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Harry Potter comes to Kindle

All the books in the Harry Potter series will arrive in the Kindle lending library – free for Amazon Prime members – on June 19.

The Harry Potter books will be available in multiple languages through the Kindle lending library.
  • By Husna Haq

Boys and girls, power up your Kindles; Harry Potter is coming to the Kindle lending library near you.

That’s right, starting June 19, all seven of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books will be available – for free – to Amazon Prime members, Amazon announced Thursday morning.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

There are restrictions. Pottermore remains the only place to purchase Harry Potter e-books. The Potter books can only be borrowed through the Kindle lending library, and only by Amazon Prime members who own a Kindle. Amazon announced that the deal was made through an “exclusive license” with Pottermore that allows Prime members to borrow one e-book free each month.

“Over a year, borrowing the Harry Potter books, plus a handful of additional titles, can alone be worth more than the $79 cost of Prime or a Kindle,” Bezos said in a statement. “The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library also has an innovative feature that’s of great benefit for popular titles like ‘Harry Potter’ – unlimited supply of each title – you never get put on a waiting list.”

The e-books will be available in many different languages, including English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

One more big reveal: Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne told the Guardian that he would be announcing new partners and new platforms for the Pottermore site “in the next few weeks.” We don’t yet know who those partners will be, but Apple won’t be among them.

“We’re not live with Apple,” Redmayne told the Guardian. “We’re having conversations with Apple, but there is no date, no agreement.”

In the Harry Potter Quidditch race that’s Amazon 1, Apple 0.

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.

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