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Amazon To Allow Book Lending On the Kindle
angry tapir writes "One of the oldest customs of book lovers and libraries — lending out favorite titles to friends and patrons — is finally getting recognized in the electronic age, at least in one electronic book reader: Amazon has announced that it plans to allow users of its Kindle book reader to 'lend' electronic books to other Kindle users, based on the publisher's discretion. A book can be lent only for up to 14 days. A single book can only be lent once, and the lender cannot read the book while it is loaned out." Kindle may be the best-known e-reader, but the similarly featured Barnes & Noble Nook has had this ability (complete with 14-day timeout) for several months, if not from its introduction.
The lend once only is very onerous and I have never seen a good reason why. Can anyone tell me?
I lend my book(s) more than once, even to the same person.
I hate it when they try to force non-physical objects to behave like physical objects.
I guess next they will implement missing pages....
It's well-known that venture capitalists are increasingly interested in diversifying beyond the web into "atom-based" startups, i.e. companies working on manufacturing physical items. This is a perfect opening. While the traditional e-book has served us well for years, some of its limitations become apparent when one wants to run a lending system. It can be implemented, but clearly in an onerous manner. That's why my new startup will propose to make physical e-books. They'll be just as readable and affordable as the traditional e-books you know and love, but with our new permaprint technology, the text will actually be physically imprinted onto thin surfaces; a stack of such surfaces will contain the contents of a book. Since each permaprint e-book will be imprinted on a separate stack of surfaces, which can be moved separately, lending will be as simple as lending the appropriate stack. As an added bonus, battery life is much improved.
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Really, two weeks? I'm a bit envious of those who have enough free time for reading to reliably finish books in only two weeks...
You're envious of my 3 hours/day round trip for work? Really?
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Yeah, there was an old saying about books, something like: "Never lend books. Give them instead. The effect is the same and you'll look nicer".
What Amazon is doing here is not true lending. Unless of course, they figure out how to make the ebook come back to you a year later, dogeared, with the spine broken, and coffee rings on the cover.