Planning on loading up that new ereader you got for Christmas with some gardening books from the library? It may not be as  easy as you think. The major publishers, who are still refusing to embrace ebooks and are doing everything they can to destroy them, are now determined to make borrowing your favorite gardening books from the library as much of a hassle as they can.

Penguin for example, already despised by many readers for the ridiculously high prices they charge for their ebooks, has now not only terminated its agreement with Overdrive, the top library ebook lending service, but will now force Kindle users to download their ebooks via their computers and then transfer to their devices. They are refusing to allow over the air service any longer. Simon & Schuster and Macmillan refuse to allow libraries to lend their books as ebooks at all, and some other publishers have put stiff restrictions on how many times an ebook can be borrowed before forcing the library to pay for it again.

This is utterly ridiculous. The publishers happily co-existed with libraries for years and print book sales thrived. Now all of a sudden they are the enemy?  I have quite a few gardening books on my Kindle and love the convenience. I love to be able to borrow ebooks from my library-if I really like them, I then go and buy my own copy. I’m sure I’m not alone. Publishers are so ignorant they think ebooks are costing them sales, when in reality, it’s their own greed and short-sightedness that will eventually come back to hit them in the pocketbook.  Ebooks aren’t going anywhere.