When I chose the nomad life, in the tiny home that is our 22-foot camper, I knew I was going to have to find other ways to continue my reading habit. Also, living in Todos Santos meant very limited access to books.
I will always prefer paper books over digital ones. Some of it is my sentimentality - the smell, the feel, etc - but it is more difficult for me to read ebooks because of the lighting and the fact that I can’t just flip pages open to where my interest is piqued. Given the weight and space that paper books take, however, a tablet is a good solution, and I’m getting more used to it.
Today, someone asked me where they might find “cheap audiobooks” and so I thought it would be helpful to share here all the ways I access books and other materials. Of course, you can search online, but I’ve often found that these articles are written by those who’ve not really reviewed what they’re suggesting, aren’t readers, or it’s just copypasta or sophisticated advertising.
So without further ado, here is a guide to digital libraries for anyone, nomad or otherwise.
Scribd.com (subscription) - not free, and considered the “Netflix of books” although I must add the caveat that if you read a lot you will find your access to books throttled. What this looks like is that while you will still have a lot of books to choose from, they may not be ones you’d actually want to read. This recently happened to me, as I was reading more Scribd books than I usually do. First, I noticed that the available and suggested books changed drastically - mostly the pulp fiction of the romance sort (not that I don’t enjoy a romance occasionally, but…). It was very strange. When I did more research, I found that they had throttled what I had access to until the end of the month. I wrote them, and they gave me the same reasoning I’d found others reported online: a vague reasoning about making sure that their authors got paid and that availability was limited to demand, etc. The way it was explained in a Reddit chat I found was that they have to pay for every book that is read, and so if you read a lot, they have to pay the author/publisher (I should hope so!). So, I can only assume that they are throttling and showing me books I wouldn’t want to read to avoid paying out while also giving the impression that there are still unlimited books for me as a subscriber to read. This is very disappointing, and I’m considering whether my subscription is worth it.
However, I found that this only applies to ebooks and audiobooks, not to documents, many of which are books that have been uploaded in pdf form. So, you may still be able to read the book but will have to download the pdf to do so. Also, because the documents are uploaded by customers, they don’t always have the titles or keywords, so you will have to do a deeper dig to find what you're looking for.
Scribd also has sheet music, which has been great for me to be able to find music books to teach piano lessons in Todos Santos. Although I have generally abandoned my Atlantic Monthly reading habit, occasionally I will look up an article that I want to read online that has been paywalled.
Audible.com (subscription) - they have improved significantly over the past couple of years, offering a lot of free audiobooks along with the 1 or 2 credits you get with your monthly subscription.
Libby (free) - an app that allows you to read ebooks you check out from your local library. If you don’t have a local library (as I don’t), I found that you can apply to have a temporary card for about 6 months, at least with my former library in Multnomah County, in Portland, Oregon. They may not have certain obscure titles, out of print editions, and you may have to put something on hold - like at an actual library - and wait for it to become available. They also have many current magazines in circulation for checking out. The great thing about this is that unlike physical library books that, if you’re like me, you forget to return…they are automatically returned and you can say goodbye to fines.
Archive.org (free)- this is the online Library of Libraries. They will have obscure titles, out-of-print editions, etc. It is less sleek - most of the books are scanned and not in ebook format. You can read them on the computer as there is no app, and sometimes they only allow you to borrow the book for an hour, after which you need to renew it. I would encourage supporting this organization as they are attempting to preserve the many books that are out of print and being retired from circulation. The Archive also has the Wayback Machine - a searchable database for billions of internet web pages.
pdfdrive.com (free) - When you can’t find a book on Scribd or Archive, you can download a pdf version of it here. It’s free.
z-lib.org (free) - another site where you can download books for free, usually in the epub form, rather than pdf. They have a pretty good selection, but you need to be aware that there are limitations on how much you can download in one 24-hour period - for the basic free membership, it’s 10, which even for me is a LOT.
Hoopladigital.com (free) - it’s a sister to Libby in that it’s connected to your local library account, but this includes media like movies, tv shows, and comics. It won’t have newly released shows, but if you want to watch something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you probably will be able to.
Audiobooks.com (subscription) - I decided to try out the free trial but found that I was so used to the audible that this interface felt strange to me, and I just never got into it, so I never really even listened to the two books I got.
Librivox.org (free) - audiobooks that are in the public domain, so mostly classics. I’ve never actually used it, but I am considering volunteering to read for them as love reading aloud and more than a few times have been told I have a great reading voice and style. It would give me more excuses to read and I’d actually read books that I feel I should have read already (believe it or not, I’ve never read an unabridged Dickens, for example - I’m just not that well-read).
webtoon (free) - an app for reading comics/graphic novels. If you are a budding comics artist/storyteller, you can also create and add your comics to the library. I haven’t read as much on here as I’d like - I love good comics and graphic novels.
Littlefreelibrary.org (free) - actual physical books! In a cute little house! Okay, not a digital library, but is a free source of books, so worthy of Honorable Mention. Little free libraries are great for finding things you might not be looking for but have perhaps wanted to read. It’s a bit like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates - you never know what you’re going to get. It’s also a way to pass on books you’ve finished with. I found one in Anacortes at an RV park where I dropped off the Heinlein novel I read earlier this summer; I have a commitment with myself to give away each book I’ve brought with me to Baja once I’ve read it as both a way to practice generosity and abundance as well as letting go of my attachments to books and living a little more minimally. Not all LFLs are on the site, so if you happen to find an unlisted one - or make one yourself! - you can add it. When I first discovered the site, my brother (who’s probably even more of a bibliophile than me) was visiting from Brazil and we went on a “little free library crawl” in the middle of the snowiest winter Portland had seen in a long time and found some great books.
I am ever on the lookout for more resources, so if you know of one that I’ve not mentioned here, please share below for all of us to enjoy!
I did not know that about Scribd. I haven't used it in a while, but now I'll probably never use it again ...Obviously their goal is to make money, but throttling? WTF
As for ZLibrary ... they offer the ability to convert files to various other formats, so if you don't like epub - like me - then there's (almost) always that option