Nor do I know if Kindle unlimited is an additional payment on top of Amazon Prime, or if it's a stand-alone offering.

(3) Borrow the book from Amazon Prime for free. Obviously requires Amazon Prime subscription. Selection is very limited. Can take as long as you want to read a book. Only has a handful of books that I'm interested in. They don't seem to have "top tier" books, although some of what they offer can be good. But mostly things you've never heard of are found here.

(2) Borrow from a local library. Reasonably good selection. Good to join multiple local libraries, because each has a slightly different selection and differing availability of the selections that they do have. Many authors that I'd like to read are just plain missing from local libraries. Limited to 3 weeks to borrow/read a book. Often times long wait lists (making it impossible to renew a book you haven't finished, because someone else has a hold on it). If you put a hold on several wait listed books, they become available randomly, often times when you're right in the middle of some other book and not ready to start reading a new one yet. The problem here is compounded by the short 3 week load period. You can generally borrow a ton of eBooks, but you con't have time to read them all before the loan period expires.

(1) Borrow from Amazon Owner's Lending Library (requires Amazon Prime). I just discovered this one. I found several books I wanted here that I couldn't find elsewhere (except as a purchase). Take as long as you want to read a book. Limited to one per month, but that's about my reading speed anyway, so not a problem for me. The biggest problem I've encountered here is finding the books I want. I've only discovered how to scroll and scroll and scroll through a listing of books, no way to search AFAIK. When I try the search dialog, that pops me out of Lender's Library and into the main Amazon catalog where I'm looking at things to buy, not borrow. I have not found any way to search the Lender's Library from my desktop computer web browser, I have to use the "Books" tab on my Kindle Fire.

IMHO, eBook retailers have kind of killed the golden goose with high pricing on many eBooks. I cannot see any reason for them to cost more than a paperback copy of the same book. They should cost less. Sometimes an eBook is less, but just as likely, it costs more.

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I would really like some suggestions/help on (1), relating to how you can search for books you're interested in from the Amazon's Lending library. Is there a way to search that I just haven't found yet?

For (2), I have found a partially workable way to handle this. Join multiple local libraries. Check all the libraries you belong to, then borrow from the one that has the most copies of your book available and (hopefully) a non-existent wait list. Then you can more likely renew when the time comes. I have found wide variance in local libraries. One may have 5 copies of a book, with a wait list of 28 people. The other may have 2 copies, but with zero wait list. It pays to check each library before borrowing.

How else do people acquire eBooks? I'm certainly not against buying them, but only if the cost is reasonable. I've seen many books that I want that would cost $11.99 to buy as an eBook, or $4 to buy (shipping included) as a used mass market paperback in "very good" condition. I might prefer an eBook for convenience, but sometimes the price does set me back a step.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions!