There are numerous e-book providers where you can borrow books. It is also possible to borrow e-books from many public libraries.
Rent from Scripd – The American e-book provider
You have been able to borrow e-books from Scripd since 2007, making the provider one of the oldest e-book lenders. The San Francisco-based company not only lends out e-books, but also offers access to countless scientific documents. Since the offering is very extensive, Scripd has now set up three divisions:
- Scripd: In Scripd you will mainly find documents, white papers and manuals on a wide range of topics such as scientific papers, legal drafts and white papers. In total, Scripd has collected over 195 million documents on a wide variety of topics and the inventory is continually growing.
- Everand: The e-books are classified under the Everand category. In addition to e-books, audio books, magazines and newspapers as well as podcasts are also available to borrow. By the way: music lovers can also find sheet music there.
- SlideShare: The SlideShare area is also not uninteresting. Under the category you will find countless presentations that you can browse through uninhibitedly. They were provided by the Scribs community.
- For the Scribd subscription, which includes access to all three areas, Everand, SlideShare and Scribd, you pay around 11 euros per month. You can test Scribd's offer for a total of 30 days free of charge.
Skoobe – a large German e-book shop
The online book shop Skoobe has also been around for quite a long time. It was founded in 2010 by several large German publishing houses. In the e-book shop you will mainly find German books.
- The e-books are clearly sorted by category so that you can quickly find the right e-book for every mood. At Skoobe you can choose from around 400,000 books and audio books. Skoobe includes works from successful publishing houses such as Campus, Dumont, Bastei Lübbe, Jung und Jung, S. Fischer, Goldmann, Heyne and Rowohlt.
- Skoobe offers three different monthly subscriptions: Basic for around 13 euros, Standard for around 15 euros and Combi for around 20 euros. With the cheapest model, you are only allowed to download one e-book at a time and do not have access to the audio books. With the other two models you have the option of downloading ten e-books at once.
- You can test Skoobe's offer for 30 days and if the offer convinces you, you also have the option of taking out a slightly cheaper annual subscription. You can cancel the monthly subscriptions at any time at relatively short notice.
Onleihe – the virtual library
Public libraries from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy participate in Onleihe. Accordingly, the Onleihe is structured similarly to a real lending library: In addition to e-books, the Onleihe also offers magazines and newspapers as well as videos, music and audio books.
- As in a public library, each book is only available in a limited number at Onleihe. Once all copies have been borrowed, you can reserve them and will be notified via email when you can get the e-book.
- There is also a specific loan period per book – as soon as this has expired, it is blocked and you can no longer open the file. The book will then automatically be “returned” and you may have to borrow it again.
- In order to borrow from Onleihe, you must be a member of a public library that participates in Onleihe.
- Apart from a possible fee for your library card, you will no longer have to pay any fees. If you already have a library card from a participating library, you can take advantage of the online loan service free of charge.