I want to start reading again.Amazon Prime?

[Pastells]

I used to love reading but over the past 15 years or so, I've just not really found time for it. (I've found plenty of time for empty activities like tv and web browsing though!). Just going through a break up of a long relationship and I know that reading will help me cope with the down times, if I can only start again.

I have a Kindle, which I like for its convenience, although it can't replace the feeling of having a proper book in my hand.

I tend to enjoy light, easy reads. I'm not intellectual or deep thinking at all. I used to love Jilly Cooper (back in the late 1980's and still have all her early books), Stephen King (again his earlier stuff), Patricia Cornwell (earlier stuff, there's a pattern here!).
The most recent fiction I've read would be about 3 years ago, The End of Everything, which I thought was brilliant.

I've been reading some threads here and have downloaded Room and The Secret History. I'll make a start on one of those today. Any other recommendations would be most welcome.

Anyway, to get to my question!
Do you rate Amazon Prime? How good is the selection of books available? I see that membership is £79 a year. If I can read a book every two weeks, I think that works out at good value. It may also motivate me to read more knowing that I've only got each book for a month.
I feel like once I get into the habit of reading regularly again, I'll be hooked. Just finding it difficult to get started.

You can only borrow one book a month, so you couldn't read two a month just on Amazon prime unfortunately.

But if you like classics, you can get hundreds of free classics. Keep you going for years.

It seems to be anything that is over 100 yrs old usually and out of copyright - my favourite author wrote from 1910 to when he was killed in WW1 so I keep checking because once each one gets to I've 100anniversary I get another book!

Thanks for that RedHat, I'd misunderstood the T's & C's. I thought you could borrow each book for up to a month, not realising that there was a restriction on how often you could borrow.
There again, I've just looked on my Kindle and I've got about 15 books on there that haven't been read, so that would probably keep me going to the end of this year if I'm reading one every fortnight!

I haven't read many classics, but I did used to enjoy Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. I'll have a look and see what's available.

Amazon prime allows you to borrow books for free. I'm not in it because it's so expensive. But I can recommend a fab book that I can't get out of my head. It's a really easy read. Very fast moving and easy to follow. If you like Patricia Cornwell and Stephen King, like I do, you will probably love this (though it is a bit graphic in a couple of places!) It's on Amazon prime too. Here:
www.amazon.co.uk/GODS-INC-Dead-visionary-thriller-ebook/dp/B00K31WE78/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400422869&sr=8-1&keywords=gods+inc

I've got prime for the postage etc as I buy a lot on there.The books yyou can borrow are generally the low value books not the best sellers/new ones.

Some libraries let you borrow ebooks - have a look at their online catalogue and see if you can borrow them.

Only one book a month for prime, and they're usually crap books, and by the time the good ones are on there they are 99p anyway. So don't bother!

I agree with others. The 99p offers come up all the time for losts of the best sellers, plus all the classics.

Libraries publish in a different format to Amazon so isn't compatible with kindle, but there might be a conversion programme.

We have prime but we only use it for delivery and then usually non book stuff as I buy for a penny in the marketplace.

Please please please use your local library. Amazon pays hardly any tax and our libraries are closing all over the place.

Libraries are AMAZING!!!!

Oh, and I know they are not compatible with kindles. But please visit anyway!!

I use a conversion programme called Calibre and it's really good.

A word of warning though - if you do download it make sure you only download the actual Calibre programme and not other things that pop up and ask you to download. Take a minute to be sure because when I did it in my usual slapdash way I ended up downloading something that took over my browser and even my DH, who's a programmer, had a hellish time trying to get rid of it.

Buy a cheap Kobo then you can borrow ebooks from the library. It's brilliant and you'll recoup the cost of the Kobo quickly with all you save on books

Honestly I wouldn't get Amazon Prime just for the ebooks you can borrow. It is only one a month, and the list of books you can actually borrow is quite limited. There are some good ones, but like others have said, the list is mostly more obscure stuff and I doubt you would get an author like Philippa Gregory, Stephen King, etc, on there.

I have Prime this year just to try the new Amazon instant video service (a bit like Netflix) which is OK, and so I can get deliveries quicker and share that benefit with others in my family. I think of the Prime Library as just a side benefit of Prime. At £79 it is very expensive though, and unless you are watching their videos every night, or having very frequent deliveries, I don't think it's great value, so I won't renew next year.

Books you might enjoy OP-

Into the darkest corner by Elizabeth Hayes

The Play date by ?

Sleeper by Emily Barr

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

The Magpies by Mark Edwards

Just go to the library.

Or a charity shop bookshop? I go every 3 months or so and buy 20-30 books, some of them are rubbish, and they just go back, but I have read some really good stuff too.

If you save the books you are interested in at www.ereaderiq.co.uk, it monitors the prices and emails you when the price drops to a specified amount.

I've had loads of cheap books that way, including a lot of bestsellers like Mad about the boy (newest Bridget Jones), the Luminaries, the Cuckoos calling and loads more.