Free! Yes, lots of free books.

If you have an electronic reader—Kindle, Nook, etc.—or one of the reader apps for your PC, Mac, smart phone, or tablet, then there are a ton of free books out there. Enough books that no matter how fast you read, you couldn't read all of them in a single lifetime.

I hope that by now you know about the availability of all the “classics” from Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, and Google Books. These sites offer “bare bones” versions of the books. Project Gutenberg focuses on plain text versions with very little formatting, while the other two sites primarily offer scanned PDF versions with OCR conversion to text. While these sites now offer one or more versions designed for electronic readers, the disadvantage is that the files have been produced by automation directly from the OCR conversions.

A much better source for classic texts is MobileRead, an “online community where e-book newbies and industry veterans alike interact and share their experience with e-books and e-book technologies.” There, the E-Book Library contains versions that have been carefully created by volunteers. For the most part, the editing and formatting are exquisite. Most of the books found at MobileRead are more finely crafted than those that come from any Publisher.

But what if you want to read more than just the classics? What if you want to read books that are not yet in the public domain? What if you want to read recently published books? Yes! You can get some of those for free, too.

If you read science fiction and fantasy, check out the free books in Baen's Free Library. Most of the books found here are the first one in a series. What a great way to find out if you like the author or the series! And, of course, they sell electronic books via their WebScription Ebooks site.

A number of authors now give away some of their books. These range from new authors just wanting to get a book “out there”, independent authors, and even established authors like Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. These authors have several outlets—their own web sites, Smashwords, and Feedbooks—to name a few.

And publishers have realized that offering the occasional free book can spur further sales. I've become a regular follower of Books on the Knob, a blog that lists free and deeply discounted eBooks from all the major sources. There are other places online to find out about free books; a Google search turned up over 36 million hits!

So, if someone gave you one of these electronic readers for Christmas, get out there and fill it up with lots of books to read!

Bout of Books: The last day

'Twas a grand week of reading, blogging about reading, and tweeting about the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon. I'm so glad that my friend Shaunesay talked me into participating. All-in-all, I read 997 pages, finishing two books and getting more than 1/2 way through the third during the 7-day-long event. I think the number of pages and books was about average for me on any given week, but even more important is the fact that (as I said in yesterday's post) I have posted regular blog entries all week long. More than the reading, my goal for this week was to post and post and tweet.

As the day started, I was on page 117 of The Telling Pool by David Clement-Davies. I read during the usual down times—over breakfast and dinner, and whenever I got bored with the Internet. By bedtime, I had only read 84 pages, taking me to page 201. I had plans to read more, but got involved with the Brit-Coms on the local PBS station and suddenly midnight had come and gone.

Bout of Books :: Day 7 summary

Books read today: 1
Books finished today: 0
Pages read today: 84
Total books finished: 2
Total pages read: 997

Bout of Books: Days 5 and 6

Bout of Books Day 5 :: 28 October 2011

Friday was another normal work day. That meant that I had to squeeze in some reading during my meal breaks. Hubby took me to the local Chinese buffet for lunch and I read in the car all the way over there and back—as well as reading while I was eating. By the time we got home from lunch, I had finished reading the second book of the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon, Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement. That meant it was time to start another book. I selected The Telling Pool by David Clement-Davies. This is a young-adult fantasy set during the time of Richard the Lion-Hearted which I owe to appaloosatb over at BookObsessed.

This particular Friday evening was the meeting of my local Mixed Media art group. I live very far from where they meet, so I left home at 4 pm, listening to Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson as I drove. I stopped at a nearby restaurant to grab a quick supper. Of course I was busy reading The Telling Pool while I ate. The final game of the World Series was on TV when I got home and I settled in to watch Saint Louis defeat Dallas (darn!) and didn't get much more reading done by the time I went to bed.

Bout of Books :: Day 5 summary

Books read today: 3
Books finished today: 1
Pages read today: 230
Total books finished: 2
Total pages read: 829

Bout of Books Day 6 :: 29 October 2011

You'd think that with a Saturday off from work and no major projects scheduled, I'd get a lot of reading done. The truth is that I really didn't read many pages. I spent a lot of time on the Internet and watching college football instead of reading. So, at the end of the day, I was at page 117 in The Telling Pool, having read only 84 pages during the entire day. Oh well—I think I may easily finish this book by Sunday midnight and that will take me over 1100 pages for the week-long Read-a-Thon. That's pretty close to the number of pages I read in an average week. What's special is that I have made 6 postings to Reading in Texas during this week. I will *not* be able to keep up with this pace, but I do plan to try and keep the blog more current.

Bout of Books :: Day 6 summary

Books read today: 1
Books finished today: 0
Pages read today: 84
Total books finished: 2
Total pages read: 913

Bout of Books: An update

Bout of Books Day 3 :: 26 October 2011

The best part about Wednesday was that I had another airline trip which means uninterrupted reading time. My flight was to leave Jacksonville at 7:15, and I got to the airport, turned in my car, checked in, progressed through security, and was seated at the departure area by 5:45. What's a girl to do? Read, of course. Which I did.

I started the day on page 231 in Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier, and finished the book shortly before we landed at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. It was a magnificent book and I have the second one in the series in hand and I can hardly wait until I start reading it. Unfortunately, I must finish up a couple of books which I owe to book swappers at BookObsessed before I can return to the world of the Griffin Mages.

So, as soon as I reclaimed my luggage and settled into the car for the trip home, I pulled out a copy of Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement. This cozy mystery was won by SailorArby, a fellow book swapper, and I knew that it should be a quick read. By the time we got back to my house, I was already on page 50! I really was beginning to resent the fact that I had to work all afternoon. I would have much preferred to be reading. But, after work was completed, I settled in for some reading during supper, watching a little bit of TV, and reading myself to sleep. I ended the day at page 118.

Bout of Books :: Day 3 summary

Books read today: 2
Books finished today: 1
Pages read today: 254
Total books finished: 1
Total pages read: 536

Bout of Books Day 4 :: 27 October 2011

Thursday was a normal work day. Since I wasn't traveling, I actually got to sleep until 8am, and from that time on, I was busy with e-mail, instant messaging, research, documentation, and experimentation. I did take a decent lunch break—reading most of the time—which took me up to page 151 in Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter. I cooked bratwurst for supper and my daughter stopped by to eat with us and visit a little while. I fully intended to get down to some serious reading after she left, but the World Series was on TV and I got all caught up in the excitement. Eventually, I settled down with my book and was on page 181 when it fell out of my hand for the last time and I set it aside and turned out the light.

Bout of Books :: Day 4 summary

Books read today: 1
Books finished today: 0
Pages read today: 63
Total books finished: 1
Total pages read: 599

BTT: Hard

It's Thursday and Deb has posted another Booking Through Thursday prompt. This week, bloggers are asked:

What’s the hardest/most challenging book you’ve ever read? Was it worth the effort? Did you read it by choice or was it an assignment/obligation?

I'm having a really hard time coming up with an answer to this question. I guess the "hardest" book I've read recently was The Warden by Anthony Trollope. And it wasn't really *hard*. It's more that the style of writing was so different from the recreational reading that I am more used to. If I had approached this book back when I was in school, it wouldn't have been any problem at all as I was accustomed to reading the classics.

I'd have to say that reading this book was definitely worth it. I set myself the challenge of reading several classics each year and chose Trollope as the author I'd focus on for a while. After researching the author and his bibliography, I decided I'd start with his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. Since this series of 6 novels starts with The Warden, that's where I started. It took me a long time because other books were beckoning, but I did finish it in March of this year.

WWW...Wednesday: 26 October 2011

It's been a long time since I posted anything for MizB's WWW ... WEDNESDAY meme. She's been running it for a coon's age from her Should be Reading blog, but I haven't participated since March. It's about time, isn't it? Each week, MizB asks three simple questions:
1. What are you currently reading?
2. What did you recently finish reading?
3. What do you think you’ll read next?
and bloggers all over the world post their answers and link back to her blog.

Here are my answers:

1:  This morning, I started reading Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaize Clement. I'm also in the middle of several other books: I'm listening to Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson. My current position is Disk 4, Track 8. I have two books going on my Kindle. The first is Stormlord's Exile by Glenda Larke, the third book in her Stormlord trilogy. Current position is location 1239 of 10204, somewhere in the middle of Chapter 6. The second is Crown of Slaves by David Weber and Eric Flint. The story line occurs concurrently with the story in War of Honor, the 10th book in the Honor Harrington series. My present position is location 1775 of 9336, near the beginning of Chapter 9.

2:  Recently completed books are The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson and Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier. I started reading The Nestorian Alliance during Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon. Unfortunately, I was just so sleepy that I couldn't stay awake, so I finished it later in the day on Sunday, 23 October. Lord of the Changing Winds has been the first book I finished reading during this week's Bout of Books Read-a-Thon.

3:  Next up are two books that I need to read and get mailed to book swappers from BookObsessed. I'll be reading The Telling Pool by David Clement-Davies for appaloosatb and Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding for wss4. And, since I'm focusing on reading as much as possible during the week-long Bout of Books, I have high hopes of finishing both of these before next week's WWW...Wednesday.

Books mentioned in this post:

Bout of Books: Day 2 update

Bout of Books Day 2 :: 25 October 2011

I didn't get much reading done today. From 9am until 3pm, I was in a seminar with customers, so I only sneaked in a couple of pages during our breaks. Then after the seminar, I drove from Gainesville to Jacksonville, which gave me time to listen to just about a whole disk of Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson. I'm now somewhere in the middle of disk 4. Using the "Look Inside" feature at Amazon.com, I find that I stopped listening on page 120. That means I listened to the equivalent of 37 pages during my drive today.

On the text-reading front, I took Lord of the Changing Winds with me to supper and the book was great company during my solo meal. I'm now at page 217 (of 367) and based on my update at Goodreads last night, I had gotten to page 177 just before midnight. So together, that means that I've read 77 pages today—not as many as I had hoped, but I've got about another hour to read before midnight and it rolls over to Day 3 of Bout of Books Read-a-Thon. And, I have a flight tomorrow morning during which I plan to get quite a bit more reading done.

Update on 26 October: reading in bed after updating the blog, I stopped at page 231 before I turned the lights off at 23:15. So that increases the pages read for Day 2 by 14 to 91.

Bout of Books :: Today's summary

Books read today: 2
Books finished today: 0
Pages read today: 77   91
Total pages read: 268   282

Bout of Books: Goals and first day's update

Bout of Books :: Goals

Goals. Oh yes, goals. In this morning's post, I listed the books which I have started reading and not yet completed. So, my goals are: (1) to finish as many of these books as possible. (2) to post daily to this blog And (3) just to spend all my spare time reading! (Yeah, well ... #3 isn't really that much of a stretch since I usually read in any spare time that I have.)

Bout of Books Day 1 :: 24 October 2011

I got a good start on #1 and #3 today as I left my house at 8am, heading to the airport. It was hubby's job to get me safely to the American Airlines terminal at DFW, in spite of a very thick fog. My job was to stick my nose in a book and avoid shrieking wildly at close encounters and sudden appearances from the fog. I did very well—reading pages 11-45 in Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier. After I consigned my suitcase to the airline and cleared security, I had no waiting at all before boarding my flight after the airline rerouted me due to fog-induced delays which would have made it impossible for me to make a tight connection in Miami. I settled into my seat, opened my book, and read pages 45-110 before I fell asleep and took a well-deserved nap.

After reclaiming my suitcase and loading all my stuff into the rental car, I popped in disk 2 of Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson and listened to a couple of tracks until I found a nearby Wendy's and stopped to get a lunch. Of course, I was reading as I ate, getting all the way up to page 125 in Lord of the Changing Winds before I had to hop back in the car and get back out onto the road. I continued to listen to the author herself read the rest of disk 2 and most of disk 3.

After a quick supper with a colleague, I retired to my hotel room and settled in for the evening. I thought I was going to spend it just reading, but I got distracted by The Sing Off. Darn! Those guys can really sing! So, as I write my wrap-up post for the day, I'm now at page 165 (of 367) in Lord of the Changing Winds, and will read a bit more before I turn out the lights and go to sleep. I'm at track 7 of disk 3 in Backseat Saints. I'll be listening to this book again tomorrow night when I drive back to Jacksonville.

Bout of Books :: Today's summary

Books read today: 1
Books finished today: 0
Pages read today: 191

Bout of Books: Starting Position

For the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon, readers are lining up the books that they will be reading throughout the week-long event. Some participants have chosen to create a single post which they will update throughout the week. I, however, will be posting daily. After all, my main goal during the Read-a-Thon is not really about the reading, but the posting.

To be honest, I don't need any motivation to read. I carry multiple books with me wherever I go. If you were to look into my backpack, you'd find at least one paperback book and usually my Kindle along with the laptop and its accessories. And today, I installed the Kindle app on my Blackberry Torch and downloaded one book to the Blackberry.

My initial postion for this week includes four books which I have already started reading:

• Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson. I'm listening to this book on unabridged audio CDs. My current position is Disk 2, Track 5.
• Stomrlord's Exile by Glenda Larke. This is the third book in a trilogy and I bought it for the Kindle the very day that I finished reading the second book. Current position is location 1239 of 10204, somewhere in the middle of Chapter 6.
• Crown of Slaves by David Weber and Eric Flint. The story line occurs concurrently with the story in War of Honor, the 10th book in the Honor Harrington series. This book is also on my Kindle, and my present position is location 1775 of 9336, near the beginning of Chapter 9.
• Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier, first in her Griffin Mage trilogy. I read the first 12 pages during Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon. I need to finish it as quickly as possible so I can mail it to Xeyra in Portugal who selected it from the SFF Virtual Book Box at BookObsessed

As I finish these books, I have more queued up behind them. Given that I have 3 flights scheduled this week—DFW to MIA to JAX and JAX to DFW—I should have plenty of time to make some progress on the print and electronic books. And, I'll be listening to Backseat Saints in the car as I drive from Jacksonville to Gainesville and return. All-in-all, this is shaping up to be an excellent week for a Read-a-Thon.

*ANOTHER* Read-a-Thon?

Amanda, who blogs at On a Book Bender, is sponsoring a week-long Read-a-thon called Bout of Books. I blame my reading pal Shaunesay for talking me into signing up. (Of course, she didn't have to twist my arm too much. We're both coming down off the high from Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon, so we were ripe pickings for another event.)

My first question was "What is Bout of Books?". Taken directly from the sign-up page, I found the following:

1. Bout of Books will run from 12:01am 10/24 through 11:59 pm 10/30 (your time zone)
2. Read as much as you can whenever you can.
3. Bout of Books should be about networking with fellow bloggers in addition to reading. You were going to read that week anyway, right? Bout of Books gives you the opportunity to share your reading experience with other readers.
4. Use #boutofbooks on Twitter to update people on your progress and what you are reading.

Given that I'd have to give a rousing positive response to "You were going to read that week anyway, right?" (errmm... is there *any* week where I'm not reading?) I couldn't see any down-side to signing up. It's going to encourage me to post more to my Reading in Texas blog, and that's definitely something that I need to be encouraged to do. So, I'm in. I've signed up. I'm going to think about some goals—and they certainly won't include hourly blog posts! And, I'm going to pull together a starting postion post for tomorrow morning.

In My Mailbox: 23 October 2011

There have been only a few new books to arrive at our house this week. LoriPed sent a package with two books from swaps and VBBs at BookObsessed and two wishlist books. In the package were: Cat's Claw by Amber Benson—a wishlist book which Lori sent for the 6 Around the World Exchange; Caleb by Sarah McCarty—which I won in September's PUF Swap; Don't Hex with Texas by Shanna Swendson—which I selected from the 2006 and Later VBB; and The Boy's Tale by Margaret Frazer—a wishlist book which Lori sent "just because".

In addition to those paper books, I also have a new Kindle book. During Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon, I saw an offer by Candy for a gifted copy of The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson in return for a promise to read during the Read-a-Thon and post a review on Amazon.com. I took her up on it and if I hadn't fallen asleep near 1:00, I'd have finished it in just an hour or two. I've read the first 12 chapters and should finish it later today.

Read-a-Thon End-of-Event Meme

It's over. It's time to tie everything up and return to everyday life. Fortunately, the Read-a-Thon comes around again in April.

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
         I just couldn't stay awake after about 1am. I woke up several times and tried to read, but just kept falling back asleep.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
         Not really. For me, a cozy mystery or light-hearted PUF book is going to be easy to read and will keep me engaged. I need to avoid any type of "serious" book.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
         I still wish the start time would be shifted so that the tough hours between midnight and 5am occur at the beginning of the 24-hour period and not at the end.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
         Oh, just about everything.
5. How many books did you read?
         I finished 2 books and read parts of 4 in total.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
         The two books I finished were Bring It On by Laura Anne Gilman and Corpse Pose by Diana Killian. Two books that I read part of but did not finish were The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson and Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
         Corpse Pose was just exactly the right book for a Read-a-Thon. The plot was engaging, the action was quick, the characters were interesting, and the execution was very well done.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
         I took a chance on a self-published book by an independent author. The plot was excellent, but the execution was not very polished. And, because I was tired due to the time of day, that less-than-excellent execution interfered with my enjoyment. Don't get me wrong...I'd still recommend it to others, it was just the least enjoyable of all the books I read yesterday.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
         I've never been a cheerleader—other than the informal cheering and encouragement that I left on the blogs of other participants. The cheerleaders are a really important part of the program because it's no fun participating in the Read-a-Thon if you think no one is paying attention.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
          Oh, I'm going to join in as a reader in April.

The end of another Read-a-Thon

Final Update

Reading Sleeping Location: On my couch

Currently Reading: The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson and Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier

Total Pages read so far: 607

Total Time spent reading so far: ??? minutes

Other Readers I have visited:

• Azuki, a BookCrossing and BookObssessed pal who lives in Miami
• Shaunesay, another BC/BO friend who lives in Kansas
• Nikki, someone new I'm meeting through the Read-a-Thon
• VeganMedusa, another BC/BO friend who lives in New Zealand. She hasn't posted anything to her blog yet; wonder if she's still asleep.
• Ann, who used to swap books with us at BookCrossing and BookObsessed, but now reads mostly eBooks.
• Kanaye, also a BC/BO friend who signed up for this Read-a-Thon but who hasn't posted anything yet.
• dancing-dog lives in Tennessee and swaps book with us over at BookObsessed
• Zeteticat, whose name I picked from the list of readers because it was the penultimate one.
• CandyTX, a fellow Texan, BookCrosser, and BookObssessor.

Mini-challenges completed: Introduction, Mid-event survey, and Feed Me, Seymour

Finished Books:

• Bring It On by Laura Anne Gilman
• Corpse Pose by Diana Killian

Comments: Although I woke several times and took a look at my clock, I just could not get up and start reading again. I finally awoke at 7:02 and got myself moving. The Read-a-Thon was over and all that remained was to update the blog and bring everything to a close. I will be posting my answers to the end-of-event survey and I'll share my timeline and then that will be it for yet another year. I need to finish reading The Nestorian Alliance and post a review on the Amazon site.

Only 4 more hours

Hour 20 Update

Reading Location: On my couch

Currently Reading: The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson

Total Pages read so far: 607

Total Time spent reading so far: ??? minutes

Other Readers I have visited:

• Azuki, a BookCrossing and BookObssessed pal who lives in Miami
• Shaunesay, another BC/BO friend who lives in Kansas
• Nikki, someone new I'm meeting through the Read-a-Thon
• VeganMedusa, another BC/BO friend who lives in New Zealand. She hasn't posted anything to her blog yet; wonder if she's still asleep.
• Ann, who used to swap books with us at BookCrossing and BookObsessed, but now reads mostly eBooks.
• Kanaye, also a BC/BO friend who signed up for this Read-a-Thon but who hasn't posted anything yet.
• dancing-dog lives in Tennessee and swaps book with us over at BookObsessed
• Zeteticat, whose name I picked from the list of readers because it was the penultimate one.
• CandyTX, a fellow Texan, BookCrosser, and BookObssessor.

Mini-challenges completed: Introduction, Mid-event survey, and Feed Me, Seymour

Finished Books:

• Bring It On by Laura Anne Gilman
• Corpse Pose by Diana Killian

Comments: Yes—I have fallen asleep a couple of times in the past 3 hours. Have only read 21 pages since then, and I've no idea how many minutes I was reading and how many I was sleeping. I've read 6 chapters in The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson. My Kindle tells me that's 27% of the book. I need to apply myself if I'm going to finish it, write a review, and get it posted to Amazon by 5am Central Time. Obviously I need to fill my glass with something to drink and hope I can stay awake.

It's midnight!

Hour 17 Update

Reading Location: On my couch; but I need to find a new place to sit, I'm trying to doze off

Currently Reading: The Nestorian Alliance by Michael Watson

Total Pages read so far: 586

Total Time spent reading so far: 621 minutes

Other Readers I have visited:

• Azuki, a BookCrossing and BookObssessed pal who lives in Miami
• Shaunesay, another BC/BO friend who lives in Kansas
• Nikki, someone new I'm meeting through the Read-a-Thon
• VeganMedusa, another BC/BO friend who lives in New Zealand. She hasn't posted anything to her blog yet; wonder if she's still asleep.
• Ann, who used to swap books with us at BookCrossing and BookObsessed, but now reads mostly eBooks.
• Kanaye, also a BC/BO friend who signed up for this Read-a-Thon but who hasn't posted anything yet.
• dancing-dog lives in Tennessee and swaps book with us over at BookObsessed
• Zeteticat, whose name I picked from the list of readers because it was the penultimate one.
• CandyTX, a fellow Texan, BookCrosser, and BookObssessor.

Mini-challenges completed: Introduction, Mid-event survey, and Feed Me, Seymour

Finished Books:

• Bring It On by Laura Anne Gilman
• Corpse Pose by Diana Killian

Comments: In the past 37 minutes, I read ~ 10 pages. (I'm using 16 locations/page to compute the page equivalents in The Nestorian Alliance.) I'm trying to doze off, which I'm sure is due to the fact that I'm so cozily comfortable sitting here on the couch. OK! Got to find a new place to sit or some other way not to fall asleep.