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When I get time, I listen to music, or read books. If any is left, I blog!

Tuesday 30 September 2014

3 Easy Steps To Free E-Books

Two challenges a book lover often faces are, 'What to read next?', and 'Where to get it from?' Those familiar with online searching / shopping may not find it so daunting as it sounds. Click here to read more.

In contrast, the world of E-books differs in many aspects. But that is no reason to keep anyone away.  Once the changes in traditional book publishing and selling consequent to digitization are understood, the haze and hesitation begin to lift.  A reader can migrate from P-Books to E-Books, just as effortlessly as how a talented writer self-publishes his/her works these days. Thousands of titles in every imaginable genre are available here, often for a fraction of a Dollar or even free of cost.  Many among them could satisfy the reader in you, and at least a few would make it to bestseller lists eventually. Check it out here.

If you wish to enter this new world, the first thing to know is about E-Readers and E-Book formats. Generally any Tablet, Smartphone or PC (Desktop/Laptop) can double up as an E-Reader, so long as it has the ability to read common E-Book formats like Kindle, EPub, Mobi, PDF, RTF etc.  But dedicated E-Readers like Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite or Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo E-Reader, Sony eReader and iPad have a clear edge in making reading far more comfortable and pleasurable.  

With its ever-growing collection of E-Books and excellent range of E-Readers, Amazon is the market leader.  Yet, its vast publishing platform could confuse a new entrant.  The easy way out is to signup at websites that send out mail alerts of Amazon's offers everyday.  These bring you the titles of your preferred genre, and live links to take you to the corresponding webpage at Amazon, where you can choose to download the book and read it at your convenience. Three of my favourites are:

1)  BookBub    
2)  Booksends     
3)  ManyBooks    

They are not affiliated with Amazon. To my knowledge, they also do not spam you.  Signing up is easy.  You can also update your preferences any time.

Another site that I frequent is Smashwords. Unlike the above, Smashwords is a global distributor of E-Books.  Your choice is not limited to Amazon. You can search for E-Books, read them online by creating a private library, download them in various formats, or even mail them in MOBI formats to your Kindle email address.

Go ahead. Try them.  Happy reading  

'No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time 
for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.'
                                                                                                             Confucius