Amazon says Kindle owners can lend Harry Potter e-books

One of the minor deterrents to buying an Amazon Kindle was the fact that you couldn’t really share the books you bought with anyone without lending them the whole device, of course. Naturally, in this digital age of piracy and what not, that really wouldn’t work. Not that this has stopped the community from complaining about it, but big brands in the industry are always looking for work-arounds for such situations, and Amazon has one in the form of their Kindle Owners Lending Library. 

In a bid to generate more business and encourage users to get onboard the Kindle train of eBooks and e-readers, Amazon.com has declared that some books could be lent to other Kindle users. The books in question are those of J. K. Rowling (now a household name) i.e. Harry Potter. The adventures and mysteries of the now infinitely famous boy wizard and his merry band of friends can now be bought off the Amazon Kindle online store and lent to other Kindle users. 

The magic of lending

Amazon’s strategic move was not just to push sales of their e-readers, but also to promote their Amazon Prime service is what Amazon.com’s, head honcho, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos mentioned. It was reported that the online retailer purchased an exclusive license from author J.K. Rowling's Pottermore e-book business to make all seven Harry Potter e-books available to lend through the Kindle platform for their customers. Just how much the company paid for this license has not been disclosed, but suffice to say, there would be no shortage of zeros on that cheque. 

"This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we'll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners," Bezos said in a statement.

Starting June 19 users of the Amazon Kindle e-reader can delight in the wonder of Rowling’s fantasy adventures in multiple languages - English, French, Italian, German and Spanish on their devices. 

Purchased e-books can be lent to other Kindle owners as frequently as once a month. The Kindle Owners Lending Library from Amazon already has more than 145,000 e-books to borrow for free. The e-book reading community is gaining ground and fast with magazine and newspaper subscriptions also making big investments into the e-reader and tablet segment.

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