Amazon launched another benefit for Prime members today, Prime Reading, which lets users read from a section of more than a thousand Kindle books, digital magazines, short stories, comics and more for free as part of their subscription. It’s essentially a version of Kindle Unlimited with a pared-down catalog (Unlimited boasts more than one million books, magazines and audio books) but without any additional cost if you’re already a Prime member.
Books on the service include classics like The Hobbit, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but the magazine selection actually sounds potentially more appealing, because it has current issues of titles like National Geographic Traveler, People, Sports Illustrated, Popular Mechanics and more. Prime Reading content can be accessed either via the Kindle app or Amazon’s own Kindle devices.
A key selling point for Prime Reading: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes is the first option in its comics list. Another key selling point: You already have it if you’re already a Prime subscriber. I may actually cancel my Kindle Unlimited subscription as a result of this launch, which probably isn’t the most desired outcome for Amazon, but because I use it most for random, idle reading, even with the smaller content library there’s a lot there for casual browsing.