Reading on a Budget: I Heart My E-Reader

I am an Apple whore. Seriously, I'm not joking. My first laptop. Yep, it was a Mac. So was my second, and my third, and when I buy a desktop, that'll definitely be a Mac too. Nope, I'm still not joking. I bought myself my first iPod when I was 12 (a big purchase for someone earning $5 a week in allowance), and I have owned each edition since the Shuffle. The only thing that kept me from buying the iPhone was the monopolizing AT&T contract. But last February changed all that, and now me and my Apple products are inseparable. We are as alike as two peas in a very technologically friendly pod.

Naturally, when the iPad came out in April 2010, I was pretty sure that I would die if I didn't have it. I wrote email treatises that would put John Locke's work to shame, bombarding my mother with very logical arguments outlining exactly what a rational purchase this $500+ piece of beauty would be.

You guessed it. She didn't believe me, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. By August 2010, I had saved up enough money to buy my own (a big purchase for a broke college student).

And now I'll bet you're asking what any of this has to do with book or reading, so I'll give you the one word answer:

E-books.

My friends all think I'm insane (and maybe I am a little), but ever since I bought my iPad, I rarely purchase books in hard-copy anymore. The magazines I buy. Digital. My subscription to The New York Times. Digital. And while yes, I do still keep all of my favorite hard-copy books on my bookshelves, the majority of my obsessive book collection is all stored on my harddrive, and that weighs less than a pound.

For an addicted reader, E-books are the only solution. A twelve step program? I laugh at the idea. I only need one reason to justify my habit:

A lot of websites offer free books for their e-reader.

Free E-Books:

It's a secret that's not well advertised, but one that you'll definitely want to know. Websites like Barnes and Noble and Amazon post free content for each of their e-readers. And the list of books available is impossibly extensive. Barnes and Noble alone offers 61,142 pages of free content, and there are 30 books per page. You do the math.

Okay, so what can you expect when you download a fee e-book. One of two things, really: Classics, or promotional offers. Yes, it's true, you're not going to find New York Times Bestsellers on this page. But if all you need is a trashy romance novel, these free e-books sites have you covered. If you find a book you like, you have complete bragging rights. All of your friends will be jealous. And if you don't like the book, delete it without feeling guilty. It was free.

Looking for some great reviews on free e-books? Check out the blog KindleObsessed. They do a really great job of highlighting free e-books and giving quick synopses.

Free E-Book Links:
- Free NOOK Books by Barnes and Noble
- Limited-Time Promotional Offers by Amazon
- Kindle Popular Classics by Amazon
- Archive.org
- Open Library
- Project Gutenberg
- ManyBooks.net