Free or Inexpensive Kindle Books - Kindle e-Books: Free Resources for Mobile Instruction - Guides at Oklahoma State University-Stillwater

Advice to Kindle Readers

FREE is sometimes a GOOD thing...but new Kindle Fire users should beware. Remember, if it's FREE, you often "get what you've paid for!" In other words, not everything listed as a "free download" is a great resource. Not ALL books listed among the thousands of FREE titles are written by best-selling, well-known, or even professional authors. Here are some things to look for as you browse the lists:

Who is the author? If you haven't read anything else by this author, then they could be amateurs using Amazon's publishing tools to self-publish.

Did you find a literary classic for downloading? Check the author's name--some classic books that are now in the "public domain" have been re-written and then re-published through Amazon at a reduced price or even free; however, the title may fool you into believing that you're downloading the classic you wanted. Double-check who the REAL author is for your classic book, otherwise, you might be disappointed.

Check the book's information which is listed on Amazon. The number of print pages will indicate the quality of material that you're downloading (or purchasing). Some free or inexpensive books are very short (15-20 print pages) but may appear to be much longer based upon the subject matter or title shown.

Free Kindle Books by Genre

Amazon.com offers several free Kindle eBooks available for downloading. Here is a list of some of the books available through Amazon by genre.

Kindle Textbooks

Have you heard about the Kindle Textbook Rental program?

Students can save up to 80% on their textbooks with low rental prices and flexible rental periods of any length – between 30 and 360 days. This way students only need to pay for the amount of time that they actually need the book.

“Students tell us that they enjoy the low prices we offer on new and used print textbooks. Now we’re excited to offer students an option to rent Kindle textbooks and only pay for the time they need–with savings up to 80% off the print list price on a 30-day rental,” said Dave Limp, vice president, Amazon Kindle.

With this service, margin notes and highlighted passages are stored for viewing anywhere and anytime even after expiration of the rental period. Of course, the textbooks can be read using any of the Kindle apps on all of the devices that are supported (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based devices).

Rental periods can be extended by increments as small as one day or the student can purchase the book at any time.

Amazon had this to say:

“We’ve done a little something extra we think students will enjoy,” continued Limp. “Normally, when you sell your print textbook at the end of the semester you lose all the margin notes and highlights you made as you were studying. We’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you get to keep and access all of your notes and highlighted content in the Amazon Cloud, available anytime, anywhere – even after a rental expires. If you choose to rent again or buy at a later time, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

---taken from eReaderNewsToday

More FREE or Inexpensive Books

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