Can E-Books Be Borrowed?

I love to read, or, maybe, I used to love to read before I discovered the internets (hahahaha.... so true, though, I do spend hours reading blogs, checking stupid facebook & twitter, writing on my blog... yeah... it's sad. My husband calls me addicted and wants me to join a 12 step program [well, I made up the second part, but the first is true! :)]).

Anyway... I've been thinking that it will be easier to read more when I have an e-reader such as the Kindle or the iPad. There's just one small problem, apart from the fact that I love reading an actual book, owning it and putting it in my shelves. I have no money for books, so I hardly ever buy any. I've recently bought a few very cheap used or new books at Alibris, though and I LOVE to buy used books. I also enjoy borrowing books from friends.

So... this is my biggest hunch with the advent of e-books: you cannot borrow books from friends or lend them to friends, so I just have this very angry anti-capitalist feeling about them: they will just make people buy more and the books they buy will never benefit anyone else since they can't be shared. But maybe it's not true after all.

I just read a recent post by my dear friend Andi (one of my first blogger meet-ups) in which she writes: "The public libraries around here have huge ebook collections that are easily accessed and borrowed from with wifi on the go."  REALLY?? Is that really true? If so, that's AWESOME!

In any case, if you read e-books, Andi has some questions for you, you should go over there and answer them because I really don't have too much to share on this subject:

Anyone reading here that can give some examples of how you are using ebooks and blogging for student learning?            How have you incorporated digital technologies and resources to advance your own learning?         What are you seeing students do as strategies to advance their own understanding with the new tools available?

Maybe I will get hooked to ebooks someday after all!