Wednesday, July 23, 2014

How limited is Amazon’s “Kindle Unlimited”?


Maybe you've seen the recent promo-push for Amazon's new "Kindle Unlimited" program; i sure have.  The question:  Is it worth it?

So i did a quick check for ebooks i’m still looking for in the SEARCH bar of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited:

There are NO ebooks in "Kindle Unlimited" by Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Douglas Hofstadter, Andrew Radford, Paul Bowles, David Attenborough, Douglas Adams, Elizabeth Graver, Diane Ackerman, Susanna Kaysen, E. B. White, Mary Karr, Robert Heinlein, Bjarne Stroustrup, Walter Savitch, Adam Drozdek, Daniel Jurafsky, James Pustejovsky, or Richard Feynman — not a single one by any author i'm looking for!

There are only a few by Robert MacNeil (but not Breaking News the book i was really looking for), a few by Stephen Ambrose (but not Undaunted Courage), and a few by James Gleick (some good ones, though not The Information).

There was a good selection of J. R. R. Tolkien, however.  And there are probably lots of popular, everyday books — but those are exactly the kind you can get for free from your local library’s ebook service.

Amazon's “Kindle Unlimited” is *very* limited.  It includes a few good books and lots of second-rate ones that probably don't sell well to begin with; but IMHO it excludes most of the really good ones (the money-makers).  So don’t bother!  (Except for maybe a free trial, and then cancel. :-)

No comments: