Wheels within Wheels

A set of links to various places to acquire free books. I found the original link at LifeHacker, and there are more links provided in the comments there. Following the original link, I noticed a link to part 2 on the left, as well as a link to “the ultimate guide,” which includes all the comments they’ve received so far.

Many of these are e-books, which I’m liking more these days. I started having to use reading glasses about ten years ago, and the nice thing for me about e-books is that I have control over the font size. There’s a lot to be said for physical books, and even after having given away a few hundred of them, I still have a few thousand – many more than the average American. And I know people whose libraries hold several times the number of books I own.

I used to have a bunch of links to on-line book sites, and I still do, at work. Most of them are links to individual books on programming or other technical subjects, though. One that I used to have was to Black Mask Online, which is apparently no longer there. Using a similar name is Black Mask Magazine, which looks promising, although I don’t know if they intend to be an on-line magazine or a print one.

I’m glad to see the Baen Free Library listed – I’ve downloaded almost everything there. Some I bought hardcopy for after reading, some I owned hardcopy before I downloaded them (see above), and some I haven’t bought hardcopy for yet (and may never). The Prime Palavers are very interesting to read, as well – some very good thoughts on copyright, the network effects, and why some books are in the library and others aren’t.