Amazon Piles On the Prime Benefits With New 'Prime Reading' Perk (geekwire.com)

Amazon today unveiled the latest perk for Prime members in the United States: Prime Reading. With this, the company is offering access to "over a thousand" Kindle books, comics, magazines and more. The selection will rotate, the company says, suggesting that you should be able to read titles that aren't available today. GeekWire adds: The new perk, Prime Reading, lets Amazon Prime members access more than 1,000 e-books from best-selling authors at no extra charge, read a rotating selection of popular magazines, and read content from the company's Kindle Singles library, including classic short stories and essays. Prime reading is available on the Kindle app for iOS and Android, and on the company's Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets. The new perk comes in addition to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which lets Prime members who own Amazon devices borrow one e-book a month from a larger selection of titles. Separate from a Prime membership, Amazon offers the $10/month Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription service.Amazon Prime program costs $99 per year.

Comments

Why don't Canadians get any of this cool stuff?

[Waveevaw]

We don't get video either

Re:Why don't Canadians get any of this cool stuff?

[ADRA]

Dang, beat me to it. Yeah, Amazon Prime is mostly useless in Canada. $80 for significantly fewer features? Pass. If anything, I'm using Amazon less year after year. It's just not offering the savings that it did previously.

Re:Why don't Canadians get any of this cool stuff?

[chipschap]

Try living in Hawai`i, where Amazon Prime gets you free shipping that usually takes about two WEEKS. And still costs $99.

Re:Why don't Canadians get any of this cool stuff?

[Anonymous CowWord]

I don't know why people keep repeating this bullshit. Wait times depend on severity, which makes sense, otherwise more people would die. Have you been to an emerg in a Canadian hospital? Idiots come there for minor cuts and scrapes and then whine about the 4 hour wait time. When my dad had a bypass, he saw his doc one week, the cardiologist the same week, and had the surgery within 2 weeks (and that was by choice, they we willing to operate on him within days). Conversely, when we went to have non-urgent knee surgery, it took 3 months which was fine by him. One saved his life, the other made it more comfortable, all for $0.

Re:Why don't Canadians get any of this cool stuff?

[Shados]

It depends a lot on the province/city vs state/city for sure, but having lived most of my life in Canada and now being a US permanent resident, the difference is night and day.

When I was a kid, I was -terrified- of the ER, because I knew I'd be there all fucking days. I had a friend who had a major motorcycle accident, was bleeding everywhere, and beyond stopping the blood, made him wait for hours.

And then there's the huge percentage of population that can't get a family doctor, and even if you have one, getting any kind of appointment can take months.

Since i moved I started having some health issues (probably related to american food, heh), and the first time I walked in an hospital (after I walked straight passed it thinking it was a condo building), I couldn't find the ER because I could not find the crowd/line.

I was seen immediately, and the service was 100x more respectful, and problems were found significantly faster.

Of course, its because of the $$$ involved and I have great insurance. Thats unfair to the poor, and I'd still take the Canadian system over that if only so people don't have to be terrified about going bankrupt because they get sick. But in term of care quality, its literally incomparable. Night and day.

Re:Er..

[ashshy]

The Census Bureau says that there are about 116 million households in America. From that perspective, and assuming that the vast majority of Amazon customers don't have multiple Prime accounts per household, "half" sounds about right.

May be cool... we'll see

[The-Ixian]

I am guessing that new releases will not be included in this.

I currently buy all my e-books from B&N and read them on my Nook e-ink. I got locked in to that because, at the time, the Kindle didn't have a backlight and the Nook did.

Turns out, I like the Nook's size and weight and I also like not living 100% in Amazon's ecosystem.

Still... they may still hook me into another year of Prime if the selection of sci-fi is decent. I will just have to read them on a tablet (heavy and bright and battery hungry)

I don't order enough stuff on Amazon to make the 2 day deliver worthwhile and the only reason I kept it for another year was for the Prime video... but it seems like all the good stuff is going paid anyway so I don't see much point in that service anymore.

Re:May be cool... we'll see

[dogvomit]

Purchasing books from Barnes and Noble or Amazon absolutely does NOT lock you in to their ecosystem. All either does is provide a convenient storefront. I buy most of my books from Amazon because they make it convenient and easy to shop, and because I like my Kindle's hardware. But the first thing I do when I buy any book is load it into Calibre, convert it to epub, and archive on my backed up filesystem. No lock in. Some people may point to the DRM, but both B&N and Amazon's DRM have the same effect as that on DVDs. It is so trivially removed that it is simply ignorable.

It's a bit pricey, but I love the Kindle Voyage. It's lighter than your Nook and the haptic feedback rocks. I do covet the Nook's water resistance, though.

Sometimes I buy from Barnes and Noble too, and I've often bought directly from Baen and even Google. The only reason to prefer one over the other is convenience. Thinking that you have to stick with one because of "lock in" is just wrong (for now, at least).

--
Happy Happy Oh My Friend

Great!

[XxtraLarGe]

Another benefit I won't use from Amazon. Amazon Video has some good content, but they don't separate the free stuff from the pay stuff, which makes it a lot more difficult to browse through, so I just use Netflix.

I got Prime for the free 2-day shipping, and that only seems to happen once in a blue moon. I ordered some camping gear a week in advance of my trip, and only part of order was shipped. I received a notification the day before my trip that my other part of the order hadn't shipped yet, and wouldn't arrive until after my camping trip. They offer incentives for you to use slower shipping methods, they should give you credits toward your prime membership if you select 2-day shipping and the package arrives late.

Re:Great!

[tlhIngan]

I got Prime for the free 2-day shipping, and that only seems to happen once in a blue moon. I ordered some camping gear a week in advance of my trip, and only part of order was shipped. I received a notification the day before my trip that my other part of the order hadn't shipped yet, and wouldn't arrive until after my camping trip. They offer incentives for you to use slower shipping methods, they should give you credits toward your prime membership if you select 2-day shipping and the package arrives late.

They do. Just call 'em up and complain.

In fact, if your entire order was in stock and they still didn't ship it all, you can call them and they WILL credit you.

So far, I've gotten extra months of Amazon Prime, as well as $30 off. It's there for your asking.

I have prime in Canada because of the free 2 day, but primarily because of the unlimited nature - a lot of stuff I buy is under the free shipping limit and I find I spend hours trying to find something to bring it over. Prime lets me just order it - doesn't matter that it's $24.99 or less - free shipping. I do enough of them that I can justify it as not having to by craploads of crap.