New Amazon Prime Service in Canada - Prime Reading

Yes, this pic is skewed

The main reason I have an Amazon account is for the e-books. I've been a digital consumer for almost 2 decades starting with my first Sony Clie. Spouse has a Prime account for free shipping so we've been using Prime Video and Prime Music by logging in through their account. Most purchases are done through their account but the other day I wanted some dog stuff so I pulled the trigger on the free Prime trial...just in time for the Prime Reading launch.


I finally got a Kindle and it's great for burying my head from the shitshow of politics that has infected everything disconnecting. I have a library card but in Canada you can't read library books on the Kindle so I have a mix of free books from Samsung and lots of purchased e-books.  I was very interested to see how Prime Reading works and it works pretty well like an e-library.

There are maybe 100 titles per section and the cost to purchase ranges from $4-$10. Good thing it's not a lot since there isn't really strong filtering. Select an item and the Prime Reading button will be available. The title is downloaded like any other book and at the end you can return it to Prime Reading. I don't know what happens to the books if you leave Prime. I would hope they would disappear from your library but you never know.  Material is not the latest and some cozy mysteries have strange titles but they are free to read so...I think it's a little like the Baen Free Library where the hope is a free read leads to a purchase. Hopefully titles will cycle so there is fresh material to read.

I have to say, this is the first service that would make me consider my own Prime membership. While I like Prime Video and Prime Music, one per family is acceptable. Ideal would be a Household Prime membership (not an option in Canada) with a family library similar to what Play Books offers. Meanwhile, I'll be off reading during my free trial and thinking about what the service is worth to me.