The following is a guest post from Mandi Ehman, the Deal Seeking Mom Project Administrator:
Tara has mentioned before that she saved up her Swag Bucks and purchased a Kindle Reading Device earlier this year. As someone who also loves to read but doesn’t seem to do it nearly as often now that I have four little ones, I was definitely intrigued when Tara told me that she reads so much more now that she can simply load books to her Kindle and stick it in her purse. I loved the idea of having a library of books with me all the time and being able to read one-handed while nursing or bouncing a baby.
Of course, the thing holding me back was the cost of the books. Because we live in the boonies without a good library system, we have a set book budget each month of $20. I’m able to purchase books at wholesale price through a family member to help stretch that budget, and looking at Amazon.com’s $9.99 price for new releases, I just wasn’t sure I could reconcile my budget and reading habits with the cost of the books.
As I began looking around the Kindle store, I was very excited to discover that Amazon offers over 7,000 free Kindle books, and I finally purchased a Kindle with some Christmas money I received. I’ve only had it for 24 hours, but I already love it, and I’m loading it up with a library of free books!
To find free Kindle books, simply visit any category page in the Kindle store and sort by Price: Low to High. As you click through the categories, your results will stay sorted by price so that you can quickly find free books to download.
Many of these are public domain classics, including:
- Pride & Prejudice
- Little Women
- Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- The Scarlet Letter
Other times the free books are the first in a series, with obvious hopes that you’ll buy more, such as:
And as Tara has mentioned before, there are also books like Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Entertaining available for free download.
If you don’t have a Kindle but are interested in reading these books, you can download the Kindle reader for your iPhone or PC!
Do you have a Kindle? Is it something you’ve been considering?
Teresa
Absolutely a great guest post! I can be a voracious reader. But I also can be terrible at getting books back to the library by their due date. I had never heard of kindle but now very intrigued. I’ll have to investigate further. Thanks for planting a seed! :)
john lewis
my love are you serious the kindle is the next best thing to free weight limits on an airplane you can effectivly take ten or far more books with you on holiday with little or no weight restriction and you can share book titles with other users
Lisa
I just got a kindle for xmas also. When you are in the store how do you sort by price?
KendraLyn
I got the Barnes & Noble Nook for Christmas (It’s still on back order though…sigh). With that, you can download free e-books from other sites, not just Barnes & Noble. I know that with Kindle, you can just get Amazon books. I’m not sure about Sony’s e-Readers. The state of TN has a great library system where you can download print and audio books for a few weeks at a time. You might have to search for your library’s online resources; sometimes they are not well advertised, but it was extremely well worth it when I discovered mine.
Rissa
I use paperbackswap.com You just list several books and people request them from you, for each one you mail out you get 1 credit to go request books you want to read and they mail them to you!
I also live in the middle of nowhere with a awful library system, but now I basically spend 2 dollars a book to ship them out and then nothing when I request a book.
Mandi Ehman
Lisa, in the right-hand corner of the search results screen there’s a dropdown menu that says “Sort by”. I think it’s usually set to “Bestsellers” as a default. Just click on that and you can choose to sort by price instead.
Rissa, I’ve heard a lot of great things about Paperback Swap but never taken the time to get started. I probably should, because I have some books ready to be given away anyway, and I could get some books for my girls if nothing else!
Thanks, KendraLyn, I’m going to look into that. I’m not exactly sure what all of the Kindle’s limitations are yet, but I know you can download books from some other free book sites as well as PDF documents. I’m still figuring it out as I go!
Nicole
I just received a Kindle for Christmas. I love it!! I just learned to go to http://www.smashwords.com and download books too. I received a code for a free book too! So, I downloaded the book to my PC and then uploaded to my Kindle. Very easy!!! I am all about free or books on sale.
Joanne
Just got one for Christmas…love it. Can’t wait to download free books!!
anel m
I got one for my birthday last week. I can’t wait to start using it. Thanks for all the suggestions. I too live in TN and love the free PDF books available at the libraries. According to my techy husband one should be able to download any PDF or MP3 book to the PC and then to Kindle from there. I am thrilled that the Kindle can read to you so I can get chores done while listening!!
Brendal
I use the Kindle application on my iPhone and love it. Every week, I check the Kindle bestsellers list to see if there are any new free eBooks to download. If a free book is really good, I may purchase something else by that author. Kindle has been great for me. I can get tons of books, but not clutter up my house anymore than it already is!
Kellie
Also check Ebay they have whole book collections in PDF you can buy for cheap!
Liz
If your like me and don’t have a kindle for whatever reason you can also download a version of the kindle for your pc. It’s not as handy to have but it is a option.
Angela
I’ve had my Kindle since the Spring and love it! In addition to the free books on Amazon, I read a lots of classics that are in the public domain. Many of these are available at no charge from Project Gutenberg. Here’s a link to their Top 100. We can download either the .txt files or the .mobi files and then transfer them to the Kindle with the USB cable. (My experience is that the Kindle can read .mobi formatted files as long as they are unprotected/non-DRM’d files.)
[email protected]
My oldest really wants one of these…. she reads all the time, and is a speed reader at that, I am going to try much harder to save up my swagbucks to get this for her next year for Christmas. I am thrilled to learn there are so many free books available.
Diane
I have a Kindle and love it!!! How do you upload books from the computer to your Kindle?
Angela
Diane: First save the book to your computer. Then hook up your Kindle to your computer, using the USB cable that came with it. The Kindle should show up as another hard drive on your computer. You’ll see a folder called Documents. Drag the book from wherever you saved it on your PC to the Documents folder on the Kindle. That’s it. It should show up the next time you start up your Kindle after disconnecting it from the computer.
If you have your Kindle user guide, this process is describe (probably much better than I explained it) in Chapter 8.
LaVonne
I have the iPod touch and the Kindle app worked. I love it too! I only have downloaded free items. I got The Voice (a modern translation of the New Testament) and a devotional book for the month of December from Philip Yancy. I was happy with both. I can’t wait to find more books. Thanks for the tip about category and price. I will try it!
kim
That would make a (hint hint) good giveaway gift!!!! I’m just saying…..
Mindy
Check out PaperBackSwap.com, you trade books for just the cost of shipping, usually less than $2 a book. Great site.
Sam
Just got a Kindle for Christmas! LOVE it! I found free books by searching for “public domain.” Just FYI. I do have a question- anyone have any thoughts on Kindle covers? Where to find them cheap? Are the sleeves better than the covers that open?
Tara Kuczykowski
As far as covers go, if you go with the ones that are kind of like a book, you definitely want the corner straps. I had to send my first cover and Kindle back because the hinges broke through the plastic on the Kindle.
This is the model I have now in the Pebbled Purple color, and it’s working out very well.
M-Edge GO! Genuine Leather Kindle Jacket
Beverly Dickison
I love my Kindle. I received it for Christmas and already read a book that I’ve been meaning to order.
Brenda
Just discovered Kindle a few months ago and would love,love,love to have one! Someone tell my hubby?
Julie
I got one for Christmas and LOVE. IT. Thanks for the advice on free books!
Cindy
I got the Sony ereader for Christmas which is similar to the Kindle. I would love to find sites with current books cheap to download.
Juli
I know someone else already mentioned it but I love gutenberg.org! I’ve had the kindle for 1.5 years and that is where I get most of my books since they are free.
Sandy (Your Life, Organized)
Thanks so much for this great post!!! I got some books I wouldn’t have thought to check out!
Susan
I just pre-ordered the NEW Kindle 3…I am so excited! I ordered the Graphite colored one—love the contrast. however, could not find a good cover yet since this new Kindle has not been released yet!
Hugs,
Susan
ruth lipps
they show free e-books I just got my Kindle and I don’t know just how to get the free book dowloaded or how to find the free 200 books that were supposed to come on the Kindle HELP
Erika
Anyone know of other sites to get free books for Nook besides Barnes and Noble? Supposedly you can do any pdf files? Just got one for my birthday and love it…just don’t have the budget to load it up with books. Library has a decent selection but they still expire.
Karen
The iPad also allows you to download books from Amazon, Nook, iBooks, Zinio for magazines, etc.