# Recommend me some free Kindle books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736 "2010-02-04T23:37:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/1 "2010-02-04T23:37:54Z")
I just got a Kindle and saw that Amazon actually has some free books for it. One I just finished reading was called “Already Dead”, by Charlie Huston and it wasn’t bad for escapist literature. I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t afraid of vampire books and just wants some cheap entertainment. So, in general, I like mysteries, action novels, spy stories, Science Fiction, and just generally “good reads”. What free Kindle books can you recommend? J. p.s., I didn’t know if this should go in CS or IMHO, but settled on the latter since I’m asking for opinions. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/2 "2010-02-04T23:43:47Z")
[Baen Free Library](http://www.baen.com/Library/) for your SF needs. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/3 "2010-02-05T00:04:30Z")
You can get all the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels free - if you haven’t read them, they’re fun. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/4 "2010-02-05T04:07:39Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/5 "2010-02-05T04:10:39Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. Ok, so I guess I guessed wrong. 🙂 J. ---
**Author:** ![fatnugly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@fatnugly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fatnugly)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/6 "2010-02-06T01:09:20Z")
Confessions of a Thug by Philip Taylor if you are interested in India in the 1830’s written by a British officer about the Thugees (source of our word thug) of India. There are also many US civil war books writtten during or shortly after the civil war. It really depends on your interest as with all books. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/7 "2010-02-06T02:53:01Z")
Keep in mind you can download a free program called “Calibre” that will convert from just about any e-book format to any other, and it’s GREAT! I had a bunch of .prc files that I converted to .Mobi which work a treat on the Kindle. I’ve also converted from .lit to .mobi and to epub files for my friend with a Sony Reader. That being said, you should check at the Project Gutenburg website for free books in a format you can use, or you can convert. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/8 "2010-02-07T08:46:52Z")
Check your local library’s website and see what they offer, especially Net Library. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Spoonful_of_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/9 "2010-02-07T13:00:41Z")
manybooks.net also has a lot of the same titles as Project Gutenburg, with the added bonus option of downloading in .azw for Kindles. Not a huge deal, as you can convert in a variety of ways, but still, it’s nice. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/10 "2010-02-07T15:51:53Z")
You can find many free and bargain kindle books at [Kindle Boards](http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php?board=42.0). ---
**Author:** ![LAJonestheauthor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@LAJonestheauthor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LAJonestheauthor)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2011, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/11 "2011-06-18T08:13:00Z")
If you are into fantasy and what not. If you aren’t then you can always recommend it to a friend. > **[Amazon.com: Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 eBook : Jones, L.A.,...](https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Aradia-Last-Witch-1-ebook/dp/B004VTCDYM)** > > Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 - Kindle edition by Jones, L.A., Channing, Harris, Bradlow, Harrison. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while... ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/12 "2011-06-19T12:18:43Z")
I just read [Three Men in a Boat](http://www.amazon.com/Three-Men-Boat-ebook/dp/B004UJL1KK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1308485857&sr=1-1) which falls under “generally good reads.” I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/13 "2011-06-19T15:52:35Z")
> [@A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](#): > > manybooks.net also has a lot of the same titles as Project Gutenburg, with the added bonus option of downloading in .azw for Kindles. Not a huge deal, as you can convert in a variety of ways, but still, it’s nice. Project Gutenburg has most titles available in .MOBI, which is the same format and can be loaded directly on your kindle. I’ve found that Amazon offers many of their out of copyright books for a dollar or two, and they can easily be tracked down for free from Project Gutenburg instead. Another great source for free content are magazines/news/blogs, which you can have downloaded automatically to your kindle using the free [calibre](http://calibre-ebook.com/) program mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/14 "2011-06-19T16:14:23Z")
If you are looking for titles: _Hunger_ by Knut Hamsen \*War and Peace \* and _Anna Karenina_ by Leo Tolstoy _Candide_ by Voltaire _Dracula_ by Bram Stoker _Art of War_ by Sun Tzu There are plenty of other classics you can find by Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, John Steinbeck, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, John Milton, Virginia Woolf, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/15 "2011-06-19T18:27:54Z")
This post is to make sure you know about sources for free Kindle books. I’ll mention specific titles & authors in a subsequent post. Already mentioned: Project Gutenberg, [manybooks.net](http://manybooks.net), and the Baen Free Library. The former two are good sources for public-domain books; the last offers free science fiction books in hopes that, if you like them, you’ll buy more by the same author. Many of the public domain books are also available free from [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) (with the advantage of free delivery to your Kindle, syncing between devices, etc.). Sometimes there are multiple “versions,” some free, some not; buyer beware. You can sometimes also find recent books available on Amazon free for a limited time; I’ve gotten some good reads that way. The [Books on the Knob](http://blog.booksontheknob.org/) blog does a pretty good job of reporting on these when they become available. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-free-kindle-books/527736/16 "2011-06-19T18:56:24Z")
Mysteries The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Start with _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_. [The Fabulous Clipjoint](http://www.manybooks.net/titles/brownfother09fabulous_clipjoint.html): good, entertaining mystery from the 40s by Fredric Brown. Various collections by G. K. Chesterton, including [The Innocence of Father Brown](http://www.amazon.com/Innocence-Father-Brown-ebook/dp/B004UJIW2K/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1308507052&sr=1-5), [The Man Who Knew Too Much](http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Knew-Much-ebook/dp/B000JQU488/ref=pd_sim_kinc_34?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2) [no connection with the movie(s) of that name], [The Club of Queer Trades](http://www.amazon.com/Club-Queer-Trades-ebook/dp/B000JQU3C0/ref=pd_sim_kinc_11?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2). Also recommended is his novel [The Man Who Was Thursday](http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Thursday-nightmare-ebook/dp/B002RKST4U/ref=pd_sim_kinc_14?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2), which is part mystery, part spy story, part metaphysical fantasy, and is subtitled “A Nightmare.” Action novels You might look into works by Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard Science fiction [Little Fuzzy](http://www.manybooks.net/titles/piperh1813718137.html) by H. Beam Piper [Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede](http://www.manybooks.net/titles/dentonbother09buddy_holly_is_alive_and_well.html) by Bradley Denton and stuff from the aforementioned Baen Free Library… Question to those who frequent the Baen Free Library: Do you have specific titles or authors you would recommend? Most of those authors are unfamiliar to me. Finally, I’ll note that we’ve had “recommend some entertaining public domain books” threads before, in case this one doesn’t turn up enough recommendations.