Page 1 of 1 [ 9 posts ] 

GoonSquad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,748
Location: International House of Paincakes...

17 Jan 2011, 8:59 am

The great thing about kindles and the like is access to 100s of 1000s of free books…

The worst thing about kindles and the like is access to 100s 0f 1000s of free books…

Trying to separate the good from the not-so-good can be overwhelming.

Here are a few nuggets I’ve found—mostly just scattered along the fringes of this vast, rich field of public domain literature…

Robert Louis Stevenson—Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Edgar Rice Burrows—Tarzan series, John Carter series

G. K. Chesterton—The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

Robert E. Howard—Hour of the Dragon (Conan the Conqueror)

Philip Wylie—Gladiator

Most all these books can be found in popular formats at manybooks.net

Add your favorite cheap/free eBooks here!


_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus


Ackman
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Age: 172
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,521
Location: The Creedon Republic

17 Jan 2011, 12:58 pm

All of the Angela Brazil stories.



V001
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 288
Location: New Mexico USA

17 Jan 2011, 2:11 pm

There are many places that have no cost ebooks.
Googles ebookstore has some.
http://books.google.com/ebooks?q=free&as_brr=4
Click read on your device for epub, kindle etc files
http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=XlsVA ... t=acs_help

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Same book used as example. Lots of books heeh



Mercurial
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Oct 2010
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 537

17 Jan 2011, 2:50 pm

Chesterton's The Man who was Thursday is one of my favorite novels of all time. I had no idea it was a free ebook. I can rec all Stevenson's stuff, the man is a giant of prose.

Shelley's Frankenstein is another free ebook I can rec.

I love my kindle but I have the 1st gen. I was thinking about getting the newest version--anyone have that? What do you think of it?



GoonSquad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,748
Location: International House of Paincakes...

17 Jan 2011, 6:15 pm

^^^
I have a kindle 3 and I love it. I’ve never seen a 1st gen kindle so I can’t really compare…

However, from what I understand, the newer readers are lighter, have a higher contrast display, text to speech, and some software improvements for organization/note taking etc.

If you really think you might want to upgrade you can try one out at Target.


Thanks for reminding me of Mary Shelley. It’s been years since I read Frankenstein—great book!

H. P. Lovecraft is another great source of cheap/free/public domain horror!

G. K. Chesterton is one of those hidden treasures I wasn’t familiar with until I started looking for free eBooks. I hope this thread will yield a few more like him. :)


PS

I’m really happy to see so much Robert E. Howard being offered for free too…

Quote:
"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars--Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."--The Nemedian Chronicles.


He was truly a genius.


_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus


Quatermass
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Apr 2006
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 18,779
Location: Right behind you...

18 Jan 2011, 1:44 am

There used to be free Doctor Who ebooks on the BBC's website, but they were taken down some time ago.


_________________
(No longer a mod)

On sabbatical...


Llixgrjb
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 233

18 Jan 2011, 5:08 am

John Dies at the End by David Wong - This horror/comedy/sci-fi novel was first distributed freely as an e-book some years ago. It has since become a paperback and more recently, is being adapted to the big screen. The director's previous work was Bubba Hotep -- all the more reason I am looking forward to see it.

Not really "important", substantive reading but it's really great gross-out fun. One of those kinds of books that play like a movie in your head while you're reading.

There are still old files of the free e-book floating around if you know where to look...



Mercurial
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Oct 2010
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 537

18 Jan 2011, 1:45 pm

GoonSquad wrote:
^^^
I have a kindle 3 and I love it. I’ve never seen a 1st gen kindle so I can’t really compare…

However, from what I understand, the newer readers are lighter, have a higher contrast display, text to speech, and some software improvements for organization/note taking etc.

If you really think you might want to upgrade you can try one out at Target.


yeah, I'm heading over the Target today. The 1st gen isn't sucky--mine works just fine as ever. It's just thicker, the keyboard more awkward to use and you cant get any accessories for it anymore except maybe a new charger. If i had paid for mine (I think it was originally $399!) I might want to hang on to it longer, but it was a gift. I've gotten a lot of use out , so i know if I got a newer one I'd use it enough to make the $140 investment worth it.

For anyone learning German there's a few nice german-English free or cheep ebooks available on Amazon too. Amazon has a free version of Alice in Wonderland that is a good German translation w/ English parallel text that i can rec.



Moog
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Feb 2010
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 17,671
Location: Untied Kingdom

18 Jan 2011, 3:01 pm

I like http://www.sacred-texts.com/


_________________
Not currently a moderator