Free is a good price, and one great way for Amazon Kindle owners to find free books is by reading the daily Amazon Kindle news blog, awkwardly entitled " Amazon Kindle's Blog ". The daily blog is updated on the Shop Kindle Store page of the Kindle, but it is a good idea to grab the RSS for iGoogle or another feed reader and keep up with the Kindle book deals. To read updated information on finding free Kindle books on Amazon, read "Kindle vs Nook: Free eBook Offers."
Amazon Discounts and Free Kindle Book Offers
For most of Spring 2009, these free or discounted books will be available to Kindle owners.
Free Book Downloads (No Purchase Necessary)
Amazon has been particularly bounteous in the wake of the release of Kindle2. The new free book downloads include the Bible, romance books, and a cookbook.
Free Bible
Crossway Books and Bibles has an excellent Bible available as a free download. The chapters are easy to manage, which has been a difficulty with Kindle Bibles because a Bible is more often used as a reference book than a cover-to-cover read. The Holy Bible English Standard Version (ESV) is clickable, searchable, and an excellent Kindle offering. When the Bibles are no longer available, Youversion has a free Bible app for iphones.
Free Harlequin Romance books
Celebrating 60 years of beautiful people being overwhelmed with passion, Harlequin has released 8 free Kindle books:
- Baby Bonanza by Maureen Child
- Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels
- Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
- Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry
- Homespun Bride by Jillian Hart
- Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson
- Kiss Me Deadly by Michele Hauf
- Price of Passion by Susan Napier
Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch reads more like a fun, adventuresome mystery than a romance novel, but Price of Passion is classic Harlequin, complete with overwhelming passion on the way back from the vet's office in New Zealand. eHarlequin also has free romantic books to download; in total there are 16 free harlequin romance novels available.
Fiction readers will also want to try Scott Blum's Summer's Path, a free Kindle e-book.
Free Cookbook
America's Test Kitchen has given Kindle user's The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking. Originally scheduled to come out with Kindle2 on February 24th, the release date has been postponed until March 26.
Buy One, Get One Free Book Offers
- People who buy the Kindle edition of Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand are automatically given another Vaughn book, Kitty Raises Hell, for free.
- Kindle owners who buy Cara Black's Murder in the Latin Quarter are automatically given another Black book, Murder in the Marais, for free.
Discounted Books
Orbit has released their e-books for the Kindle, and they offer one book a month as a $1 Kindle download special.
"Buying" Free Kindle Books
It is not necessary to use the links from the Kindle blog to get to these books. They can be searched through the Kindle shopping function (or the Amazon website). If the offer has expired, the Kindle blog link still leads to a $0.00 checkout price, but the user will be charged the real price, so be sure to get books while they are still really available. Of course, if one is unexpectedly charged, click "purchase this book by accident?" and the book will be removed and refunded.
Keeping up with the Daily Kindle Blog is the best way to take advantage of free books. Kindle users remember the bonanza of free books in December, as well as Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Sanctuary. There have also been free election and inauguration editions of newspapers, and free access to exclusive writings, such as Stephen King's "UR". Announcements for the iphone app, new releases, author interviews, and instructions about new features and tips and tricks, (such as Alt+0+1 for automatic page turning), have all come through the daily blog.
Update: This article was originally written in March, 2009. As of August 2010, EHarlequin no longer has the free downloads. Many of the free eharlequin romance novels can be read online and readers can still find free romantic novels from Mills and Boon.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
