I'm officially an ereader as of December 25th! Thank you, Santa (er, Mark ; ) for my new Kindle! Amazon had a banner Christmas too, I see, with all the new Kindle owners out there. So, of course, like any good consumer, I wanted to start to actually read on my Kindle. Then I found out:
1. Kindle's don't work with EPUB or Adobe Digital Editions formatted books which meant (for me) no free library books
2. I need to shop at Amazon to get my books...boo
I guess I should have been a bit more thorough on selecting my ereader, however, I highly doubt I would have received the Sony eReader for almost $300 that does essentially the same thing as my Kindle for $189!!!! Yikes...
Like any good cheapskate, I started scouring the Internet looking for free ebooks. Here are some things I have learned:
1. Kindle books are in MOBI format which means...even if Kindles are on the list of supported devices, you still might be able to download the book and use Calibre to format it to read on your Kindle.
2. DRM = rotten, stinking bugger that won't allow you to read the newly downloaded books esp. if they are EPUB format! Arghh...so what do you do then?
3. eBook Converter - a little software download that removes the DRM and allows you to format your book so that you can read it on your Kindle. CAVEAT: This is a bit naughty...kind of like using Napster before Napster became regulated. >:( There are lots of debates about DRM (oh - Digital Rights (or Restriction) Management - sorry!) so read up and pick a side. >:)
But lets get back to why we are here...eReading on the cheap! Here is my list of resources of free reading material for your Kindle:
Free ebooks by Project Gutenberg
Feedbooks
Free Kindle Books on Amazon
Amazon - Limited Time offers (some free and some on the cheap!)
Happy Reading!
A
I have been on the kindle fence. let me know how you like it.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE my Kindle! However, I wish I had known that Amazon was NEVER going to go to epub aka be compatible with the Overdrive system that our library has for ebooks. I can't say that I would have invested in a Sony, though, so for me, it was probably the best choice for getting started. I would recommend the $189 version, though, b/c that has the wi-fi built-in and you can shop & download books from anywhwere. Let me know what you decide...we can loan each other books if you get a Kindle! : )
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