Oyster: The Netflix of Books

by Alison Green on August 27, 2015

And now a break to talk about a sponsor…

We have a bunch of readers on here, and I bet a lot of you don’t know about Oyster but you should!

I resisted switching to an e-reader for a long time. I was — well, I thought I was — a traditionalist when it comes to reading books. But I started reading on an iPad while traveling, because it’s amazing how you can carry hundreds of books with you on a tiny device, and then I got hooked. Now, although I’m slightly unsettled by this fact, I actually prefer reading on a tablet. Here’s why:
Oyster 1

  • I can read in bed in the dark while my husband sleeps; no light needed.
  • I can get a book I want to read instantly; no having
    to go get it from the library or bookstore or having to wait for it to show up from Amazon. It shows up right now.
  • The aforementioned taking hundreds of books with you when you travel and not having to just take a few and hope that you’ll stay in the mood for them.

So. Enter Oyster. Named one of TechCrunch’s “Best Apps,” Oyster Unlimited is a ridiculously beautiful e-book subscription service that will give you unlimited access to more than 1 million books (for only 99 cents for 3 months right now!). You can read as many books as you want, for as long as you want, and you can download books to read them offline. They’ve got books in every genre from top publishers and everything from classics to new releases to the New York Time’s best-sellers and award winners, with new titles added every day.

Oyster also has a store where you can buy books that aren’t yet in subscription and read them on the Oyster app, so all of your books are in one place. If you only want to purchase books, you can buy any book inOyster 2 the store without having a subscription.

There are lots of cool features, like recommendations based on what you like to read, the ability to follow friends and swap book recommendations, and access to the reading list of interesting people (like Michael Chabon and Doris Kearns Goodwin). You can even read all of the Harry Potter books in custom themes inspired by each Hogwarts House (!).

Another cool thing, especially if you tend to stay up reading way too late, which is often my own downfall: Based on your location and the time of day, Oyster will reduce the blue light coming from your screen as the day turns into night (this is good, because devices that emit blue light can suppress your production of melatonin, keeping you awake and making you less alert the next morning). 

Oyster is accessible on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Nook HD, and on the web.

Some of my favorites on Oyster include:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clark (if you haven’t read this yet, please do so immediately)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
A Room with A View by E. M. Forster

Oyster 3Normally Oyster Unlimited is just $9.95 a month, but to get a special promotion of three months for only 99 cents, use this special link.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Oyster. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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    2. Formica Dinette*

      Thank goodness for cats. Otherwise, we would never know that we are doing everything wrong. :D

  3. Amber Rose*

    I almost never read paper books anymore. The feeling of holding one will always be superior to my tablet, but you just can’t beat walking around with your entire library in your pocket. And my family doesn’t complain about boxes of books taking over the house.

    I’ll have to look into this later. It’s not expensive but my numerous inexpensive subscriptions are starting to kill off my pay.

    1. ThursdaysGeek*

      I don’t like having to carry my entire library around with me. Instead I have books by the bed, by the toilet, in the kitchen, at work. Wherever I am, I can pick up a book. It does mean that I am reading several books at the same time, but that’s still better than having to carry something with me. Plus, we have a library in our house, so I have a great supply of reading material to distribute. As for travel, one of my great joys is walking into a bookstore in a new town and finding a book I would never have found elsewhere. I guess I’m still unconverted.

      1. OriginalEmma*

        Vacationing once as a kid down the shore, I went into a bookshop and was caught by the original cover art of The Things They Carried. I could not put it down after I bought it…and until then and even after, I was never a big military history buff. 20 years later, that book is still one of my favorites.

      2. la Contessa*

        I’m with you on being unconverted. I’ve always got a book in my bag, though. I don’t need my entire library, I’m only reading the one book, which I can whip out any time I have a few minutes free. Wandering around used book stores in other towns is one of my favorite vacation hobbies. I have to be careful if we flew somewhere, but if we drove, I will come home with a bag of new-to-me books. The smell when you first walk into a bookstore . . .

        1. ThursdaysGeek*

          Plus, you find books local to that area, books by local authors, signed copies of books. A local history book makes a great souvenir of a trip.

      3. Ellie H.*

        Me too. Always reading many books at once – I have them everywhere. (I don’t even own very many books. I basically never buy them, I get millions out of the library though.) I am really happy for everyone that likes his or her e-reader and loves reading with it, but in general I guess I don’t think it’s good for a person to have so many choices 24/7. It’s good to have to wait to get something sometimes and to be a little bored sometimes. I would never be able to decide what to read, start reading, not wonder “would I rather be reading something else” etc. with an e-reader. I have enough of that with the real books!

    2. Schnauz*

      One of my lottery winning fantasies is to be able to buy both formats so I can read at ANY TIME, but still enjoy paper books at home.

      1. Formica Dinette*

        I hadn’t thought of that! It could be my incentive to finally start playing the lottery. ;)

    3. Muriel Heslop*

      I had to go to an e-reader to save my marriage; my spouse does not approve of “clutter”.

  4. themmases*

    This looks great! I didn’t know about it.

    I had to start keeping my e-reader apps on sepia mode (and 1/3 brightness at most) permanently a couple of years ago because I was getting eyestrain from staring at a screen all the time for both work and play. It works but it means I don’t get the noticeable relief of turning down the blue in the evenings.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      After I had Lasik last year, I had major light sensitivity for a while and had trouble looking at an e-reader in a dark room at night. I discovered I could solve the problem by switching to white text on a black background, and even now that the light sensitivity is gone, I’ve kept that setting. I don’t know if it helps with eye strain, but it’s helped me to feel like I don’t have a massive bright object in an otherwise dark bedroom.

      1. themmases*

        I’m the same, I no longer really notice eyestrain at all but I haven’t gone back. I had relief almost immediately, within a few hours to a day, after I turned down the brightness or installed f.lux on everything with a screen– and it had been giving me headaches too, apparently.

        With that kind of effect, I’d feel like I was tempting fate to switch everything back. Like the baffled people in Sensodyne commercials.

      2. A Bug!*

        I apologize for my off-topic comment, but how was your experience generally with LASIK? I’ve never really considered it before but my optometrist told me recently that my prescription’s stayed stable long enough to make me a candidate. I’ve needed to wear glasses all day every day since I was a kid, so the idea of not having to deal with glasses or contacts is very attractive to me.

        1. Ask a Manager* Post author

          I LOVE it now, but I had real doubts in the first few weeks after the surgery, because I had major dryness issues (which for a while kept feeling like something was in my eye). It went away after a few weeks, but apparently for a very small number of people, it doesn’t ever end up going away — and having had a taste of that and knowing that it could have been permanent made me second-guess whether it had been sensible to do totally optional surgery that comes with that sort of risk. The risk is small, yes, but it does happen for some people, and it would have sucked to have saddled myself with that problem forever just to get rid of contacts/glasses.

          That said, now it’s gone and I love the results, and most people don’t have complications like that. I still can’t believe that I can wake up and read the clock on the other side of the room, or just fall into bed without dealing with contacts. It feels crazy to have 20/20 vision.

          1. A Bug!*

            The risk is exactly why I’m hesitant to look into getting a consult. My vision is correctable now, and the devil you know and all that. But to have normal vision when I’m swimming or showering or just waking up? To not have to make the decision between the inconveniences that come with wearing glasses and the inconveniences that come with wearing contacts? It’s putting up a really good fight with my frugal, risk-averse nature.

            1. Cordelia Longfellow*

              I am apparently one of the rare people for whom the temporary side effects of laser eye surgery are permanent. I was only eligible for PRK, not Lasik, but 3 years after my surgery, I still have major light sensitivity, dry eyes, and difficulty driving at night. My recovery was awful – six weeks of awful headaches as my brain tried to catch up with my eyes. And then I went from having one pair of glasses I wore all the time before my surgery to needing three pairs of glasses every day: sunglasses all year round; prescription glasses with blue-light coating for computer work; and prescription glasses for night driving. Getting eye surgery is the only major regret I have in my life.

              But every other person I know who’s done it (and I know a lot of folks) has raved about it. I am definitely an outlier, so YMMV.

    2. Mockingjay*

      f.lux does the same thing, for your pc/laptop and tablet. I swear by it. I have been using it for work for the past 2 years – less glare and almost no eyestrain.

      Free download.

      https://justgetflux.com/

      I’ve got half the office using it. (I’d like to see a version for Kindle; in the interim, I do the same as you for strain, switch the text to sepia or white on black.)

      2. themmases*

        Thanks! I use f.lux on my laptop and love it, but the last time I looked I couldn’t find it for my tablet. I’ll definitely be installing it later today.

        No more bracing myself to switch from my nice, dark, sepia-toned book to look something up in what looks like a glaring white browser!

  5. Meg Murry*

    I prefer reading on an e-ink device like the Kindle paperwhite – less glare and eyestrain. I also like that I can turn up the font size so I don’t need my glasses to read. My elementary aged son also likes to borrow my Kindle for this reason – he finds it easier to read with larger text.

    I don’t have any ebook subscription services right now, but I do have cards to 4 different library systems in my area, all of which have pretty extensive listings on Overdrive, so I almost always can get anything that isn’t a brand new release in a week or less. I love checking out ebooks from the library because it means no late fees – I have a slight problem with checking out way too many books and then not returning them on time.

    1. Cordelia Naismith*

      +1 to the Kindle Paperwhite. It’s much easier on the eyes than reading on a tablet like the Kindle Fire or an iPad.

    2. AFT123*

      I was JUST going to come here and rep the Kindle Paperwhite!! I seriously can’t recommend it enough, and I wish I was rich so I could buy one for everyone I know. I get really bad eye-strain with traditional screens, and the Paperwhite is PERFECT for reading with a light, without eye strain. I love mine so much, I want to marry it.

      Everyone should buy a Paperwhite. :)

    3. AnotherAlison*

      I also like my paperwhite device because its internet browsing capabilities are practically useless (at least in the gen device I own). I need to be forced offline sometimes.

    4. jhhj*

      I’m a huge e-ink fan. It’s much lighter — nearly weightless — and much less bright. And also it doesn’t have built-in distractions like a tablet does.

    5. themmases*

      I love Overdrive too. For some reason, even as an otherwise together adult, I am just really terrible at returning books on time. In fact I have some physical books I need to go pay the fines on right now so I can get my Overdrive account reactivated.

      I even kind of like the waiting list/holds. I like trying to manage it so everything doesn’t come at once and I get a nice mix of book types. I also find that if I put something on hold because it sounds cool and then have to either read it or forfeit it once it becomes available, I actually read a better variety of books than if I just pick what I gravitate to right when I want to start it. It’s kind of like a Netflix queue full of classics you “should” watch, except with a time limit that encourages you to actually do it.

    6. Dang*

      Yeah, I use the nook with glowlight… I hate reading on an ipad. I’d consider getting the service if it could somehow integrate with a more basic ereader like mine, but I’m not sure that’ll be possible ever.

    7. AcademiaNut*

      I also prefer the more paper-like Kindle experience – I can read before going to sleep without getting over-stimulated by screen time.

      I actually really like paper books, and have serious issues with the Amazon model of book distribution, but I have limited apartment space, a voracious reading habit, and live in a country with limited access to English language books, so the Kindle does have a useful need.

      One thing I will say for Amazon is that they will actually sell ebooks to people not in the US, even if there is a “international delivery fee” tacked on to every book. (Oyster, the service here, is US only, as is the Amazon Prime book borrowing service).

      For anyone else overseas, I will mention three of my favourite sources of reading material that are accessible if you’re not in the US. Project Gutenberg (free, public domain – basically, anything published before about 1920), the UK based Book Depository, which has free international delivery, and the on-line Open Library, which lets you check out books and read them in your browser (mostly stuff at least 10 years old).

  6. The IT Manager*

    So true. I am bibliophile who resisted an e-reader for years, but it is so convenient. That said, I still get most of my books as physical books from the library, but if I am travelling I stock up on my e-books.

    I wish I had an e-reader that when I was in the military. I deployed with a stack of books and left another stack with family so they could send them to me when I finished ones I took with me.

  7. Algae*

    I’ve been using Scribd, a similar service. I like it because it also has audiobooks, which I listen to during my commute. I can’t see that Oyster has those.

    1. moss*

      Librivox is a great audio book free app as well. They also have old time radio episodes. Recently I’ve been listening to this amazing old radio show that is basically nothing but cowboy songs called “Red Horse Ranch.”

    2. simonthegrey*

      I like scribd. I share a subscription with my sisters, so it means our scribd library is a mix of my sciencey nonfiction books, my youngest sister’s epic fantasy books, and my middle sister’s romance novels.

      1. LQ*

        My sister and I shared a netflix for a while. Her partner’s epic history, the kids things, my scifi and weird documentaries, her comedies, but no one would ever own up to the random reality tv. :)

    3. MsChanandlerBong*

      I love Scribd, but I just got an email from them saying they’re changing the audiobook program. I guess they’re going to give us one audiobook credit for month; I don’t know that you can download unlimited audiobooks anymore.

  8. Cordelia Naismith*

    Does anyone have Kindle Unlimited? Do you like it? How does that compare to something like Oyster? .99 per month is certainly a lot cheaper, but the regular rate is about the same.

    I’ve been resisting getting Kindle Unlimited because I already have a huge backlog of books I haven’t read yet. I don’t need to be adding more to the pile! But…books!

    1. Lead, Follow or Get Outta the Way!*

      I subscribe to Kindle Unlimited. I like that there is new content added all the time and I have a lot to choose from. I’ve noticed that a lot of independent authors have content here and it isn’t always the best edited…so definitely sort by ratings. Also after you have selected several books, it will start giving you recommendations for other similar books. You can only “check out” 10 books at a time and I often hit that limit as I will load several books to my kindle at once.

      Kindle Unlimited usually has a deal that you can try it out for free for a month. I’ve been subscribing for quite a while, maybe close to a year.

    2. AnotherAlison*

      I have Kindle Unlimited. I don’t love it. I don’t read a lot of fiction, so that might be better, but for nonfiction, it was just “meh” for me.

      I’ve read a few that I thought were well worth it (Iyanla Vanzant, Scott Jurek, The Rise of Superman (about human performance), Stephen Hawking’s ex-wife’s book, Resource Revolution). . .okay now that I’m listing it out, these were probably worth my $10/mo, but still, it seems when I see a book I want to read, 99% are not on Unlimited. There is a lot of crap on there, too. . .unreadable self-published bios and educational/self-help/motivational materials, mostly. Hmm, no thanks, I don’t need to read a book about the Iron Man by someone who is 1.) not a professional writer, and 2.) didn’t train for an Iron Man, entered one, and failed to complete it.

      I’d say probably worth it if you want to stock up on some generic books (nothing specific that you have on your must-read list) for a trip or a period of downtime, but otherwise, I’d rather spend my $10 on that one book I’m dying to get my hands on.

    3. Mrs. Psmith*

      I just completed my free trial of Kindle Unlimited. I was able to find books I wanted to read (I stick with fiction most of the time, mainly mysteries) although like stated above, there are a lot of independent authors in the list who would benefit from a good editor.

      I will probably renew the subscription at some point, but not before I’ve built up a list of books I want to read that it has available. I would not keep paying the $10/month unless I already had a list of books I would be interested in (or if I’m too busy to read much some months).

      And very excited to see this Oyster deal, I just signed up and plan to make heavy use of the 3 months of reduced rate, then decide if I want to keep it up for the $10. My public library has a decent selection, but I noticed they haven’t been able to buy many new books in Overdrive lately.

    4. MsChanandlerBong*

      I loved it until I tried Scribd. Now I’m sorry I bought the six-month KU subscription on Prime Day. Scribd has WAY more books by popular authors. I like KU because it allows me to try new authors without paying a lot of money, but I like Scribd about 100 times better.

  9. Tricia*

    My daughter gave me a subscription to Oyster for Mother’s Day, and I’ve read 54 free Oyster books since then! I think it’s a terrific service, with many more books available than through my public library’s e-book system. I read on my iPad and like the evening screen color changes.

  10. LQ*

    I know this is a sponsored post, and for those that can afford, great.

    But if you can’t afford a subscription, check your local library! So many ebooks! I can get …a lot at a time…like all the books. I load up before I have to go places that are evil (aka off grid). Some libraries do audiobooks too.

    There is nothing like finishing a book at 2 am and going, oh it’s only 2 am, I wonder if the next one is out there. Oh look it’s mine now! MUAHAHAHA! Oh, crap is that the sun?

    1. AFT123*

      Wait are you saying that you can rent kindle books from your library without actually going in to your library? I had looked at renting before but at the time I researched, you had to physically go in to rent them on your kindle. Is that not the case anymore?

      1. LQ*

        Not at all.

        I check out dozens on my ipad (and I have a friend who does it on the kindle) it may vary from library to library. But yeah. Check out your place. I go into my actual library like every 3 years to renew my card, that’s it. And if you go on vacation to a place that has internet you can check out while on vacation too.

      2. LQ*

        I may have been less than clear. You do not need to physically go into the library to check out an ebook or audiobook. (At many libraries.)

      3. Beancounter in Texas*

        I hadn’t heard it ever being the case to physically visit to borrow ebooks, but I visit my public library e-book catalog online, and my Amazon account is connected to my public library account. I select the books I want to borrow, check them out, and the library sends the file to my Amazon account. From there, I select to which device I’d like to send the book.

        Bonus: if your e-book is due back before you’ve finished reading it on your Kindle, turn off the WiFi. You can “keep” the book as long as you don’t connect to the Internet, but the library loan ends and Amazon “returns” the book. Of course, any annotations or markups you put in the book after the loan ends will not be saved by Amazon.

        1. Lore*

          That only works on actual Kindle devices–not the Kindle app on iPads or iPhones, I have recently learned to my chagrin!

          1. Chinook*

            “That only works on actual Kindle devices”

            Not just Kindle devices – mine is a Sony E-Reader which uses Kobo. I can also download the Overdrive App onto my Microsoft computer and my Blackberry phone, allowing me to read the same library books over multiple devices.

            I am currently waiting for my 5 year old e-reader to die so I can justify upgrading to a Kobo that is waterproof (thus never worrying about dropping it in the tub).

      4. themmases*

        Some books in Overdrive have Kindle format as an option (the other is epub, which you read through the Overdrive app). A minority of the Kindle books– at least through my library– have licensing restrictions where they need to be downloaded to your computer and physically moved onto your Kindle, or something. The Kindle app I was running on my iPad didn’t qualify. This was a couple of years ago.

        However, even then I don’t think it was necessary to go to the library and move files onto your Kindle from one of their computers. If that was ever needed, it was before my time.

        Some libraries will rent out e-readers to patrons, which come pre-loaded with a bunch of books. Those need to be picked up in person. Maybe that’s what you’re thinking of?

        1. LQ*

          Some libraries rent out wifi hotspots too. (It’s only tangentially related, but it’s a pretty cool thing that some libraries do.)

      2. Mockingjay*

        Yup! My library uses Overdrive too. You can read via browser, download to Kindle, or use the Overdrive app.

        It’s great being able to read electronically when I can’t physically visit my library.

    3. hermit crab*

      Yes! I use my Kindle all the time but I’ve never actually purchased a book for it — just library loans and out-of-copyright classics. Another thing to keep in mind is that you may be eligible for e-accounts at multiple libraries, allowing you to take advantage of larger collections. For example, anyone who lives in Pennsylvania can use the Free Library of Philadelphia. Most of the library systems in the DC area have reciprocal agreements too.

      1. Meg Murry*

        Yup, this is what I was talking about above – if you are an Ohio resident you can get a card at any library in Ohio, and some systems have e-cards. The biggest systems have the most ebooks, but they also have long wait lists for new releases, so it’s a trade off – it’s the midsized library systems that tend to have the books I want available. I think Overdrive is based in Ohio, so most of the libraries around here use that.

        And FYI, if you download a whole bunch of books from Overdrive to your Kindle and then turn it in airplane mode, the books don’t expire until you turn back on WiFi – so your book never disappears midway through. It means you can’t get new books unless you are willing to give up your old ones, but that works for me (says the person with 9 different books on her Kindle right now to finish before turning back on WiFi).

    4. AnotherAlison*

      I had not been using my library for ebooks, but I just went to their site to see what they had and saw that, in addition to ebooks, they offer free access to Lynda.com. Another rabbit hole. . .

      1. Formica Dinette*

        My library used to have Lynda.com access in-house only, but they recently added it for remote users too. Whee! If you’re into music, see if your library offers Freegal. You get five free song downloads every week! They don’t have *everything* but they have a lot.

    5. Muriel Heslop*

      I LOVE my library’s Overdrive app – it’s been a life-changer. I think I am going to try Oyster as well since I would love a broader selection than my library currently has (and I found Kindle Unlimited to be not so great.)

      1. Pickwick the Dodo*

        I co-use my library & Scribd. Some are on one, but not the other, and together they cover ALMOST every book I want to read (the 5% they don’t cover are soooooooooo annoying though! No I’m not paying $12.99 for a book I already own and just want to read on vacation!)

    7. Victoria Nonprofit (USA)*

      Yup. I initially got excited about Oyster when I learned about them last year… and then I realized that I already essentially have this service, for free (or, rather, already paid for with my taxes) through my library. The only downside is that there is sometimes a long wait for books (I JUST got Go Set a Watchman, for example, having requested it before it was released). But I never have gaps between books – my library has a limit for 15 books on hold, and I keep that full, so I always have books coming to me.

  11. Colorado Girl*

    I just started using Oyster about a month ago and I love it! I tried Kindle Unlimited before but did not find much of anything that appealed to me. Their selection seemed to be mostly cheesy romance novels – at least that was my assumption based on the number of muscular, bare-chested men on the covers.

    Thanks for the tip on Confederacy of Dunces – that’s been one I’ve wanted to read for a while and I didn’t realize it was on Oyster. I just finished a book (Salvage the Bones – 3/5 stars) last night so this is good timing!

    2. Honeybee*

      Yeah, you just reminded me to cancel my Kindle Unlimited. I tried it out because Kindle is my main way of reading books, but the selection is pretty bad. Oyster’s selection is way better. (KU does have more than just cheesy romance novels – I read a lot of Octavia Butler’s books through it. But they are primarily older releases or sort of obscure novels. When I thought about it, it doesn’t really serve Amazon to put popular books under the KU plan, because their books cost about as much as one unlimited month on KU.)

  14. Anonymous Teacher*

    I’ve been using Oyster for a while now and I LOVE it! I’m so glad it’s gaining popularity!

    1. Formica Dinette*

      I loved Jonathan Strange but know several people who didn’t. It seems like people either love it or hate it. If you didn’t care for the Austen-esque writing style, footnotes and pacing, then no, that doesn’t get better as it goes on. :)

    2. jhhj*

      JSMN is my favourite ever book, but it’s 900 pages and the first 300 pages are pretty slow. I think it is good even then, but I could put it down and pick it back up, something I couldn’t do when I got near the end. Norrell is an uncompelling protagonist, so the part of the book until Strange comes is somewhat less fun.

      But if you didn’t like the first few chapters, with the scene in the cathedral, never mind.

      (It’s a TERRIBLE book to read on an ereader though because of the footnotes.)

  17. Erin*

    I have thus far resisted the e-reader. (I just got my first smartphone less than two months ago, is how late to the game I tend to be with these things.)

    But if/when I do…I will most definitely check this service out. I had no idea it existed!

    1. Honeybee*

      If you have an iPhone or an Android smartphone, there’s an Oyster app for your phone. I resisted reading e-books on my phone much longer than I resisted an e-reader/tablet, but what made me start was getting a phone with a 5-inch screen. There are some days I’m out and I unexpectedly have to wait for something, and so I’ve read some of a book on my phone – super convenient. (And your Oyster subscription works across devices, so if you do eventually decide to get an e-reader you only have to pay once. I often read books on my iPad and then pick them up on my iPhone while out, then switch back to the iPad).

  18. Formica Dinette*

    Alison, I had no idea a sponsored post could lead to such fun, informative discussions. Thank you!

  19. Miss Betty*

    Another plus I’ve found is that I can read much faster on an e-book reader than I can read a physical book (and I’m a fast reader to begin with). I wondered if it was just me so I googled – apparently it’s a thing. It seems that lots of people can read more quickly on an e-reader. (In my case, without loss of comprehension.)

    1. Honeybee*

      I read a lot more quickly on an e-reader but I do suffer a bit of loss of comprehension. I have to force myself to slow down. Reading articles online, it appears that it’s because some of our brains are wired to skim information that we read on screens because the types of information we usually read there demands to be skimmed. That’s why I like that e-readers and apps like this are introducing ways to change the background to a more paper-like color/texture, because that allows my brain to slow down and take it in as a book and not a Thought Catalog article.

  20. Jess*

    Just signed up for the three month trial and then learned it doesn’t work for kindle (other than kindle fire). At least I only wasted 99 cents.

  21. to*

    Alison, do you know how long the promotion is available? I am in the middle of two books, so I want to finish those before I sign up for this so I can get the most out of the trial and see if I like it!

  22. Verde*

    I use the free reader (Overdrive) and eBooks from the library on my Android phone, and it’s definitely nice, especially on the bus. Anything I can’t get that way I usually just buy the digital book on Google books.

    And, if you liked Jonathan Strange, I just finished the Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern). It’s a little lighter, but a similar vibe of realism and fantasy and I really enjoyed it.

  23. Honeybee*

    I could’ve written this post myself, lol. I love e-reading and I love Oyster – great app! Carrying hundreds of books with you at a time doesn’t sound like much until you’re actually on vacation thinking “Hmmm, what to read right now” and you realize that you can read ANYTHING, including books you haven’t yet purchased.

  24. Sunday*

    Do we get our choice of cats with each book, or does Oyster choose for us? And do we have to return them, or can we keep the ones who want to stay with us? I’m glad they know that every book is better with a cat.

    =^.^=

  25. Another Day*

    Your write up and the cheap introduction rate tempted me to sign up for Oyster and so far I’m very pleasantly pleased. They have books I could get at the library but also a great selection of books from independent presses and books our (very good) library doesn’t have. I look forward to exploring their selection — haven’t decided yet if I’ll keep subscribing after the trial but am very pleased with the selection and app so far.

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