Resurrecting this moldy old carcass of a blog just in case this information is helpful to any other readers out there. I recently tried 30-day trials of Kobo Plus, Scribd, and Kindle Unlimited and had Opinions about the experiences that require airing. All of these platforms rely on a subscription fee to give you access to read the books, but they do not give you ownership of the books, and you lose access to all the material as soon as your subscription ends.
Kobo Plus:
I’ve used Kobo in the past for purchasing a few ebooks but hadn’t tried their monthly subscription. I tried the Kobo Plus Read & Listen plan, which is normally $9.99/month as of now. During the 30 days, I read:
Ebooks:
- Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
- Seven for a Secret by Mary Webb
- These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
Audiobooks:
- The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon
- The Queen and the Cure by Amy Harmon
- She by H. Rider Haggard
- The PG Wodehouse Collection (the parts of the collection I hadn’t already read)
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (short story)
- “The Cats of Ulthar” by H. P. Lovecraft (short story)
- “Lot No. 249” by Arthur Conan Doyle (short story)
- “The Dunwich Horror” by H. P. Lovecraft (short story)
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (didn’t finish)
I enjoyed what I read, but by the end of 30 days, I was also coming up pretty empty on things I really wanted to read. Kobo has a lot of classics you could easily read on Librivox for free, and a lot of self-published stuff that varies wildly in quality. I disliked the mobile app intensely, especially for audiobooks; it would randomly skip ahead several chapters and absolutely would not allow me to go back. The only way to fix it was to delete the audiobook and re-download it. Ultimately, I thought the trial was well worth it, but continuing the subscription definitely wasn’t.
Scribd:
I had high hopes for Scribd because their selection looked so impressive. I added 250+ books to my to-read list and excitedly planned to binge as much as I could in 30 days, and maybe even extend the subscription, which costs $11.99/month. During the 30 days, I read:
Ebooks:
- A Walk in Wolf Wood by Mary Stewart
- The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
- Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
- Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
- My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier (in Documents)
Audiobooks:
- Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher
- The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
- The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
- Being Seen by Elsa Sjunneson
- “The Design” by China Mieville (short story)
- Paladin’s Hope by T. Kingfisher (didn’t finish)
Scribd’s selection does indeed look great on paper…until I realized that the more I read throughout the month, the fewer books were available to me. Scribd throttles access to the full selection as you consume content, so after I’d read two ebooks and two audiobooks in a month, I only had access to about half of the titles on my to-read list. By the time I’d read four ebooks and four audiobooks, I only had access to Scribd originals (Scribd-only content that looked extremely unappealing) and Documents. (Documents are a bit of a grey area on Scribd; people clearly upload full novels to them, and you can read them even when all other content is throttled, but I can’t imagine that it’s legal to do so.) The more recent, popular books you read, the faster you’re throttled, so you might be able to read a bunch of classics without much impact (although you could also get those for free on Librivox), but if you read a couple bestsellers, that’s pretty much it for the month. I was also incensed to discover that the throttling can happen mid-book, as happened with Paladin’s Hope—I was literally in the middle of listening to it when I lost access. Scribd cheerfully announces that these titles will become available to you again at the start of your next billing cycle.
I was very frustrated by this, obviously, but I was also halfway through a book and had some other titles I really wanted to check out (had to feed that T. Kingfisher obsession), so I grudgingly decided to pay for one month of Scribd. I was also wondering if the throttling might not be so bad once I got on the paid plan, as opposed to the free trial. During my second 30 days on Scribd, I read:
Ebooks:
- Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
- Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher
- The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher
- The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher
- Plot Gardening by Chris Fox (in Documents)
Audiobook:
- Paladin’s Hope (finally finished!)
- River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
- “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now” by Daphne Du Maurier (short stories)
- “Origin Story” by T. Kingfisher (short story)
- Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (didn’t finish)
The throttling was just as bad, sadly, and once again I was cut off halfway through the last audiobook. By then I was fed up with Scribd. It might be okay for light readers (although one wonders if $11.99/month is worth it, in that case), but in my opinion, not for high-volume readers. The mobile app was better than Kobo’s, I’ll give them that. It’s worth doing the trial to get a few titles in, if you’re prepared to lose access partway through.
Kindle Unlimited:
I had done a trial of Kindle Unlimited a long time ago, and I don’t read a whole lot of indie authors so I didn’t find it to be worth it for me. But it had been long enough that I’d accumulated a list of KU titles by a friend to check out again, so I signed up for a 30-day trial of the plan that usually costs $11.99/month. (There’s currently a special where it’s $0.99/month for three months, but that wasn’t available to me at the time.) During the 30 days, I read:
Ebooks:
- Vow of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes
- Heart of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes
- A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon
- The Moonfire Bride by Sylvia Mercedes
- The Sunfire King by Sylvia Mercedes
- Of Wolves and Wardens by Sylvia Mercedes
- The Beggar Prince by Kate Stradling
- Of Silver and Secrets by Sylvia Mercedes
- Carabosse and the Spindle Spell by Sylvia Mercedes
- Overpowered by Kathryn McConaughy
Audiobooks:
None. I know there are a few audiobook titles available in KU, but they’re few and far between, and none of them really caught my eye.
I made good use of the time, but I felt pretty satisfied at the end of the trial that I’d read everything I wanted to for now. I just don’t read enough of the titles on KU for it to be worth paying a monthly fee; I’m far more likely to keep a list of indie books I want to read on KU and then sign up for a month every year or two to work my way through that list. Also, while I adore audiobooks, the selection on KU just doesn’t tickly my fancy.
My alternatives:
Ultimately I decided not to keep any of the three subscriptions, so what do I do instead? These are my favorite alternatives:
- I devour books on Libby, the free library app, like they’re going out of style. This is the first place I look for books, and I consume tons of audiobooks and a few ebooks this way. The selection (at least for our county library) is amazing, and if you have cards in different libraries, you can add more than one card to the app and expand your selection.
- My second stop is usually Hoopla, which also provides content through the library. Selection is limited and very random, but I do find some good stuff sometimes. Not bad for free.
- For books in the public domain that aren’t on Libby or Hoopla, the Librivox app is a great way to go. The audiobooks are read by volunteers, so the quality is quite hit-or-miss, but it’s free.
- Physical library books either from the county or from interlibrary loan are old-school but also often the best way to get hold of tough-to-find titles. I’m lazy and put holds on books that I want to all be delivered to the same branch in my county so I can go in and pick everything up at once.
- I don’t often buy audiobooks, but when I do, I like Chirp. They run good deals sometimes, and I feel better about supporting them than Amazon-owned Audible.
I hope this will be helpful for other folks in their hunt for books. Happy reading!