Kindle Lending is now enabled

[mizzsty]

Originally Posted by koland

Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days.

who reads a book in 14 days?!?

[wvcherrybomb]

Wow, what a disappointment this lending feature turned out to be!

I had hoped to find someone to trade-lend true crime books with but only one of mine is lending enabled.

[kennyc]

Wonderful!

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

I assume all that have

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited

are lendable ?

Mike D

Simultaneous device usage is different. That means you can sync the same book across your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android tablet, etc.

If a loan is possible with an e-book, it'll have "Lending: Enabled" as part of its product description. In order to find lending-enabled books easily, I think people are going to have to start tagging them.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

I think any time you enter your password, the Kindle saves it. And anyway, the second I connected my Kindle via wifi again, it would do the syncing.

It's not a horrendous blow. I was just very surprised that turning off the wifi via the menu didn't actually prevent the wifi from coming back on again. Does the wifi come on and off periodically just for that purpose? Does anyone know?

I just checked again, for the hell of it. Apparently, the book I lent out is still on my Kindle. I want to re-check with the person I lent the book to, just to make absolutely sure, but if this is true, it's a pretty startling oversight.

The thing about it is, this could (and actually, in my case did) happen completely innocently, because the lending happens at your computer, rather than your Kindle. It's not typical for me to have my Kindle's wifi on unless I'm purposefully syncing it, so I lent the book out not even realizing my wifi was off.

[Krad]

Originally Posted by mizzsty

who reads a book in 14 days?!?

Thats actually quite a bite of time. But I think this is like an extended version of the 'preview' feature? If you are truly enjoying the book, but 14 days are up, then you would need to buy to read the rest.

either way, 2 weeks is way more time than I would have thought they would have given.

[reech]

Been looking for the feature on amazon.co.uk, but can't find it - looks like it is something that's only on .com for now.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by mizzsty

who reads a book in 14 days?!?

I read most books in about a week, unless it's really big. If it was something really long I would read more than usual or just buy it. For me I wouldn't use the lending as something to totally replace buying books by freeloading off everyone. It's more for books someone recommends that I wouldn't have bought.

In fact whenever I've lent out a book, it's been to encourage someone to read something that they hadn't considered and probably wouldn't buy. Same goes for books I've borrowed: it's an author, style, or title I had never thought to purchase that someone wanted to introduce me to. It's never been a way to get around paying for books I know I want.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by mizzsty

who reads a book in 14 days?!?

That's what libraries do. Most people can handle a few books in that time, I think.

Me, I try to read about 300 books a year. It's a rare book I can't read in one day.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mizzsty

who reads a book in 14 days?!?

I suspect most people here do. I don't always, but quite often. Depends on my free time and interest in the particular book.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

Apparently, the book I lent out is still on my Kindle. I want to re-check with the person I lent the book to, just to make absolutely sure, but if this is true, it's a pretty startling oversight.

It would be oversight if you could lend the book to 300 of your closest friends here on Mobileread simultaneously, or at least lend it to a large number of people one after another.

You can lend each book exactly ONCE. That is is. So it doesn't really matter if you can read it in the meanwhile.

I think that we might arrange a book swapping community here, but that would be something like John has purchased book for $2.99 and lends it to Peter and then Peter purchases another book for $2.99 and lends it to John. And that would be it. Both books are done with lending *forever*. I can't see how this would endanger author's profits. Sharing the book across several devices linked to the same account has bigger impact IMHO.

[kennyc]

If it is the ONLY ONCE thing like Nook then yeah, I agree, that's pretty worthless.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by kennyc

If it is the ONLY ONCE thing like Nook then yeah, I agree, that's pretty worthless.

Well, true, it's marked as being out on loan in my Kindle management page on Amazon, so I wouldn't be able to lend it again. Even so, the fact that you wouldn't have the ebook while it was out on loan was one of the major restrictions they talked about. And in my mind, it's the one that made the most sense (since you can't use physical objects while they're out on loan).

The practical impact may be small, but I still she the glitch as notable, considering how it was promoted.

[kennyc]

Maybe we are not communicating. I understand not being able to read it while it is lent out. But with the Nook lending system a book can only be loaned out one time and then never again. Is that the way the Kindle system is working?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Maybe we are not communicating. I understand not being able to read it while it is lent out. But with the Nook lending system a book can only be loaned out one time and then never again. Is that the way the Kindle system is working?

Yes. It's exactly the same as the B&N system. A one-time-only 14-day loan.