Free eBooks

I have finally found the true use for my old Samsung Q1U...an eReader.

I tried several software readers, but I didn't really like them until I tried Kindle. The Kindle Reader works with the touch screen. I tried the Nook software Reader, but it has a pair of arrows you have to click and it pretty much requires me to use a stylus, which is annoying while reading. I also use Calibre, but I hate the reader included with Calibre, but it lets me convert ePub to Mobi format, which Kindle will read.

I've hunted around on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and they offer pretty much the same books, so there isn't much to pick between them, but the ease of turning pages on an old, non-gesture touchscreen made the decision for me.

I don't have a huge budget for books...something which annoys my son no end...and so far I have only paid for one publication, and that was an issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine about a year ago. But, that doesn't mean I don't have anything to read.

First, Amazon offers a lot of free books. They are mostly older, so called classics, but there are some interesting titles. You've seen me write about PG Wodehouse and you can find many of his books there...in fact, probably more than you can in your local bookstore. I downloaded all the Sherlock Holmes stories, which is a big find for me. If you are a fan of Jane Austen (I'm not) you can find almost everything she has ever written.

For more old, out of copyright books, there are many sites. The most recent I have been using is manybooks.net http://www.manybooks.net/. You can find a lot of old Science Fiction stories there from the 20s to the 50s and a few even beyond that.

For a bit more contemporary Science Fiction, you can try the Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/library/. They have lots of novels from contemporary authors. Usually, these are the first few books from new authors who are trying to build a following, but I found several there that are pretty good.

So, if you have a new eReader and you cannot afford to fill it up, there are plenty of resources out there.