The Honking Goose

This content was originally published on Medium (February 24th) and has been adapted by The Honking Goose platform.

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As a Blind Bookworm 🐛📚, I like to read lots of books, mostly fiction but occasionally non-fiction too. In the future, I might write about the books that I enjoyed reading. As readers can imagine, reading while being blind can be a challenge; however, technology makes this process a lot easier. The purpose of this short article is to share where to find eBooks using the internet, borrowing from trusted libraries.

Throughout the creation of this article, I researched public library options that exist, searched for subscription services that give access to a diverse collection of eBooks and Audiobooks, and included resources that are only available to blind and print-disabled readers like me. There will at least be one resource that is available to any reader reading this article. I have chosen to bold rather than link directly to the places, products, and services in this article because I want to be clear that I am not being paid a referral fee, I’m sharing these specific options because I believe they are good high-quality resources and everyone accessing this article has access to Google or a similar search engine. If the reader is in a rush, they can just Google the bold text and find what they are looking for.

The first step should be to visit the nearest public library. The goal is to get a library card to access its digital services. Readers should bring a Government ID and secondary proof of address, like bank statement or tax return. Many libraries only allow people who live near them to become patrons. This is for many reasons, and it can make it harder for people who do not live near a public library to get a library card. If in this situation, do some research, many libraries offer non-residents a library card in exchange for an annual fee.

Once readers have their library card, they will need two apps: Libby and Kindle. Both are free although Kindle will require an Amazon account to complete setup. The Libby app will verify the library card number and show the eBooks and Audiobooks that are available to borrow. Once they have selected and borrowed a book, the app will ask to connect to the Kindle app, where readers can read the borrowed book. When done reading, return the book using the Libby app or let the loan expire, and it will return to the library automatically, on time, and with no late fees. It is a straightforward way to find books and read them free of charge

Amazon Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service offered by Amazon which provides a large library of books that users can read on their Amazon Kindle App or Device is no waiting for a book to be available and no checkout limit as long as the subscription continues to be paid readers can read the books for as long as they like.

Amazon Audible Premium Plus is another subscription service offered by Amazon. Subscribers get credit to buy one audiobook a month and get access to a library over 150K audiobooks to stream as often as they like.

Spotify for an extra fee gives access to their audiobook collection; however, subscribers only get 15 hours of listening time. This will limit them between 1 and 2 books a month unless they pay extra listening time. I personally do not believe this is a good choice for listeners who read several books a month, but it is a choice worth including.

Another service called Everland, owned by Scribd, is worth considering. They sell access to their audiobook collection as a monthly subscription service.

NLS at the Library of Congress lends braille books, audiobooks (on cartridges with a player), and through a website and mobile app called BARD for their patrons to access audiobooks and digital braille. This is a government services and there is no fee to access it, but it is only available to people who are legally blind or print-disabled. For those curious about what the acronyms mean, I do not know but when I asked Microsoft Copilot AI, it told me this: BARD = Braille and Audio Reading Download and NLS = National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled

Bookshare by Benetech is a third-party company who provides access to accessible books to people who are blind or meet other eligibility criteria, they provide text through a web reader which supports audio playback with computer voices, a downloadable DAISY format book compatible with specialized book reading software and it’s mobile apps. Readers can listen using the app’s computer voices or let their screen reader do its magic. It is not a full audiobook platform and focuses on K12 + College Textbooks but does have a wide variety of other books. It costs $80/year, but students might be able to get their plan funded if they live in the US and are enrolled in K12 or Higher Ed schools.

Learning Ally is a service that aims to help readers with dyslexia. They might be willing to help people with other disabilities like being blind. I do not know if they allow people without a disability. They appear to focus on audiobooks. If the service meets the reader’s needs, they should contact them directly.

The Internet Archive is a resource with many resources available to be borrowed including texts, audio, and video resources most of it is viewed with a special reader that can be a bit tricky to use and it’s more of primary sources to use during research than a general library of books to read however I found it interesting enough to share in this article.

For access to over 75.000 books in the public domain (this term means they have aged outside the protection of copyright and are free for anyone to read and share), I would recommend visiting Project Gutenberg. At the same time, these are older books, and the writing style may be challenging for some readers. It is a rich collection of books that have been preserved because they are still worth reading.
WorldCat is a search engine which finds libraries near the user’s location which have a specific book in their catalog. Readers may find this tool particularly useful when they need to access a specific book urgently.

There are many more resources available on the internet to access eBooks and Audiobooks, and one article cannot list them all. I hope you find these resources helpful for your reading journey.