Kindle unlimited - worth it?

[Soulstirring]

Yes - YANBU
No - YABU

I’m finding I’m struggling to find books I love and that kindle unlimited isn’t worth it when I could pay for one great book a month for the same cost. Help my find some fab books please in unlimited.

Skip it.

I'm yet to read a good Unlimited book - they're all crap. Fluffy chick lit, "psychological thrillers" and tedious detective series.

No I don't think it is, I don't have the time to read just anything that pops up, I can't get through several month, so like you OP decided I might as well buy one I like a month. Some times I buy them at 99p! Never more than 3.99. I add ones I want to my list and buy when they're on sale.

I agree with a PP, the fantasy and sci fi section is great and for me definitely worth it because of the volume I read.
I dread to think how much I would spend on “real” books if I hadn’t borrowed them through kindle unlimited.

Harry Potter is usually always on there too, so some options for kids

It nearly paid for itself last month when DDs set book for school was £5 to buy but on KU.

I cancelled, really crappy 'chick lit' and it much else.

I've actually backtracked on my kindle too, gone back to books. Now I'm not commuting I prefer reading a book.

I started it because a lot of the Kindle Deals of the Day are also Unlimited books. I’m about to cancel it as I’m just not using it. It’s worth a try with the introductory offer.

If I see a book I want on kindle unlimited I sign up for the free trial and then cancel it when I'm finished. Amazon seem to allow this. Not a great selection of books on it to be honest. I do get some good ones via prime though.

Another not worth it have cancelled mine after a couple of months, having said that i have found a few good science reads and tried out lots of recipes from the NOSH cookbooks before buying a couple for folk starting at uni. Our library has BorrowBox but most stuff on there seems to be unavailable for the next couple of months. Will check out BookBub thanks for that!

I came on this thread to recommend BookBub but see someone else has already mentioned it. The most I pay for a book is 99p and had some fab ones through their daily emails.

Prime reading is worth a look and a lot of people don't even know you get it with your prime subscription. You can have up to 10 books on loan at a time you just have to return one before 'borrowing' another.

I used kindle unlimited for about a year but discovered BorrowBox in lockdown 1 and it’s been so good, I’ve saved a fortune and read some really good books.

As other posters have said it really depends on what you read and also the speed at which you can read a book.
I’m a very quick and avid reader and can finish an average sized book in an evening so for me kindle unlimited keeps my costs down, admittedly I still have to buy the odd book but overall it works for me.

I didn't like it at all, there were just too many self published books of terrible quality.

@Furbylicious I loved Wakenhyrst and liked Pachinko too! Snap.

I don't have kindle unlimited but I buy so many kindle books for 99p - if you have a browse around there are usually a couple of good ones among the basic thrillers. Also I add books to a wishlist and it will then tell you when the price has gone down - often from 8 pounds to 2 or 3, then i'll buy it.

Like others have said, the Prime Reading option is pretty good, there's a lot more stuff i want to read on there than on kindle unlimited. Hard to find though, i couldn't honestly tell you how i set it up initially

Kindle unlimited has been an absolute godsend for me. I rarely watch tv and have had many hospital stays with my daughter to keep myself occupied. It does depend on the genre you read but I can always find a good crime thriller.

We have kindle unlimited for my daughter and she uses it a lot . There are classics on there , she has just finished Emma but you do need to search well as originally she could only find it with updated language but we did find a classic version . She reads a lot and we do buy books as well but before we had unlimited we were easily spending £30-40 per month on books .

We have kindle unlimited as had it in a trial.

They have some decent books but tbh they can be a bit limited, seems to be more 'chick-lit' style or short stories at times. I don't mind some of the former occasionally but really can't be doing with short stories,

However, dh loves the magazines section - at a weekend he'd often buy a magazine to flick through. Now he just reads them on his kindle app on an iPad. We keep it mainly for that.

And there's also a lot of the classics and Harry Potter series, etc on there too. I read some of the classics through it, as has dh.

Dd uses it too and, as part of her teacher training degree, has to read some children's books, many of those have been on KU.

When l first signed up for it, l thought it would be like a lending library.

And in fact it’s full of utter tripe. I never found anything worth reading. I reckon it’s full of books that no other shop would keep as they wouldn’t sell.

For me it's definitely worth it. I've had 312 books over 2 years which would have cost a fortune.
I'm a sci-fi fan and there's a good selection there. Just devoured Dennis E. Taylor's Bobbiverse series which would have cost me over £50 to buy.

I love it for the sci-fi, fantasy and trashy chick lit books. I must read maybe 20 books or more a month so it saves me a fortune. It's purely pointless entertainment for me like DH paying £30+ a month for Sky telly to just watch Gold Rush and pretty much nothing else. But at least I'm getting my money's worth on crap entertainment.

If I were looking for decent books though there are a number of free apps you can use, most that have been mentioned here.

Bookbub and FussyLibrarian have free/cheap books. Do need to be selective but there are some well known names but also some new authors, so good opportunity to try them too

No your only allowed 10 books are you can’t keep them I soon got rid I can tell you, (has 500 or more) I’d rather buy my books can read at my leisure.

I had it over Christmas but, as others have said, found it full of self published chick lit. and otherwise poor content. Some of the classics are good, as are some of the non-fiction and text books.

I read at least a book a week so buying 5 or 6 of the 99p "Deals of the day" and I break even. I read lots of crime fiction and bought 6 Michael Connelly books for 99p each this week. Michael Connelly is (one of the many) good crime writers who aren't available on KU.

I've had kindle unlimited for years. I also have over a thousand books that I reread that have started off as unlimited and then bought because I dont want to lose them.
There are so many genres. The only genre I dont read is anything chic lit.
You can search by author, by book title and genre.
Its better than prime because there are more books.
It gives you suggested reading by what you have read in unlimited and also what you have bought.
I have authors who have series of books, one is currently around 70.
I read everyday so its better for me.