8 Online
Resources for Book Lovers
I’d like to thank Jess Buike for sharing this article with her readers.
She offers quick and easy to digest reviews mainly within the
fantasy, sci-fi and paranormal genres. Check out her top book lists for a
compilation of books to read now.
Thanks to the Internet, there are thousands of places book lovers
can share, discuss, find and read books online. If you’re a bibliophile, you’ve
probably already heard of LibraryThing and GoodReads, but below
are a few lesser-known sites you might not have heard of.
BookMooch
This free online service allows you to trade books you no longer
want for new ones. Users can receive two books for every one they give away.
This is a perfect way to keep your library replenished without increasing its
size. Unlike a library, you don’t have to return the books you receive. You can
choose to keep it or trade it for another one if you decide not to add it to
your collection. BookMooch works on a point
system. You receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type in and one point
for each book you give away. You then trade in your points for books. You can
also donate your points to charities such as children’s hospitals,
Library fund and African literacy.
Oyster
Similar to Amazon Unlimited, Oyster offers a
subscription-based model. For $9.95 a month you can get access to more than 1
million books, including new releases and textbooks. You can try out the
service free for 14 days. If you’re not interested in a monthly subscription,
you can buy the books individually off the Oyster app on iOS, Android, Kindle,
Nook or your desktop. The company’s partners include Harper Collins, Simon
& Schuster, Penguin Random House and Scholastic.
Luzme
Reading is an expensive habit, especially if you buy your books at
full price. Luzme, a price comparison site, allows you to find the best deals on
eBooks and eTextbooks. Membership is free and you don’t even need to
register to start using the site. However, registration does come with some
perks. You can add books to your wishlist and Luzme will email you when the
prices drop. In addition, you can add your favorite authors and the service
will email you when their new book becomes available.
Wattpad
Available online and as an app, Wattpad is the largest
community for readers and writers. With over 40 million members, the site
boasts 100 million stories available for free. You can follow your favorite
authors and receive notifications when they share a new piece of writing. As a
social site, Wattpad also offers messaging so that you can interact
with writers or other users. It’s a great place to discover new talent and
share your own.
Rare Book Room
This site has photographs and
scans of some of the rarest books from libraries around the world. Constructed
as an educational site, it took a company called Octavo over a decade to
digitally photograph these books. To date, Octavo has digitized around 400
books covering a wide variety of topics and rarity. Some highlights
include Shakespeare Quartos from the British Library, Galileo’s Starry
Messenger and sections of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s
Almanac.
Bookyards
The site has an ambitious dream
– to be the library to the world, in which anyone who has an Internet
connection can access books, education materials, information,
reference materials, documents and content free of charge. So far, the
site has 21,331 eBooks, 38,945 external links, 4,197 news and blog links, 384
videos, and access to hundreds of online libraries. It’s available to use on
your desktop or on your iOS or Android device.
LibriVox
Sometimes you don’t have time to sit down and read a book, but
that doesn’t mean you can’t listen to one. LibriVox offers public
domain audiobooks free of charge. All you need is a computer or mobile device.
Volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain which the site then
releases as audio files. The audio itself is in the public domain so you can
also use it for whatever purpose you want. If you think you have a good
speaking voice, you can also volunteer your talents as a reader. You just need
a computer, microphone and free recording software.
A Virtual Private Network
Whether you want to stay secure when downloading eBooks from sites
or you simply want to maneuver around geo-restrictions, a Virtual Private Network
(VPN) is a book lover’s best friend. Through VPN services, you can encrypt your
IP address to ensure your personal information is safe, secure and anonymous
when surfing on public WiFi. Since you can connect to a local IP through these
services, you can also download books only accessible in your home country
while you travel. You should check out this review
by Secure Thoughts to learn more or find the one that suits your needs.
Many of these resources offer over thousands of books for you to
rent, trade or download, which should hopefully keep you busy for the summer. Others
offer information and protection while you read. Do you know of other sites for
book lovers? Tell us in the comments below.
About the Author: Isa is a freelance writer who believes technology can greatly
increase worldwide literacy. She loves finding sites and communities that
encourage people to read more.
