How to share Kindle e-books
One of the greatest joys of reading is sharing what you love. When you buy a physical book, and you love it, you pass it along to friends and family members who might glean some of the same happiness, or sadness, or wonder that you had when you read it. But sharing that joy isn't always so easy when you've got an e-book instead of a physical book. Handing your entire Kindle over to someone just doesn't feel realistic — but that isn't the only way to share an e-book.
Amazon used to allow readers to loan Kindle e-books to friends or family temporarily, however the company quietly did away with the feature. Now if you want to loan out a book, you can only do so through the Family Library.
Kindle e-readers have a lending feature built in called the Family Library. It's a great way to share your book collection with your friends and family: It links together two adults and up to four children, from an adult's account, to share Amazon Prime benefits and Kindle e-books. To set it up, you'll need to link all the accounts together through Amazon Family.
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Once you've got that set up, then you can start sharing with the whole household. Here's how to share books within your Amazon Family.
How to share Kindle books within your Amazon Family
- 2 minutes
- An Amazon account
Step 1: Navigate to your Content Library
Under the Account & Lists tab, navigate to the Content Library section.
Step 2: Navigate to your Books
Once you're in the Content Library, navigate to the Books section where all of your EPUB files, library loans, and Kindle Store purchases live.
Step 3: Select book and share with family
Browse through your book library to select the book in your library you'd like to share. Once you've found the book, select the More Actions tab and find Manage Family Library. Then you can select who in your Amazon Family can also access that title.
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
Boston-based Shopping Reporter, Samantha Mangino, covers all things tech at Mashable, rounding up the best products and deals. She’s covered commerce for three years, spending extensive time testing and reviewing all things home, including couches, steam irons, and washing machines. She thoroughly vets products and internet trends, finding out if those cozy gamer chairs are really as comfortable as TikTok claims.
