More on Reading Digital Books

After using the Overdrive (the Northern California Digital Library) for two months now, the site is now constantly busy. I have one book checked out until June 10 and have not been able to click on it. Another "con" I have discovered of this site.

I had not considered trying the Cloud Library for my local library until just last week. I have since read one book this way (which had a six-month wait on Overdrive) and am in the middle of reading another. I have also put two on hold, both of which will be available in 20-some-odd days. 

The "pros" I have found to the Cloud Library is that is free (obviously!) with my library card and there are some books I have found on this site that I did not find on Overdrive and as I said above, one that has currently has a six-month wait on Overdrive was readily available on Cloud Library. The "cons" of course are that I have to look at the screen for so long and some titles are not available (but that can be expected). Thank goodness the Zip Books program is still running. I just received another book from this (haven't read it yet) and currently have five out, waiting to be returned to the library upon its reopening. And of course I still have the ones at home that I have bought over the years and have yet to read, along with the recently ordered ones from Amazon. 

And I have the ones downloaded from Project Gutenberg onto iBooks. This I have been using for about two years now and as with books bought from stores, I tend to "collect" books this way and have some I have not yet read. The "pros" to this site is that it is free and that books can be downloaded and be read whenever. No return dates. The "cons" are that it is only older books, not the place to get recent releases or current or recent bestsellers. Many such books can be found on Overdrive and Cloud Library. But there may be a wait time. I'm personally surprised that some of the books with a long wait on Overdrive don't have the same wait time on Cloud Library.

As I have said before, I still prefer physical books and am anxious to get back to the library. But when that happens, I will not give up digital books altogether. I will still read maybe one or two a month if I can't find the physical books at the library and if I don't want to order a particular book by Zip Books. Either way is free and you can't beat that. I'll only buy a book if I really want it as was the case with those I just got from Amazon.