Free reads!
November 12, 2009Jon Brooks Comments Off
We don’t wish to add to the considerable woes of the publishing industry, but if you’re looking for some low-hanging fruit in terms of cutting expenses, buying books may be it.
The marriage of electronic books and libraries has made it easier than ever to access free reading material online. And we’re not just talking Beowulf and Silas Marner, either. We mean the good stuff! (Literature majors, no angry emails please.)
Check out the New York Public Library’s ebook collection, for instance. The Unofficial Guide to Landing a Job might certainly be of interest, but graphic novels, sci/fi and fantasy, current events and politics books, and children’s literature are also on offer.
You need to be a member of your own particular library system, of course, to avail yourself of these free reads. So here are links to the ebook collections (as well as to collections of films, audiobooks, and music, in most cases) of some major libraries:
- Boston Public Library
- Chicago Public Library
- Harris County Public Library (Houston)
- Seattle Public Library
- Los Angeles Public Library
- San Francisco Public Library
- Philadelphia Public Library
- Phoenix Public Library
- Charlotte Public Library
A quick web search will connect you with your own local institution. Other options are Google Books and Project Gutenberg, where you’ll be limited to works in the public domain. Still, if you’ve got a bug to read Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, for example, and you don’t feel like dropping a few bucks, then these sites are just the ticket.
Let’s face it. That “Star Trek” moment is here. As people become more and more acclimated to spending long periods of time in front of their computers, and as adoption of mobile reading devices like the Kindle increases, reading electronically–even novel-length books–is going to take off.
Is that good or bad? Dunno. But for now, at least, it can save you money.
