E-Books for Everyone

Is your e-reader running on empty? You may love your new Nook or Kindle, but building an e-book library can be costly. The good news is there's plenty of free e-reading online, but you have to know where to look. Though libraries are becoming a good source of free, newer e-books from major publishers, you can also find lots of new, classic, and unusual titles for the taking at a variety of sites.

These sites offer downloadable e-books that do not violate copyright laws and, in most cases, are free.

These are available through the Manitowoc Public Library website. Click on the icons on the right side under Featured Resources.

OverDrive - Fiction and non-fiction titles.

NetLibrary - Popular e-books on business, legal self-help, computer science, economics, literature, and psychology.

Learning Express Library e-books - PDF e-books for exams such as SAT, GED, GRE, GMAT, Civil Service jobs, and ASVAB.

Free Downloadable E-books Sites

Digital Book Index One of the most comprehensive sources for free, downloadable and web-based e-books, DBI acts as an e-book-site search engine, dredging up links to more than 165,000 full-text e-books. Rather than downloading directly from this site, you'll be directed to another site where you can get the e-book. Tip: After searching for the title you want, click on the "Format" link to get the file or online text.

Project Gutenberg If you've ever looked for a free classic online, you've probably encountered Project Gutenberg. Founded in 1971 by a computer programmer named Michael Hart, this volunteer-supported site is the largest single source of downloadable e-books. Many of the titles are works of Western Literature in the public domain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for example, have been downloaded 27,510 times.

Open Library A project of those dogged archivists behind Archive.org and the Wayback Machine, this site aims to create "a web page for every book." In simple terms, it's the Wikipedia of books, a catalog of informational entries about books created by users, with links to places where you can download the e-books for free, usually through a public library or Archive.org. Tip: Check the "only show ebooks" box when searching.

Google Books & Ebookstore Launched late last year, Google's online e-bookstore lets you preview books for sale and download lots of free public domain e-books. Search for any book in the Google Books database (which also lets you search within the text of millions of books) and refine by selecting "Free Google eBooks" in the left-hand menu. Or search the eBookstore and select "Price: Free only." You'll have to get a Google account, but you'll be able to save your downloaded e-books on Google's server and access them from any computer.

ManyBooks.net This clean, easy-to-navigate site contains more than 29,000 free downloadable e-books in multiple formats. Most of the books are public-domain texts culled from Project Gutenberg, but ManyBooks.net's proprietor, Matthew McClintock, is adding more all the time (follow his updates on Twitter). For more recent e-books, browse the Post-1930 category. The site also features user ratings and recommendations.

Bookyards.com Bookyards says they are the "library to the world" and with their selection, one would certainly believe it. They have over 16,000 books, 800,000 ebooks, and 384 videos. There are 32,000 ebook links as well. These are all in different categories and they've added ten new categories such as Literature, War, and Games. This is a relatively easy to navigate website, with plenty of free ebooks to download.

Free-Ebooks.net In this eye-catching, user-friendly repository of current and older books, you'll find self-published e-books on modern subjects -- like How to Make Money on eBay and 21st Century Time Management for Busy Managers – rubbing virtual covers with classic works by the likes of Darwin, Twain, and Rousseau. Users of this site may also publish reviews and "like" and "dislike" books.

DrScavanaugh The good doctor who runs this site provides a massive list of free e-book libraries. You can't download from here, and it's not search-friendly, but it's a good jumping-off point for browsing the world of free e-books.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books offers a small selection of titles from an academic library

Inkmesh is a search engine that searches more than thirty online sources for free e-books. You can search by genre, author, title and by type of e-reader.

Planet Ebook There are 61 free ebooks on Planet Ebook, and they are all classics. This is a great site for War and Peace or getting through some Emily Bronte. The site is laid out in a wordpress blogger type atmosphere and has all its books listed in a single list form, which is linked to the download. It is very simple and to the point. This is a site to download free pdf ebooks direct to your reader.

The Internet Archive's 1.8 million books now available as free Kindle Books – Most are now in MobiPocket/Kindle format. Choose MOBI from the download links on the upper left side of the book page (just below the book cover/image).

http://ireaderreview.com/2009/08/17/40-free-books-in-the-kindle-store/ This 'Free Kindle Books' post lists Every Single NEW Free Book in the Kindle Store.

Publisher Sites Featuring Free E-books

Harlequin – Romance

Baen –publisher of science fiction and fantasy offers number of free downloads that are compatible with the Kindle.

Pay Sites Worth Checking Out Powell's Books – Portland's famed bookseller now offers e-books. Munsey's -- A great source for rare and hard-to-find items, particularly pulp fiction, with many items for free and some for as cheap as $1. FictionWise – Owned by Barnes & Noble. EbookMall – One of the largest e-book retailers. Wowio – A pay site that offers some free graphic novels. FeedBooks – A pay site with links to some free books by new authors as well as some high-quality public domain e-books.

Sites to Share books:

Lendle Me The easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle™ books.

Book Lending Kindle lending is a feature launched by Amazon on December 30, 2010. Any Kindle book that has lending enabled can be loaned by one Kindle user to another for 14 days.

Blogs devoted to e-book and e-reader topics:

The Digital Reader is a blog devoted to news, reviews, and opinions on everything e-book (www.the-digital-reader.com)

Ebookanoid reviews e-readers, e-books and websites devoted to them (www.ebookanoid.com)

Submitted by uber-computer genius Margie V., MPL IT.

Choose a Book!  In honor of National Library Week (April 10-16^th) we will be hosting our first-ever FACEBOOK FAN BOOK DISCUSSION! But first we need to vote on which book to read. 

Your choices are:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (192 pgs)
In this first book, A Wizard of Earthsea readers will witness Sparrowhawk's moving rite of passage--when he discovers his true name and becomes a young man. Great challenges await Sparrowhawk, including an almost deadly battle with a sinister creature, a monster that may be his own shadow.

The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz (160 pgs)
Spanning the wealthy suburbs and crowded slums of Cairo, this thrilling crime story combines stream of consciousness technique with the hard-boiled style of detective fiction to create a harrowing account of crime and punishment.

Old School by Tobias Wolff (195 pgs)Set in a New England prep school in the early 1960s, the novel imagines a final, pastoral moment before the explosion of the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the suicide of Ernest Hemingway.

Cast your vote by commenting on our Facebook Page post. 

The winning title will be announced on April 11^th and discussion participants will then be able to pick a copy of the book up at the Manitowoc Public Library.

Our online discussion will be held during the last week of April.  

Become a Fan of Manitowoc Public Library on Facebook!

American Tapas

History is a popular browsing area in the library. However, a 751 page biography of John Adams by David McCullough or a 1,029 page biography of Adolf Hitler by Ian Kershaw can be overwhelming. No need to leave the 900's, look for the authors whose books contain little history "appetizers".

Kenneth Davis has long been known for his Don't Know Much About... series. These books are written in a question and answer format and usually focus on one historical era or major event. This format allows the reader to either search the book for a topic or read it straight through. His two most recent books, America's Hidden History and A Nation Rising concentrate on exposing the truth behind famous and infamous people and events in American history. They could be described as "myth-busting" books for the history lover.

Another series (written by several different authors) is the Politically Incorrect Guides. This series targets social issues (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism) and history. With titles such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to the South: and why it will rise again, the history lesson is often delivered from an unfamiliar point of view. There are further reading suggestions listed throughout the books along with quotes and little nuggets of information that you're "not supposed to know". More fun than a text book, this series is a little bit like going on a historical treasure hunt.

If you've ever wondered why Rhode Island is tiny and Texas is enormous, books like Mark Stein's How the States Got Their Shapes will make it clear. One of the best aspects of this title is that it briefly explains the history and geography of the different boundaries assigned to each state and it provides a cross-reference to the other boundary disputes which affected them. For example, Michigan acquired the Upper Peninsula after a border dispute with the state of Ohio. Wisconsin went through several years of separation anxiety as it was passed from one territory to another. Gerrymandering (and $2,000 in gold) changed the borders of Idaho forever. There is a plethora of information about each state packed into a few pages.

Looking for more? Check out J. Stephen Lang's Big Book of American Trivia, James Noles' A Pocketful of History, Thomas Woods' 33 Questions about American History You're not Supposed to Ask or American History Revised by Seymour Morris.