Friday Freebies: Free Kindle Books
As you probably already know, has been a huge success. It’s now the #1 bestselling product on the site, the #1 product in wish lists and the #1 product given as a gift. With room for thousands of books, the biggest problem is going to be how to fill it up. Friday Freebies is here with information on how to find literally millions of free titles available for your Kindle.
Check at Amazon. In addition to the most popular new releases on the planet (most available for only $9.99) Amazon also offers limited time promotional titles for free, plus thousands of popular classic titles that are no longer under copyright protection for free download as well. Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Treasure Island, Dickens – if you’re a lover of classic books, you’ll find an endless supply for your Kindle available for free from the Kindle store. Want to read A Christmas Carol? It’s yours for free in 60 seconds.
Visit The Internet Archive. You’ll find a wide range of fiction, popular books, children’s books, historical texts and academic books as well. to get started. You can search for a title or browse one of the sub-collections in the archive. Once you find a title you’d like, click the link labeled “Kindle (beta)” to download the file to your computer, then attach your Kindle to the computer using USB and drag the file to your Kindle Documents folder. You could also e-mail the file to your Kindle using Whispernet for wireless delivery, but there’s a charge for that, so simpler and cheaper just to do it via USB connection.
Open Library has over a million free titles. It’s another site sponsored by the Internet Archive, but set up especially for books. Visit , and once you find a title you want check “only show ebooks” and then “send to Kindle.” It will direct you to Amazon to choose which device you want it delivered to via personal document delivery service. Nominal fees apply for delivery.
Good Ol’ Project Gutenberg. was one of the original sources of free eBooks, and it remains dedicated to their creation and distribution. Once you find a title that you’d like, download the “Mobipocket” or “Mobipocket with Images” format. You can then transfer the files via USB (or Whispernet) to your Kindle.
Get books at the best price (free!) from ManyBooks. provides free ebooks as a service to the Internet community at large. You can browse through their most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviews from visitors. Or maybe find something interesting in the special collections. There are more than 29,000 eBooks available and they’re all free. When viewing a title, choose the “Kindle (.azw)” option on the right hand side and then transfer the download to your Kindle via USB.
Of course, you don’t even have to have a Kindle to enjoy many of these free books. The sources of free eBooks out on the Web have files in various formats, and the ones available at Amazon can be read on their free Kindle apps for other devices.
However you read ‘em, why not find a classic or two to enjoy over the holidays? In the words of Mark Twain “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
Check back next week for more !