I have always been an avid reader but some time ago, probably around the time I purchased my first smartphone, I kind of got away from reading as much as I used to. With all of the information on demand these days, I am constantly reading articles and blogs from Pinterest, streaming my favorite shows on Netflix and occasionally playing time wasting games like Cookie Jam and Trivia Crack. Last Spring, I looked around and realized, I had barely read any books in the last 2 years.
Smartly, I put my smartphone aside and started gearing up to read like crazy. I began saving reading challenges I found on Pinterest and started looking for ways I could get a majority of my e-books free or very cheap.
OverDrive
Overdrive is my absolute favorite way to get free best-selling e-books. Overdrive is linked with libraries all across the country, the only thing you need is a library card. In most cases, you probably will not even have to go to the library to get a card. I was able to sign up for a digital library card through my local libraries website. Overdrive works just like a library. If a certain book you would like to read is checked out, you can place a hold on it and you will receive an e-mail once it is available for you to download. They even have a wishlist where you can save books you want to read and it will show you which books are available to read now too. Not only can you check out e-books, but you can also check out audio books and movies too!
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg has over 53,000 e-books that are in the public domain. No fee is required and there are a bunch of great classics such as The Count of Monte Cristo and Jane Eyre.
Amazon
Amazon has a few different ways you can receive free e-books. The most popular way is through their Top 100 Free E-Books list. This list is updated hourly with the most popular free e-books based on sales. If you are an Amazon Prime member, Amazon has their own library with over 800,000 titles and even has magazines for free. They also have a lot of bestselling books such as Life of Pi and The Hobbit. Prime members also get access to the Kindle First program which gives Prime members the ability to choose one book each month for free that will be released the following month.
Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble have their own free e-book section with over a million different titles. Although it does seem that most of the books in this section are self-published books, there are tons of them that have very high ratings.
Book Blogs
There are several book bloggers out there that provide daily/weekly updates of all of the free e-books and where to find them. Some of my favorites include:
Book Bub (newsletter signup)
These are some of my favorite places, especially Overdrive, they have pretty much everything. Reading is a great way to pass the time and is especially enjoyable when it doesn’t break the bank 😉 Enjoy reading magazines? Check out my post on how to score tons of popular magazine subscriptions for free. Have any great free e-book sites I have missed? Post them in the comments below. I love hearing about new websites to check out!