As if we didn’t have enough reasons to love Kindle – or Prime for that matter – you can now borrow books from the Kindle lending library if you are a paying Prime member.  This is a really smart move by Amazon, because it sets Kindle further apart from the rest of the e-reader pack.

According to the announcement on Amazon.com, Prime members can borrow up to one book per month from a list of “thousands of books…including New York Times Bestsellers”.  Color me excited!  We have been using a promotional Prime membership that doesn’t count for the lending library, but our membership expires next month and we plan to start the paid Prime membership.  This is one of the first benefits I plan to use when we do.The Kindle lending library boasts such titles as Fast Food Nation, The Final Move Beyond Iraq, The 5 Love Languages, Indignation, Tropical Heat and many more among the 5,000 titles it claims to offer.

Your Kindle must be registered to the Prime account, so no letting others use your Prime membership, but that is a reasonable expectation.

The only downside I see is that the book must be read on an actual Kindle, and can’t be used from a reading app.  I frequently switch between my Kindle and my Android Kindle app, so that will slow me down some.

Overall, I’m pretty excited about this announcement and can’t wait to try it out next month.  In addition to the lending library, Prime members also get unlimited streaming of certain TV shows and movies, which is my husband’s favorite part.  We are canceling Netflix when we renew Prime and will be saving another $2 per month on TV costs.