You can read books on a tablet as well. I subscribed to Book Bub (free) and download freebies to my home computer, then transfer them to my tablet when I want to read them (would work the same with a Kindle). The reason I do that is to keep my tablet from having too many books on it at a time. With Book Bub, they come from Amazon as well as Kindle. With Book Bub, you set up your preferences as to what you want them to email you on a daily basis, and you can pick and choose, or delete the email. Personally, I've never purchased a single book - I don't see the need... And, you can "check" books out of libraries as well.