I mean specific books- not just collections (like the Baen free library).
For example: from that Baen free library I really enjoyed the Rats, Bats, and Vats series (2 books) by Dave Freer and Eric Flint (somewhat comic military sci-fi).
Any other recommendations for free and/or inexpensive ebooks? I have a Kindle.
E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman novels are in the public domain, if you’re in the mood for a bit of pulpy space opera. I’ve been working my way through them, and while they’re certainly dated, they’re good pageturners.
Another thought: Steven Brust, professional author, watched Firefly and liked it so much he decided to write a novel-length fanfic, My Own Kind of Freedom. I had this sitting around for several years before I finally got a Kindle and read it. It’s really good if you’re a Firefly fan–he does a lovely job of capturing each character, as well as the general “feel” of the show.
I enjoyed Three Men in a Boat.
Do you like science fiction then?
There are a lot of 99 cent books out there at Amazon for the Kindle by non-professional authors and some are worth reading. I have a couple SF books on Amazon myself. I won’t list their names here because I don’t want to be advertising on the site, but having written and put them on Amazon gave me an incentive to read some of the other stuff by non-professionals and some of it is pretty good.
I recommended it a few weeks ago in another similar thread, but Peter Watts has released all of his novels for free under creative commons. Starfish is absolutely amazing, and Blindsight was nominated for a Hugo and a few other awards.
This is actually a “Kindle Single” - about the length of a chapter, for $1.99, but I highly recommend it:
My Seinfeld Year by Fred Stoller. Fred was, for me, one of those people that you’ve seen in lots of TV shows but never knew their name. He had a small role in one episode, and the previous season he was a staff writer. This is about his year as a writer, and gives an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the show, and some of the petty drama that happened among the writers.
Please, go ahead and list titles or authors that you thought were particularly good. That’s what the thread’s for.
To the OP: there have been similar threads in the past; if you’d like, I can try to dig some up for you. Or if you want more specific recommendations (indications of the kind of books you like), we can give more directed recommendations.
I like most genres: fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, thrillers, historical fiction (NOT romance), non-fiction history and science.
I’m currently reading Wool. I’m in the second book right now, and really enjoying the world the author created. Five books (short books, but hey) for six bucks, how can ya go wrong?
Edit: I should have mentioned, if you haven’t already, go to your Amazon email prefs and sign up to received the Kindle Daily Deal email. Every day they have one (sometimes a lot more) book on sale, usually for 99 cents. Not long ago the Deal was for the whole Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness for 99 cents each, a real steal!
I’m currently reading The Pickwick Papers on my e-reader. It’s quite funny and it’s basically a string of loosely connected vignettes so it’s good for reading a bit at a time.
Free (until this weekend) is Josh Fruhlinger’s [Citation Needed], a collection of the worst of Wikipedia.
Odyssey One by Evan Curry is an entertaining SF novel on Kindle that sells for $2.99. When I bought it, I believe it was cheaper, but it’s been “remastered” apparently, whatever that means in this context.
Dominant Species by Michael Marks is a shoot-em-up sci-fi bug hunt type book in the tradition of Aliens. It sells for $1.99.
Seconded! Best thing I’ve read in a long, long time!
Thirding Wool. I actually thought the first two were a bit slow (though not bad by any means), but the last three are just great.
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is only $2.99. I really enjoyed it- good post-apocalyptic YA. And the sequel The Drowned Cities will be released on the 1st of May but has a free 11 chapter preview right now.
Not any specific genre nor any specific book or author.
These four sites have lots of books some even free and some real cheap. Caution Feedbooks prices are rather high, but they do have a good selection.
You might check these out.
http://www.ebook3000.com/
http://www.feedbooks.com/
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.smashwords.com/
enjoy.
The Daily Cheap Reads blog tracks cheap and free Kindle books. They change every day. Also Books on the Knob and I Reader Review.
I just got a Kindle, and I’ve been rooting around Project Gutenberg, which was linked just up there a bit.
If you read French, copyright law in France protects written works for 70 years after the author’s death, so everything by Maurice Leblanc has just dropped into the public domain. I’ve been going through his Arsene Lupin novels. They are very much the spiritual ancestors of things like Leslie Charteris’ Saint novels, and Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series. A few are available in English translation as well.
There are also a few ebooks that have been specifically released into the public domain. One of the more famous among them is Bruce Sterling’s The Hacker Crackdown; you can buy it as a physical dead-tree edition if you want, but he insisted on retaining the electronic rights so that it could always be distributed free, less the price of the electrons. 