1000s of Free eBooks and audiobooks via BorrowBox

Do you enjoy borrowing books from your local library to gain knowledge, for entertainment or read to your kids? If you do, have you heard about the app BorrowBox that allows you to sign up via your local library and access thousands of audiobooks and ebooks online for free?

Currently most libraries in the UK are part of the scheme. As far as I know BorrowBox is also available in other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia and only some libraries in the USA. But it’s worth asking your library whether they offer the BorrowBox service.

The benefits of using BorrowBox?

Since my young daughter and I are bookworms, we can never have enough books. However with only so much space in our home library, we had to find an alternative to buying more books. BorrowBox allowed us to read more books without taking up the space.

Benefits of using Borrowbox:

• It’s free to down load the BorrowBox App and free to use.
• Doesn’t take up space like books.
• No need to carry heavy books around.
• You can multitask by listening to an audiobook and still get other stuff done.
• Listen to an audiobook on your commute instead of reading a book that may make you feel nauseous.
• Saves you a trip to the library when you don’t have time.
• 24/7 access. Don’t need to wait for the library to open.
• You can use it anywhere in the world. While I was traveling abroad, I used BorrowBox to read children’s books to my little girl.
• No more missing books.
• Paperless, therefore more eco-friendly.
• No more late fees.
• The app can be downloaded on iPhones, iPads, Android phones & tablets and Amazon Kindle Fire devices.

How does BorrowBox work?

BorrowBox is basically a virtual extension of your local, physical library. The library can then select what kind of content they would like to have in their collection of eBooks and audiobooks for you to borrow.

If you are not yet signed up to your local library, you’ll first need to sign up. Though I know majority of UK libraries are singed up to the scheme, it’s worth asking to double check. If your library hasn’t signed up to this scheme, unfortunately you wont be able to use BorrowBox. Once you’ve signed up to your local library, you’ll be given your library membership card and a pin, which is also used to log into BorrowBox.

Once you’ve logged into BorrowBox, you’ll be able to browse your local library’s collection of audiobooks and eBooks by author, titles, genre and categories. The limit of how many audiobooks and eBooks you can borrow depends on your library as they’ve set the limit. If you are based on the Isle of Wight like me, each Isle of Wight Library account can borrow 4 audiobooks and 8 eBooks at a time. Kids account here on the isle also have the same limit.

Another way to read online for free

If you are an Amazon Prime Member you’ll be able to read thousands of books and magazines for free via the Kindle app if you don’t have an Amazon Kindle device. The Kindle app can be downloaded for free. Since I have an iPhone and iPad, I too had to download the Kindle app to benefit from their free books selection. All free books for Prime Members have a little prime sign, where as the other books without the Prime logo can be purchased.

To learn about the benefits of Amazon Prime, have a look at How to get Amazon Prime for free & its benefits!

do you know of any other free ways to read books or listen to audiobooks? If so please do share in the comments down below or on The Thrifty Island Girl Facebook page.