Website: https://www.scribd.com/
Scribd /ˈskrɪbd/ is a digital library and ebook, audio subscription service that includes one million titles. In addition, Scribd hosts 60 million documents on its open publishing platform. Founded in 2007 by Trip Adler and Jared Friedman and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is backed by Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Charles River Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures. Scribd's ebook subscription service is available on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, as well as the Kindle Fire, Nook, and personal computers. Subscribers can access unlimited books from 1,000 publishers, including HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Harlequin, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Workman, Lonely Planet, Perseus Book Group and Wiley. Scribd added audiobooks to their subscription service in November 2014 and comic books in February 2015.Scribd has 80 million users, and has been referred to as “the Netflix for books. (1)
Some of the books and many of the documents can be downloaded for free. New Books that are still in copyright can't be downloaded, but can be read on line, so there is no need to purchase the book. Scribd give a download button to click if the item is downloadable.
You can create a library of books and documents you want to read, and they are kept in the library until you want nto remove them. Therefore, there is no need to have the book at home, when it is available on line to read, and will enable you to clear out any books you can access via Scribd. Also those little notes we frequently make noting a book we saw that we would like to read someday, well they can be gone over and the books noted can be selectd in Scribd and put in your personal online library. There will never be a need to buy books, if they are available in Scribd. It is an amazing service.
There are a number of other services that are similar to Scribd. These include:
Playster.com (does books, videos, games, movies, and other media, besides just books); A number of URLs lead to Playster. These include: //www.theeebook.org, with a huge, but unordered index. They don't have nearly as many books as Scribd.
Issuu.com : Official website: http://issuu.com/ This service has full text periodicals of all kinds, including paranormal periodicals of all kinds. They claim to have over 25 million documents. This is a very good service and you can download as PDFs many of the periodicals freely by signing up and just going to "Share" and then clicking on download.
Library e-Book check out: article: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-check-out-library-e-books-on-your-kindle-fire/
References:
1. Wikipedia page for Scribd
2. Amazon Kindle Unlimited vs. Scribd vs. Oyster: E-book subscriptions battle it out, Cnet.com, May 8, 2014 http://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-kindle-unlimited-vs-scribd-vs-oyster-e-book-subscriptions/