Kindle

pollyanna24

Can you download books for free on a Kindle?

I get a lot of books from my local library online and read them on my iPhone. Thinking of upgrading and getting a Kindle as I think it may be easier to read books on that.

The app I use on my iPhone to read books is called OverDrive I think.

barbarawright

You can't borrow library books for a kindle as Amazon won't licence that in the UK. So if your local library does ebooks and that's going to be your main source, buy a reader like a Kobo or Sony that handles epub format. But if you want a Kindle, there is plenty of free older stuff available at sites like Manybooks.net and Project Gutenberb that is in mobi/Kindle format.

pinkclouds

Not aware that I can borrow any library books on my Kindle. However, I have downloaded several free books from Amazon and Project Gutenberg.

Amazon top 100 free Kindle books: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bestsellers-Kindle-Store-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/341689031/

Project Gutenberg link for Kindle web browser: http://m.gutenberg.org/

It might also be useful to note that you can return Kindle books to Amazon for a full refund - just like any other product they sell. If you buy a book by mistake or that you just hate: return it. Although they do provide sample chapters for their books, so I've only had to do that a couple of times so far.

prowla

Yes - you can get free books for the kindle; I have thousands of books and haven't paid a penny for a single one.

Here's a link to kinlib and to ereaderiq - the first you can browse and the second will send you a daily email of freebies. You have to have an Amazon account to get the content.

You can also directly load PDFs onto the kindle - I had a couple of Word documents that I saved as PDF and put on mine. (It did take a bit of trial and error to get the page & font settings to something I liked.)

barbarawright

prowla wrote: »

Yes - you can get free books for the kindle; I have thousands of books and haven't paid a penny for a single one.

Here's a link to kinlib and to ereaderiq - the first you can browse and the second will send you a daily email of freebies. You have to have an Amazon account to get the content.

You can also directly load PDFs onto the kindle - I had a couple of Word documents that I saved as PDF and put on mine. (It did take a bit of trial and error to get the page & font settings to something I liked.)

Calibre is good for changing file formats (and you can load files directly to your reader via it).

lozza1985

I have a Kobo, and love it, we used a voucher code to get £30 off too. You can borrow ebooks from libraries really easily, I'm not very good with technology, but even I can manage it! Someone at work has a kindle, and has seen my kobo and said they wish they hadn't gone for the brand name, as they said there's not much difference between the two, apart from my kobo cost a lot less!

thehappybutterfly

Be aware that you can't get current books for free on Kindle. They tend to be older books or the classics. Or just crap I've found tbh!

Barneysmom

I've got tons of free books on my Kindle, including some of the classics.

The complete works of Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Brontes,
Homer, Jane Austin..............tons of them.

But I've had loads of other free books in various topics too, it's fantastic!

Because it was expensive, I decided I'd get as many free books as I possibly could to balance the cost.

There's also books at silly prices like 83p or 77p

Go for it, if you're a bookworm you will never be sorry you did it!

ETA: I forgot to say, the Kindle has speech too, so you can lie in the bath or in bed and it'll read the story to you

*max*

I just got a tablet and installed the Kindle app on it, and I love it. Although I do want to get either a Kindle or a Kobo as they seem to be easier on the eyes, and the battery life is great. I'm wondering which to get...I like how easy it is to download books on Kindle, and also how their customer service is excellent, but I'm not sure if that is worth the higher price. Any thoughts?

Sorry to highjack your thread OP! x

thehappybutterfly

Books are a heck of lot easier to read on a proper e-reader due to the E-Ink technology. The glare off a tablet makes it practically impossible to read in the sun. I love my Kindle! I'm not a gadget fan (I have a cheapy basic mobile phone) but couldn't be without my Kindle.

muddyl

I'm thinking about getting a kindle too. Though not sure if I should say the extra and get the kindle DX as i'd also want to use it for sheet music.

However my father has a kindle. As he is not that great with technology he asked me to do it. Within an hour, on my first go with kindle's, id put over 1000 books on, all free.