BookLending – Love  your Kindle? I bet you love reading then. If you do, BookLending is for you. Explore the ebook borrowing and lending service at BookLending (by Amazon), which matches those willing to lend purchased titles to those looking for fresh reads and vice versa.

Sign up to BookLending, and once you get our own profile page you can review, make and offer loans from there. To lend a book, click on the big green button (see above) and the intuitive BookLending system will direct you how to proceed. By the way, you don’t necessarily have to own a Kindle to receive a book loan. You can use this service with your PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry and other devices as well. For more info on how BookLending works and how to use it, go to the FAQ page.

Google eBookstore – Although this new feature by the search giant still exhibits some major hiccups (specialty book lists are lacking content, such as the NY Bestsellers list, perhaps due to location constraints), this new service by Google is a commendable effort.

Despite the eBookstore’s limited availability of free books compared to its large number of paid books offered, the cherry on top of Google’s library/bookstore  is the eBook reader interface. This makes the reading of any book virtually as enjoyable as reading the actual physical copy on an indulgently soft armchair by a warm fireplace. The screen shot below shows the ‘Best Free’ eBook list, and the lower screen shot displays the reader platform in action using Jane Austen’s globally renowned Pride and Prejudice. Obviously, this service’s magnitude connects us, the users with pretty much every book ever written. I only wonder what Amazon.com has to say about Google’s eBookstore…

Forgotten Bookmarks – The anonymous person behind this unique and engaging blog explains what Forgotten Bookmarks is about: “I work at a rare and used bookstore, and I buy books from people everyday. These are the personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird things I find in those books.”

Here is but one example of the oddities found in books people used to own. In this case it’s an old Palmolive Soap ad found in The Bounty Trilogy by Charles Nordhoff and James Normal Hall. Published by Little, Brown, 1962.

20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web – Google sure knows how to pack each of their projects with creativity, interest and a taste for more. This project, published by the Google Chrome Team, cleverly makes the user feel as though he or she is reading a cute and engaging book, telling the story (in simple terms) of the Web, how it works, and explaining relevant key terms (such as cloud computing, web apps, HTML5 and more).

The beautiful illustrations you’ll find as you read along are simple yet super adorable, and they add to the overall look and feel of the 20 Things I Learned project (illustrations by Christoph Neimann).Reading the book from start to finish will take you less than an hour, and it will give you a solid idea of what and where the Web is today.

Page99Test – There’s a good reason why this writing critic community site is called that way. According to Fox Madox Ford, “open the book to page 99 and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” This quote has become a quick rule of thumb for readers evaluating the literary quality of a book, and Page99Test has taken this premise and turned it into a wonderful community effort.

Published as well as unheard-of writers get to submit their 99th page and get feedback from the site’s user community. As you will see in the screen shot below, each 99th page is accompanied by three quick questions: 1. “Would you turn the page?” (yes/no), 2. “Tell the writer why yes/no” and 3.  “Based on what you read, how likely are you to buy this book?”

Quotista – This quotes site is all about collecting and sharing quotes (Facebook and Twitter). All entries on Quotista are submitted by users who were impressed by a sentence, a phrase or an excerpt of a book they have read. The site is simply designed, but that does not mean it lacks elegance and efficency. Although Quotista is here to do one thing only, it does it beautifully.

Here are a few examples of the quotes I’ve found on the site’s Popular Quotes section. My favorite quote is the very first one here in the list:

LibriVox – I just love the combination of free and usefulness, don’t you? Especially when it comes to free books, since these are hard to come by on the Web usually due to copyright issues. LibriVox has found a way to offer its user community a large collection of free books and audio-books from what’s defined as ‘the public domain.‘

Although the interface could use a face lift, LibriVox is all about quality service, user participation (volunteer as a reader of audio-books) and great books for free. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this great resource. To test drive LibriVox, check out their samples section and decide for yourself.

MeeGenius – I just love children’s classic books; they’re filled with charm, nostalgia and that fleeting innocence of childhood. Reading bed time stories the old fashioned way is always the best, but using today’s technology is but a natural change to the sweet parent-child bedtime activity. MeeGenius offers bedtime stories of classic kids books with a really cool twist: personalization. Change the characters and locations’ name to any of your choosing and make the old classic a refreshing yet just as effective story before bed.

I took MeeGenius for a test drive, using the customization option for the Jemima Puddle Duck story. See the screen shot below to see my changes. I just love how you can add your personal touch without altering the story’s overall experience. Although customizing certain books costs $, many of the classic books we all know and love are free! So this really is a must stop for parents, grandparents and other family relatives who want to make the well-known classic story a special one. By the Way, if you’re looking for more children’s books resources, check out the Books faveline on our Kids page.