Scribd App

Reading books has been a hobby that I have always loved since I was a kid, but it’s one that has become very expensive in recent years. The cost of the average paperback reached heights that made reading a luxury for me. I was helped a little bit when I got my hands on my first e-reader, as it was quite easy to find free titles and specials that had some great books available for a very good price. The titles available were pretty limited though, which meant turning back to paying full price, which wasn’t that much more affordable in digital versus paper format.

It was almost by pure accident that I stumbled across an ad for an app called Scribd. The way they described it was like Netflix for books, which was something that I found to be very appealing. The cost came in at $8.99 per month, which I thought was more than a little respectable. Before I spend any money, though, I always like to do a little due diligence, and what I found out about Scribd was not all that positive. The biggest complaint seemed to be about the lack of new titles available, as well as the fact that most of the major publishing houses were not on board with the idea.

I passed in trying out thee service until I was sent an e-mail offering me one month of service for free. I decided to give it a shot and was delighted to see that signing up was as easy as connecting Scribd with my Facebook account. I was required to put a credit card on file with them and was relieved to see that no charges were forthcoming as promised. It was then that I decided to take a look around to see what was available.

While there is a definite lack of new titles available, I was still able to add 6 books to my library based upon recommendations for me. I did a little check to see what they would cost if I were to download them via the Nook or Kindle app to my tablet and saw that I would be ahead of the game even if I only read one title per month, which is a very conservative number given how much I read. The app itself is incredibly easy to use and follow. Once you read the synopsis of the books, which are divided by genre, you can choose to skip it, add it to your library or start reading.

The reader works like every other, as you can flip the page using a mouse on your PC, or with your finger when using a tablet or e-reader. Page turns are smooth and there are a good number of features available that make it fun to use.

Rating 3 out of 5, but with the possibility or a higher rating when new publishers are added.