kindle

[Luke Warm]

somehow i ended up with a kindle. someone left it at my house and never claimed it and that was 2 years ago. i have had no use for it until today when i decided to use it on a bike tour so i don't have to lug around a couple of books. anyway, i got on our library website to see what kind of ebooks they have available. a notice at the top of the page says that they won't let me download books, that i have to read them over the web. on my bike tour, i'm probably not going to have web access. i'm also not going to buy ebooks as i would rather have an actual book. what is a good source for ebooks that are free?

[Davids]

Try the overdrive app. You should be able to download from there. Your library should hopefully be part of the overdrive app.

[BFGirl]

I use overdrive

[bobechs]

Project Gutenberg, Project Gutenberg Australia

[Kris]

Yes to Overdrive or whatever app your library uses.  I do this on Kindle or iPad because you have the same problem in an airplane. 

[dbanta]

If your local library district doesn't have overdrive you could see if a neighboring one does.  Overdrive through the library is my goto.

[Luke Warm]

my county library doesn't do overdrive. nor does the next county over. this doesn't surprise me.

[NoStacheOhio]

There's also the Kindle owner's lending library. One book per month free to borrow, no due date. Return it when you're done and you can check out another after the month is up.

If you have Prime, there's also Kindle First: one free book per month (six to choose from), no strings.

[OmahaSteph]

Download some free books from Amazon. Sometimes they're sub-par, but better-known authors/publishers often have specials where their books are available for free for a certain time frame. Once it's downloaded to your device (ie - not in the cloud) you'll have access to them wherever. 

[CowboyAndIndian]

somehow i ended up with a kindle. someone left it at my house and never claimed it and that was 2 years ago.

You may  not be able to use this kindle to download books either from Amazon. The kindle is tied to an Amazon account.
If the person who left it, did not remove it from their account, there may be issues.

If you try to add to your account, it may have issues since that kindle may have been reported lost/stolen.

[Luke Warm]

somehow i ended up with a kindle. someone left it at my house and never claimed it and that was 2 years ago.

You may  not be able to use this kindle to download books either from Amazon. The kindle is tied to an Amazon account.
If the person who left it, did not remove it from their account, there may be issues.

If you try to add to your account, it may have issues since that kindle may have been reported lost/stolen.

it doesn't look like it has been registered. i did try registering it but the device is having trouble getting on line.

[NoStacheOhio]

somehow i ended up with a kindle. someone left it at my house and never claimed it and that was 2 years ago.

You may  not be able to use this kindle to download books either from Amazon. The kindle is tied to an Amazon account.
If the person who left it, did not remove it from their account, there may be issues.

If you try to add to your account, it may have issues since that kindle may have been reported lost/stolen.

it doesn't look like it has been registered. i did try registering it but the device is having trouble getting on line.

If it hasn't been online in two years, it needs an update. The automagic update window is now closed, so you'll have to do it manually with a computer.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201994710

[RobFIRE]

Kindles seem (to me at least) to be mostly designed to interface to Amazon's online bookstore, with anything else being a secondary concern. I think your best bet for the moment is to get out of copyright classics from project Gutenberg, or look at downloading web articles in HTML or text format.

In theory you would be able to download library books to PC (most seem to use Adobe DRM ePUB), use calibre to remove the DRM (with some non-trivial configuration of specific plugins) and convert to MOBI, load to Kindle. However that's not simple to get set up, and while I consider removing DRM for the purpose of being able to read a book on a device of your choice to be acceptable, it is against the letter of the law in most places.

[WildJager]

Once you link it to an amazon account, there are several free books from Amazon as well.  Mostly classics, but sometimes you can get books for free during promos (usually the first of a series though).

You can also load up PDF books onto the kindle, but the format isn't as nice.  If you don't mind though, you can do a google search for PDF files and transfer them over.  Use the following format to search and download:

type.pdf The Millionaire next door

[seattlecyclone]

You mentioned that your county and the neighboring county don't have Overdrive. Is there any library where you're eligible for a library card that does use Overdrive? I personally have cards at four libraries so that I can get ebooks from whichever one has the shortest wait for the title I want. I had to spend an afternoon physically visiting a branch of each library to get set up, but that was years ago and my access is still good.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

You mentioned that your county and the neighboring county don't have Overdrive. Is there any library where you're eligible for a library card that does use Overdrive? I personally have cards at four libraries so that I can get ebooks from whichever one has the shortest wait for the title I want. I had to spend an afternoon physically visiting a branch of each library to get set up, but that was years ago and my access is still good.

Call around in your state. You might even be able to register online. Many libraries DO lend downloadable e-books in Kindle format--you just have to find one.

[teen persuasion]

After you get it updated and registered, you should be able to find free books on Amazon, both out-of-copyright classics and newer promotional offers.  I go to the "top 100 books" section, and switch to the "free" list (default is "paid").   There is lots of iffy stuff, but occasional gems offered for a short time, so I check often.  If you narrow your search to a favorite genre, you can see further down the list - e.g., the historical fiction list is a subset of the entire list, so the top 100 there may reach down to #850 on the full list.  Keep searching different genres to see more, and exclude those you are not interested in.

As far as library ebooks, my library has multiple access options.  Overdrive generally has one, maybe 2 copies of a given title, so you have to wait for them, but they are downloaded to your device.  Hoopla has unlimited copies, so no waiting, but leans much more heavily to online use.  You can download some media to mobile devices, so look more deeply.  There is also One Click Digital, which looks like out-of-copyright classics, primarily.  And, as others mentioned, Gutenberg Press.

 If the kindle you have is an older e-ink device (not a Fire-type tablet with internet capability)  accessing anything but Amazon involves checkout thru your PC and transfer to the kindle.  Not hard, but you just can't quite do it directly from the kindle.

[eostache]

Download some free books from Amazon. Sometimes they're sub-par, but better-known authors/publishers often have specials where their books are available for free for a certain time frame. Once it's downloaded to your device (ie - not in the cloud) you'll have access to them wherever.

I've been collecting free Kindle books for a few years now. I have about 1500! It is hit or miss on quality but I have a few that are now favorites that I reread.

I'm building myself quite the free digital library for my phone and tablet.

[Rosy]

I just read my e-books via overdrive (app) on my phone. Since I have an LG Flex it is big enough to read comfortably.
Amazon has a free kindle version for both PC and mobile - that one I just use for the occasional free book and read it on my PC - so far I've only purchased one book for my kindle from amazon in like 10 ten years.

If I were you, I would get a library card from one or two other libraries that have overdrive - call around and find out.

[TheBuddha]

If you have an idea of what books you want, just search the web for those titles with ".mobi" or "kindle". That's how I found all of Carlos Castaneda's books at archive.org https://archive.org/details/CarlosCastaneda

Those books are all pretty expensive via Amazon, so I was stoked when I found them for free.

Anyway then you can put the .mobi files on the Kindle via USB.

[Elle 8]

After you get it updated and registered, you should be able to find free books on Amazon, both out-of-copyright classics and newer promotional offers.  I go to the "top 100 books" section, and switch to the "free" list (default is "paid").   There is lots of iffy stuff, but occasional gems offered for a short time, so I check often.  If you narrow your search to a favorite genre, you can see further down the list - e.g., the historical fiction list is a subset of the entire list, so the top 100 there may reach down to #850 on the full list.  Keep searching different genres to see more, and exclude those you are not interested in.
...

How do you access the free book list on Amazon?  I don't see a section for 'top 100 books' or a 'free' list.  Thanks in advance.

[teen persuasion]

After you get it updated and registered, you should be able to find free books on Amazon, both out-of-copyright classics and newer promotional offers.  I go to the "top 100 books" section, and switch to the "free" list (default is "paid").   There is lots of iffy stuff, but occasional gems offered for a short time, so I check often.  If you narrow your search to a favorite genre, you can see further down the list - e.g., the historical fiction list is a subset of the entire list, so the top 100 there may reach down to #850 on the full list.  Keep searching different genres to see more, and exclude those you are not interested in.
...

How do you access the free book list on Amazon?  I don't see a section for 'top 100 books' or a 'free' list.  Thanks in advance.

If you go to the kindle e-books option in Departments, there is a box on the right-hand side "Kindle Best Sellers".  There is probably an option on the left-hand side as well.  They keep rearranging the page, it used to be a sidebar on the main Kindle page and then it moved, so I just bookmarked it.  At the top of the list switch to "top 100 free".

[kaizen soze]

Search online for library systems that allow nonresidents to get a library card.  I seem to recall that you can pay a fee (maybe $50/year) to join the Atlanta library (just as one example).  From there, you should be able to use Overdrive to check out ebooks.  I haven't tried this.  Just a random idea.

[mikefixac]

There are blogs that publish daily "free books" from Amazon. Just google free amazon books blogs

The reason so many free books come up daily is that many of these are self-publishing authors who want to get their book out there. Some of these are really enjoyable books. "The Martian" started by the author just posting his content on-line.

Also, if you're a lover of the classics, they often are free at Amazon. Also what you can do is go to Amazon and type in "free books".

[Grigory]

You can get a Kindle Unlimited membership  for $10 a month and download a ton of Kindle books for free that way. :) The first month is free, so if you don't like it, you can always cancel it. Not sure how long your bike tour is, but if you cancel at the end of the second month, you'll basically get tons of free reading for $5/month. (Since you'll only pay for the second month.)

Another good source of free books is [urlhttp://www.gutenberg.org/]the Gutenberg project[/url]. Everything published in the United States prior to 1932 no longer has the copyright. The plucky volunteers from that site scan and digitize old books, so if you want to read up on your classics, ranging from Plato and Socrates to Dickinson and Doyle, that would be a great place to start. Some of the formatting can be a bit iffy, and all the books in there are older than your parents, but hey - free stuff! ;)

[FIRE me]

somehow i ended up with a kindle. someone left it at my house and never claimed it and that was 2 years ago. i have had no use for it until today when i decided to use it on a bike tour so i don't have to lug around a couple of books. anyway, i got on our library website to see what kind of ebooks they have available. a notice at the top of the page says that they won't let me download books, that i have to read them over the web. on my bike tour, i'm probably not going to have web access. i'm also not going to buy ebooks as i would rather have an actual book. what is a good source for ebooks that are free?

There are lots of free Kindle books. Some are always on the free list, but others rotate on and off the free list.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/154606011/ref=zg_bs_fvp_p_f_154606011?_encoding=UTF8&tf=1

Also, Kindle Buffet is a good site that lists free Kindle books.
http://www.weberbooks.com/kindle/

[Luke Warm]

thanks for all the options. i found a few books that should be good enough for the 2 weeks i'm on tour. i don't have a smart phone so that's not an option for reading. i was hoping the kindle would let me email stuff but so far that feature isn't working correctly. i would still rather buy a $4 used book from amazon. all those books on the shelf make me look sophisticated.