Free Resources for Your E-Reader

Don't forget, Carnegie Stout Public Library is holding a one-session class to introduce students to Overdrive, an online service accessible both in the library and from home. Overdrive allows library patrons to download free audio books, eBooks, and music. Downloaded media may be accessed on a home computer or portable electronic device. For more information or registration check out our website.

Unfortunately, if you have a Kindle, you will be unable to use the library’s collection of eBooks. Amazon has chosen a proprietary form of software and will not allow libraries to check out eBooks that work with their software. You may of course purchase e-books directly from Amazon. However, there are several places to download eBooks for free. Many of these sites have older titles that are copyright free and some are new titles by aspiring authors.

ARTICLES:
Check out these two articles which discuss Google books, currently the largest collection of digital books. There is also a lot of good information regarding the Kindle.

Laura Miller from Salon has an article discussing Google eBooks.

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/12/07/google_ebookstore/index.html

And check out this explanation of Google books by The Tattered Cover bookstore:

http://www.tatteredcover.com/img-srcfilestatteredcovere-books-customersjpg-vspace9-width473-height108

WEBSITE LISTS:
We have also put together a list of websites where you may download eBooks for free. Many of these sites can also be used for Nooks, Kobo and Sony Readers, as well as simply reading on your PC. There are several different types of formats available, such as: ePub, PDF, HTML, Mobipocket, and Txt. You will need to check to see if your device can read the particular format.

http://www.suite101.com/content/free-ebook-websites-a318293
This article lists several of the free sites.

http://ebook-store-review.toptenreviews.com/top-7-free-ebook-websites.html
Top Ten Reviews reviews seven free sites.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/
Hongkiat.com has a blog post listing the twenty best websites for free e-books. The blog also added another 16 extra listings. The post was updated about a year ago and a second set of websites can be found here.


INDIVIDUAL WEBSITES:
Here is a partial list of the sites where you can download free e-books, with an informational quote from each website.

http://www.gutenberg.org/
“Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 33,000 free eBooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device. “

http://www.free-e-books.net/
“Free-e-books.net is the Internet’s #1 online source for free eBook downloads, eBook resources and eBook authors.”

http://www.getfreee-books.com/
“Getfreee-books.com is a free e-books site where you can download free books totally free.”

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-e-books/379001668/
Claims to have thousands of free eBooks, but only about 100 or so are listed. Can be used on iPad, iPhone, Android, NOOK, and PC.

http://manybooks.net/
“There are more than 29,000 eBooks available here and they're all free!”

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
“Listing over 900,000 free books on the Web”

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-e-books/b/ref=sv_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&node=1286228011
Look on the left under Special Features/Free E-Book collections. “Free classics and out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books, as well as limited-time free promotional e-books available for Kindle.”

http://www.smashwords.com/
“Discover Great E-books from Indie authors and publishers.”

http://www.kobobooks.com/
299 titles in multiple formats.

http://www.archive.org/details/texts
“The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.”

http://books.google.com/e-books
“Read nearly 3 million free eBooks and hundreds of thousands of titles that are ready for purchase; you can read all of your favorite books using just about any device with an Internet connection. You can read Google eBooks on the Web, with Android phones, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and supported eReaders.. You can't use your Kindle to read any eBooks you buy from Google.”