Except that one time when I was hours early because I had the time wrong, and those people never invited me again, which makes me feel a bit foolish and sad.
Ahem.
Onward.
Here's something I find quite useful from time to time. And the price is definitely right!
Audiobooks are daily fare here, but a while back I wanted to read a book that was only available as a e-book. Rats. I don't have a Kindle or a tablet. My cellphone is a very basic pay-for-use, and while it may be smarter than me, it is certainly not a "smartphone." (To be honest, I'm not even sure what makes a smartphone "smart." Maybe my next phone will tell me.)
But I really wanted to read that book. So after doing a little poking around on the internet, I discovered and downloaded the free Kindle Reading App for my laptop.
It was So Easy. Also, Fast.
Also - did I mention? - Free.
And in keeping with the "free" theme running through this post, here's the bonus: you can also download free books from Amazon.
Amazon sells a quadrazillion books, of course, but they also offer loads of free e-books - thousands! - in all sorts of categories; everything from Jane Austen to gardening books. The list changes frequently. The search function works well.
For example, this morning I searched for "free kindle books canning preserving." Here are the search results, again with the clicking and embiggening:
Important: many books are free for a very short time and will soon revert to their usual price. So if you see something interesting, best download it immediately. I missed out on a book about dehydrating last week, but today I'll download several books on preserving.
These e-books will live quietly in my laptop library, perhaps until a snowy evening spent planning the next garden and feeding the woodstove.
And at that point, if a book doesn't look useful, a click will delete it. So much better than dusting the bookshelves (not a high priority task here, as you might imagine) and trying to decide - again - whether to keep a book I haven't opened since 1989.
If you haven't tried this app and would like to check it out, here's a link that should take you there.
Have fun! And if you find any special treasures, please come back and share them in the comments :)
~~~~~
Quinn - Mindful of the distance to the nearest town, I purchased a Kindle ast year - the very basic Kindle. It was an absolute treasure during the winter months, when there was not enough sun to charge the batteries which meant I couldn't browse my favourite blogs :)
ReplyDeleteRSon had downloaded a whole bunch of books for me (ahem, like 720 of them) so I haven't had to look for more free ones. Yet. But, thanks for the link - I will certainly check it out :)
Good gracious, 720 books! That would keep me busy for many winters :)
DeleteQuinn, I didn't know this and it's useful information. The first Christmas Dave's mother passed away, Dave said, "Mother bought us Kindle's for Christmas gifts." I said, "Well, all righty then. Thanks Crock!" Her middle name was Crockett (after the Davey Crockett clan) and folks called her Crock. It's a first generation Kindle but no complaints, I'm still find out stuff about it...most everything and everyone is smarter than me and I'm good with that -smile-.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be helpful! I've never even seen a Kindle, as far as I know, but from what Dani said above, it sounds like a Kindle will run for a lot longer than a charged laptop...nice during the inevitable winter power outages! I can do without lights and such, but I do miss my laptop once the battery is dead.
Deletevery interesting! I love audio books to sew to and with no TV we listen to them in the evening too, My 2 blind friends got me started on them and now I'm hooked!
ReplyDeleteI borrow boxed CD sets or download them from our public library website.
Audiobooks are wonderful, aren't they? I've always been an avid reader, but when I was recovering from eye surgery 14 years ago, switching to audiobooks kept me from going mad. Even after I could read again, I was hooked. Like you, I download a lot of free audiobooks from the library and Libravox. It's such a luxury, being "read to." That's probably why it took me so long to stumble upon the free Kindle e-books. Bonus to the e-books: it's hard to pick up a new knitting technique from an audiobook ;)
DeleteI love my sony e-reader. I feel so powerful slipping 200 books into my purse on my way out the door. Unfortunately some of the books I'm waiting for are not yet available as e-books.
ReplyDeleteI love that image! :)
DeleteI knew about the app, but I did not know about the free kindle books! That's cool. I'm going to check it out!
ReplyDeleteHave fun :)
DeleteI love my kindle app on my laptop. It means I can read eBooks when I need to, but not having an actual Kindle means my leisure reading still involves paper pages. A perfect balance in my book, if you'll pardon the pun :)
ReplyDeleteThe more options, the merrier, I think :)
DeleteI have a new laptop that came with the Kindle app, and thus I'm very grateful to you for telling us about the free books - I've just discovered lots of free George McDonald books. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it was helpful! Thanks for leaving a comment to let me know :)
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