As I note in my about Rat’s Reading page, I love free books. I grab far too many free books from Michael’s Books, for instance. But finding these things has been kind of haphazard, so I’m going to start a semi-frequent posting of the sources I find for free books, including electronic books.
This probably exists on the web somewhere, but searches of Technorati and Google failed to find a good one. But one thing is for sure, the web seems to have endless numbers of blogs that are merely links to other sites. Many just regurgitate and remix links found on other blogs. This seems to be very popular. I know I love the good ones at least. So why not one of my own, even if it is repetitive? If nothing else, it will discipline me to find free books less haphazardly.
What will appear (or not appear)?
- As I read a lot of genre (science fiction, fantasy, and mystery) books, I expect this feature will also lean in that direction, but other types will certainly appear as well. If it doesn’t look at least marginally interesting to me, I won’t include it.
- Book contests and giveaways, so long as there’s no cost to enter, and there aren’t any long term BadThings™ to which I would have to agree to enter.
- Book stores and venues which give away books, both one-time and on-going promotions.
- Sources for free review copies (ARCs), if the quid pro quo is negligible. Agreeing to post about the book is something I consider negligible. Agree to write a review is negligible. Agreeing to a positive review, or to exclusivity of some sort is not.
- Probably not a lot of the items by Project Gutenberg or Google Books. I know about them. Other people know about them. They are already included in 99% of the
guides to free books on the web
. - As I noted above, this includes electronic books. However, I’m going to make an important caveat to that. I won’t include electronic book only books in this if they are by self-published authors or similar. In other words, stuff that appears on Lulu or Writer’s Cafe or the like isn’t going to appear here. If Neil Gaiman writes something on one of those places, I’ll reconsider though.
- Also stuff that won’t appear are web books that you can’t take with you. HarperCollins’ Browse Inside for instance. I’m debating on whether or not to include free e-books that are DRMed up too tight as well.
- Illegally copied books won’t appear. Which means a lot of stuff on file sharing sites is verboten.
I’m not sure how the format will end up, so suggestions are welcome. I’ll be futzing with it over the coming days to see what works best for me.
If you have a book giveaway of some sort, feel free to email me about it and I’ll post it. I’ll also see it if you add a comment to one of the existing blog posts such as this one.
Contests
- Bookroomreviews is giving away a copy of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. The contest requires a blog comment or link. Deadline is 31 July.
- A number of blogs are giving away a package of Hachette books in their
Summer Reads Giveaway
. Each has slightly different rules, but most involve a comment or links.- Bookshipper, deadline 31 July.
- Musings of a Bookish Kitty, deadline 2 August.
- Red Room, deadline 31 July
- Trish’s Diary, deadline 19 July.
- Book Club Queen, deadline 5 August
- Fantasy Book Critic has giveaways for a number of books. The site gives away a number of books every month.
- The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson and Michael Ledgwidge, deadline 22 July
- The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney, deadline 22 July
- David Weber’s Off Armageddon Reef, and By Schism Rent Asunder, deadline 22 July
- The Tower of Shadows by Drew Bowling, deadline 22 July
- Mike Carey’s The Vicious Circle and The Devil You know, deadline 28 July
- Complete sets of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga series, deadline 2 Aug
- Elizabeth Bear’s Promethean Age series, deadline 5 August
- Terry Pratchett’s first two Discworld graphic novels (illustrated by Stephen Ross), deadline 5 Aug
- The Book Swede also has a giveaway of copies of Drew Bowling’s The Tower of Shadows, deadline
sometime before the end of August 2008
. - MentatJack is giving away copies of T. A. Pratt’s Blood Engines and Poison Sleep, deadline 25 July
- Allen Family Ramblings has a giveaway for an ARC of J. Scott Savage’s Far World, deadline first week of August sometime
- Adventures in Never Never Land is giving away her pre-read copy of C. Comfort Shield’s Surviving Ben’s Suicide, deadline 24 July
- Minds Alive On The Shelves has a copy of Stealing Athena by Karen Essex, deadline 21 July
- Anne’s Food is giving away a Swedish cookbook, In Grandma’s Arbor, deadline 20 July at noon, Swedish time. I’m ¼ Swedish and ate a lot of Swedish pastries while growing up due to Gram’s (my grandmother) and Mommommy’s (great-grandmother) propensity to cook.
- Paranormal romance isn’t really my thing, but if it’s your’s, Paranormality is giving away 3 copies of Esri Rose’s Bound To Love Her. I’m not sure when the deadline is, but I suspect it’s short.
- Blood of the Muse has Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s The Wheel of Darkness to give away, deadline 5 August.
- Tripping Toward Lucidity is giving away a hardcover and also I believe an ARC of Francesca Lia Block’s Blood Roses, deadline 25 July
- And lastly, the deadline for entering the LibraryThing July Early Reviewer contest is later today, at 6pm Eastern.
Free E-Books
- Download a free PDF of the Homeless Moon chapbook
One Comment
Thanks for the mention, and apologies for the vagueness of the end date for the give away! :)