Free Access to Books, Magazines, and More With Your Amazon Prime Membership
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| Prime Reading is a Feature of Amazon Prime that you won't want to miss. |
With Prime Reading, automatically included with your Prime membership, you get access to a library of over a thousand books, magazines, and Audible narration recordings, all at no additional cost. While 1000+ books and magazines doesn't sound like much in the big scheme of the Amazon bookstore, the selection is good and, personally, I've saved quite a bit of money borrowing books and magazines from Prime Reading as opposed to buying them. I think it's a great deal!
Do I Need a Kindle To Use Prime Reading?
You might be wondering if you need a Kindle reader to take advantage of this program and the answer is "no," you do not. As with all e-books in the huge Amazon library, each can be read from your phone, your iPad, or your other Android or iOS device using Amazon's free reading app which is simple to download to your device. If you don't own a Kindle reader or Fire tablet, simply look for the "Read with Our Free App" link below the Kindle format of any book to get started. (To learn more, check out my review of "The Three Best Ways to Read Kindle Books.")
What Types of Books Are Available for Prime Reading?
The Prime Reading library consists of books in many genres from nonfiction to romance to business and money and more. Titles include current bestsellers, classics, and likely books by quite a few authors that you haven't read yet. What a great opportunity to explore new titles when you're on a budget (I'm always on a budget!).
The magazines that are available are current issues of many of the bestsellers on the Kindle Newsstand. While e-magazine subscriptions are very reasonably priced, as far as I'm concerned you can't beat "free" for the cost of a magazine. I'll admit, I'd rather borrow HGTV Magazine or Birds & Blooms or Real Simple and read them for free than pay for a subscription. Borrow it, read it, save it for a while then exchange it for something else, all from the comfort of your own computer. It's even "greener" than recycling, don't you agree?
Where Do I Find Prime Reading?
If you're not an Amazon Prime member yet, this is another great reason to join. Currently the price is just $99 a year, very worth it, especially when you take advantage of all the features of the program that you may not even know exist, including Prime Reading. To see the list of what's included or to join Amazon Prime, just follow the link.
So tell me, if you're a member of Amazon Prime, did you already know about Prime Reading or did you learn something new today? I love to save money on books and magazines and hopefully this information will help you save a few dollars here and there, too. Happy reading!
~Susan
Read more of my reviews.
Posted by Susan Deppner
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
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The Prime Reading program is completely new to me, Susan, so this is a very informative article. I'll have to let my son know about this feature to Amazon Prime.
ReplyDeleteSpread the word, Elf! I have a feeling that many Prime members have no idea this program exists.
DeleteI already knew about it and I absolutely love it! Truthfully, I do subscribe to Prime because of the shipping cost savings, but the books I download and read would easily pay for it too. It is a fabulous program. Really glad you thought to review it for those who don't know about it and are not taking advantage of that Prime benefit.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know you're already taking advantage of the benefit you pay for anyway, Cynthia. I agree, it wouldn't take long at all to read books and magazines from Prime Reading to pay for the annual Prime membership. I do love Amazon Prime!
DeleteI knew about it and love it. Sadly, there is no Prime here in Ireland because Amazon doesn't want to absorb the shipping costs to our island. (we use the UK site) But they seem to have more free Kindle books anyway to appease us I think. I will tell my daughter about Prime reading though as I am not sure she knows. Good idea to review it. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Heather. Too bad about not having the Prime shipping, but very nice to know they have so many free books for you to read. Hope your daughter can use the information!
DeleteWe finally joined Prime at the end of last year. I have not taken the time to read all the the benefits. So this is a big help. Thanks Susan.
ReplyDeleteGood to know, Sam! Do read through that entire list of benefits. There are so many. Enjoy!
DeleteI never knew I have this access. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found the review and the information, Mary. Enjoy!
DeleteI didn't know about this. I must have confused it with Kindle Unlimited, which I don't really need. I'm curious. I love Birds in Bloom, but the color illustrations are the best part of it. I don't imaging they would do well on my Kindle Paperwhite. I don't use mobile devices, so If I can't use this on a PC, I would imagine the magazines would be off-limts for me if I want to see the article illustrations in color. I have been picking my free book each month available through my Prime membership.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, you're right about the magazines not showing in color on the Paperwhite. In fact, Amazon will not even try to download magazines to a Kindle device. Instead, they work on the Fire tablet (and they're awesome!). However, try using your PC for magazines. You'll just need to download the free Kindle for PC reader to do that (look for that option at the top of the magazine listing). By the way, the selection of magazines (as well as books) changes frequently on Prime Reading, so if Birds & Blooms isn't available right now, you might have to check back to see when it's available again. Glad you're taking advantage of the free pre-release through Prime every month, another awesome feature of the program!
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