<p>Even though the lending to family and friends sounds good, it doesn’t work that we’ll in practice. First of all, you have to remember that you can only lend a book once, so you can’t share it with more than one person. Also, the publisher has to allow lending. The vast majority of my Kindle books don’t allow lending.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying that, acollegestudent.</p>
<p>Our public libraries in NYC require really long waits for popular ebooks. At least that has been my experience.</p>
<p>Regarding library book downloading - many people don’t know that libraries usually join consortium’s to buy e-books and that it’s possible to join different libraries, that are members of different consortium’s, to extend your e-book borrowing. I’m guessing they may close this loophole in the future, but for now, I belong to several libraries and can download books from three of them, all with some different selections.</p>
<p>There are three public library systems in NYC and all of them have problems with not having sufficient funding to purchase enough copies of ebooks.</p>
<p>Off-topic for sure, but we once met someone in a suburban library. When we walked in the door, my daughter said, wow, can we join this library??? Of course it was beautiful!</p>
<p>Well, in Pennsylvania you CAN join any library in the state as long as you have your up to date Pennsylvania library card. Not all libraries will allow out of the area patrons to have access to their e-books, but there is one notable exception. The Free Library of Philadelphia allows anyone, from any state, to obtain a library card for a $50 fee. This is waived for PA residents with PA library cards. [FLP</a> - Get a Library Card](<a href=“http://libwww.freelibrary.org/register/getcard1.cfm]FLP”>Get a Library Card) </p>
<p>It’s a shame that publishing houses charge so darn much for downloadable books.</p>