If you are a patient sort of person, here is an extremely inexpensive way of getting ebooks to read on your Kobo - just put HOLDs on the new releases and wait your turn. Many of the non-fiction titles you will be able to borrow right away if they are in the library collection as those are not as popular.
This digital library permits anyone (even overseas) to pay US$15 for an annual membership and allows up to 10 titles checked out at a time. Go to this page [
link] to see the collection of ebooks available (Adobe DRM EPUB and PDF formats are compatible with your Kobo, you will need to install Digital Editions software to download and transfer books).
Click on the "Sign Up Now" in the top right corner to view and print the application form, then fill out and mail with an international money order. It seems to be taking 2 to 4 weeks for the processing of new applications and if you are lucky they will e-mail you your membership number so you can start checking out titles right away. In the worst case you may lose the first few weeks of your annual membership due to processing and mailing the library card to you.
Here is the person to contact if you have any problems (or to ask any questions), she e-mailed me my PIN number when I forgot what I put on my application form!
Pam Lippincott
Free Library of Philadelphia
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-686-7501
e-mail:
pam@freelibrary.org
I hope that the Philadelphia Library continues this valuable service. I have been able to get quite a few of the newer releases that I wanted to read, just by getting on the waiting list and reading other things while I waited.