Buying an ereader such as the Kindle or Nook is an investment. You aren’t buying books, rather the license to read and reread books, keeping them on your device. However, you are finding a way to easily access and read as many books as you like, which most would agree is a positive for anyone. Already, services like Amazon and others have thousands of titles for free from the pubic domain, or else donated by the authors for you to read at no cost.
But what happens when you don’t have the title you want for free? Buying a book is expensive, and if you only plan on reading it once you might be reluctant to do so. After all, you aren’t buying the actual book, just a digital rendering. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to borrow ebooks, rather than just through whatever friends might have a similar device? Guess what? There are several!
Public Library

You may be surprised to know that many public libraries now offer you the ability to borrow ebooks from their website. Of course, not all libraries offer this, but if you find one associated with your city or county, you can check. They may also have an audiobooks section, which can be downloaded from another area (Here’s a good list of them by the way).
When you get an ebook from your library, they will usually have a license available for a certain period of time, for one or more devices. Once the license expires you will lose access to the ebook, unless you check it out again, or renew it prior to the expiration date. Audiobooks work in the same way.
The only real negative to using the public library is that the concept of ebooks is still new to most. Therefore, the number they have available is limited, so you might find their selection less than stellar.
LendInk

LendInk is a community based book sharing website. Just like those that allow you to ship and swap books with other members, you can find tons of titles that people have put on the site for lending. You can also put up your own if you have purchased them from another site, and have a Nook or a Kindle (no other software is compatible at this time).
Borrowing from LendInk is easy. Just go through the offered books until you find one that you want. Once you have, select the option that allows you to request a loan. From there the request will be sent to the book owner, and you just have to wait for an approval or denial. Once you have been authorized, you will get an email with instructions on how to download a copy of the ebook.
Borrowing Is Easy!
You don’t have to spend all of that money buying a book you are only going to read once before moving on to the next. Those of us who are huge bookworms have learned the value of borrowing our tomes, and we now have plenty of options for the digital age. Whether you use your library, LendInk or another provider, swapping books is easy!
Annie is an Autralia-based mom and frugal mom earning her living online. She loves discovering and playing with free web tools. One of her recent discoveries is this free tool that lets you compare home loan interest rates Australia. Non-Australia users may enjoy various money saving guides available for free by HomeLoanFinder.







