A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
Ever since I learned how, I’ve always been an avid reader. My parents didn’t have a television until I was about ten years old. That never bothered me. The library had a lot of entertainment. In later life, when I was in the Navy, I seldom watched the ship’s movie. I was busy finishing reading one more chapter before lights out. These days, I still read at least a dozen magazines each month. I am usually reading four or five books at a time. I’ve got my bedside book, bathroom book, digital book and an audio book for my morning walk.
I could not even estimate how many thousands of dollars I’ve spent buying reading material of one form or another. In the past three or four years, my reading has all become either digital or audio. I haven’t been in a bookstore or looked at a magazine display rack in at least a year and a half. For me, it’s all been for the better. In this article, I’m going to tell you how you can do the same.
I’ve saved a lot of money with e-books and audio books. One of the reasons is because it is so easy to check the material out from the Parish library. From my easy chair I can check out a vast number of books (both digital and audio), magazines, comic books and movies. I’ve written many times about using the library to download material. We have had several demonstrations at club meetings and there is a lot of information on our website. I won’t bore you by repeating the details again.
There are many internet sites where electronic books can be downloaded for no charge. All of the major booksellers offer some free books, but there are many other places you can get a better selection. A good place to start your search is at Tech Support Alert’s Free eBooks And Audiobooks To Read Online Or Download. This is the launch page for other pages that list site with free books. The lists are broken down by genre. There is also an alphabetical list at their Best Free eBooks Online. At the time of this writing there are 913 sites listed. These pages also have links to sites for downloading comic books, textbooks and online courses. Bonus tip: if you read the user comments, you will find many other sites.
Some of the sites that I regularly use (in no particular order) are:
- Project Gutenberg – was one of the first ebook sites. There are more than 50,000 titles. It has by far the largest list of free titles for downloading and the site is easy to use.
- LibriVox – is similar to Project Gutenberg except it is all audio books. Volunteers read and record books and upload them.
- Open Library – although not technically a download site, the goal is to have a web page for every book ever published. There are links on these pages where you can get the book. You can borrow others for a two week period.
- Bookbub – is a site that I check daily. It isn’t a download site but lists the latest deals on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google and Kobo. Many of the books are for sale (usually $0.99 or $1.99) but it also lists many free books. Use the link in this article and you won’t have to give them an e-mail address.
I hope this list of sites has piqued your interest and gets you started on ebook reading. This is nowhere near a complete list of download sites for ebooks. If you’re like me and like to read, these links should get you started. If you know of any good book sites, I’d like to know. Post on our club website or send me an e-mail.
Thanks for reading.