Amazon's New Prime Reading (Potential Life Ruiner)

A book made out of paper. What an adorable concept!

Remember when Amazon Prime's big reader benefit was the once-a-month ability to borrow a book from their lending library? (FYI, I'm told this feature still exists, but your guess of how to access it is as good as mine... Amazon seems to have blown up all the bridges leading to this mythical e-library). Then there was the Kindle First program, which I stopped bothering about because I was underwhelmed with the choices. Then there's Kindle Unlimited, which is like a library... if the library grew a pair and started charging 10 bucks a month and was mostly stocked with self-published romances.

Well now there's Prime Reading. And it's completely free!* It functions similarly to Kindle Unlimited, in that you can fill your Prime Library with 10 titles at a time, and return one when you'd like to borrow a new one. Amazon currently has 1K titles available and describes its catalog as "revolving." So get the good ones before they're gone.

There are two ways this program could go, imo. It's either the sample that hooks you into subscribing to Kindle Unlimited (similar to when your friendly neighborhood heroine dealer offers comps you that first dime bag) OR it will become unwelcome competition for their existing program and the quality of offerings will decline rapidly.

So, again, get the good ones before Amazon changes its mind they're gone. So what are the good ones? Well, that's a matter of opinion, but here are my picks:

1. Coming Clean, by Kimberly Rae Miller. This is one of the very few books on the list I've read, and I gave it 4 stars. I'll post a review for this one tomorrow. It's a really good book.

2. Wayward Pines, by Blake Crouch. I'm horrible with keeping up with pop culture stuff, because I'm just learning that this was turned into a television series. It caught my eye because the author, Blake Crouch, wrote Dark Matter, one of my favorite new books for 2016. The other books in this 3-part series, however, are not part of Prime Reading.

3. Getting Started Knitting Socks, by Ann Budd. This one might seem a bit random. I don't really discuss craft or hobby books on this blog and have only included a few on my Goodreads list. But I've read a bunch of them in the past. I'm one of those people who can pick up any sort of handcraft. Some people can speak multiple languages-- I can make stuff. And this book is excellent for anyone who aspires to knit socks. The instructions and pictures are really clear. Even a novice can master socks thanks to this book.

4. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick. I liked this book enough to give it 4 stars (even without understanding what the heck that ending was supposed to mean), but it might disappoint fans of the show, because it's not all that similar.

5. The Queen's Prisoner, by Jeff Wheeler. I can't tell you anything about this book. I just really want to read it.

And then there's this:

Don't get me wrong, I like Consumer Reports. Enough to pay for a copy of this to come to my house each month. This is part of why I have doubts about the future of Prime Reading. I don't think I'll be continuing with my subscription after seeing this (why buy the cow-- amirite?), I don't think I'm alone, and I can't imagine publications like CR will enjoy losing all that business.

But until daddy takes the convertible away-- Happy Reading!

* After you've paid $100 for a yearly Prime subscription. Best not to think about it.