If you've been put off buying a Kindle because it only supports e-books that are bought from the Amazon.com bookstore and because there's no book-sharing facility - you might change your mind soon. Although there's still no ePub format support, you'll still be getting limited sharing ability, which might not be much - but it's a start.

In an announcement posted the other day on the Kindle Community site, Amazon let on that e-book lending was to be rolled out on its reader some time later this year. What this means is that Kindle users will be able to lend e-books they've purchased (limited to one share per e-book) to other Kindle users for a period of up to two weeks. There's another limitation on this share-ability too:  during the loan period, the original e-book owner will be denied access to the loaned e-book. 

Small limitations indeed, in comparison to the bigger, overriding restriction: whether or not an e-book will be lendable is a decision that will be made by the publisher or rightsholder, not Amazon. 

In the next few weeks Amazon will also be making Kindle periodicals available via its various free Kindle apps. What this means is that if you subscribe to a Kindle edition of any newspaper/magazine, but forgot your Kindle in the office, you can still have a squiz over your favourite periodical on your iOS device.  More promises from Amazon include support for Android and other devices in the future.

While Amazon is a latecomer to the e-book-sharing party with their Kindle, it's probably better late than never. And while the restrictions will be bothersome, it's better than not being able to share e-books at all. After all,  that's the best part of reading a new book - getting to share it with someone else.