Cheap (or free!) Classics on Kindle

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed March 30th, 2011, 11:28 pm

I had no idea how much there was available for peanuts of these older titles and have been making quite a pig of myself the last two days. Dumas, Bronte, George Eliot, Margaret Oliphant, HG Wells, Dracula, Frankenstein and more all free.

Speaking of Margaret Oliphant, apprently she wrote one on Joan of Arc. I did get it, but not sure when I'll get to reading it. Busy at the moment with my free copy of Anna Karenina. I already owned a very old HB, but the font has sent me running in fear for some time now.

Signed,
New Kindle Addict

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Wed March 30th, 2011, 11:42 pm

I downloaded a bunch of those too, when I first got mine. But since then I have opted to pay $1 for the classics and get better-formatted versions. The free stuff doesn't have tables of contents, so other than turning pages or taking a guess at the location number, you can't find a specific place unless it is the place you last stopped reading.

That may work for a novel, but for a research text, it's a real pain.

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Wed March 30th, 2011, 11:47 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]I had no idea how much there was available for peanuts of these older titles and have been making quite a pig of myself the last two days. Dumas, Bronte, George Eliot, Margaret Oliphant, HG Wells, Dracula, Frankenstein and more all free.

Speaking of Margaret Oliphant, apprently she wrote one on Joan of Arc. I did get it, but not sure when I'll get to reading it. Busy at the moment with my free copy of Anna Karenina. I already owned a very old HB, but the font has sent me running in fear for some time now.

Signed,
New Kindle Addict

[/quote]

Cool, isn't it? I bought my mother one the same time I bought mine, and she's been enjoying reading Jane Austen on hers. She also downloaded Huckleberry Finn for one of my great-nephews and ended up reading it herself!

I downloaded some Dumas a while back but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Wed March 30th, 2011, 11:48 pm

[quote=""MLE""]I downloaded a bunch of those too, when I first got mine. But since then I have opted to pay $1 for the classics and get better-formatted versions. The free stuff doesn't have tables of contents, so other than turning pages or taking a guess at the location number, you can't find a specific place unless it is the place you last stopped reading.

That may work for a novel, but for a research text, it's a real pain.[/quote]

Working fine in novels, Mr. Kindle always seems to know where I left off. Thankfully Goodreads has a % amount completed alternate to page count progress so I can keep the status updates going.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Thu March 31st, 2011, 9:18 am

I have some of the free classics on my Kindle, too. I haven't looked at them but I can only think it's a great idea - if you find them a little too heavy going, you can always delete them without having wasted any money! But at least you've tried them. I have Lorna Doone on mine as it's a book I've always wanted to try.

I've just checked and the free classics I've downloaded do have a table of contents at the beginning.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Thu March 31st, 2011, 11:07 am

[quote=""Vanessa""]I have some of the free classics on my Kindle, too. I haven't looked at them but I can only think it's a great idea - if you find them a little too heavy going, you can always delete them without having wasted any money! But at least you've tried them. I have Lorna Doone on mine as it's a book I've always wanted to try.

I've just checked and the free classics I've downloaded do have a table of contents at the beginning.[/quote]

I loved Lorna Doone. A bit hard to get into and used to his style, but once you pick it up it was a wonderful tale.

ETA: I bought Lorna Doone, plus the complete Wizard of OZseries (L Frank Baum titles only) for $.99. No pics, so the kiddos might not be enthralled. Some of the Ruth Plumly Thompson titles are on kindle, but I don't see any freebies. Might be tempted to pick up the titles I didn't have as a kid just to see where the stories went. This would have Divia in Louisa May Alcott heaven.

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Thu March 31st, 2011, 1:40 pm

Don't forget that the US Gutenberg site now offers Kindle format (you might have to import these manually from your PC to your ereader via USB cable, which is an added step, but it's free so can't complain too much about that).

I also have a Sony eReader, so it's hard for me to keep track of the free/bargain Kindles I've downloaded from Amazon and the ePubs I've downloaded to my Sony from other sites like Gutenberg.

Most of the freebies I've grabbed are the usual suspects such as Jane Austen, Rafael Sabatini, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas (fils and pere, since I plan on re-reading Camille at some point), Stendahl, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Sienkiewicz, and some of the old sagas and epics ... and several others I can't remember now.

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Thu March 31st, 2011, 6:46 pm

[quote=""Ludmilla""]Don't forget that the US Gutenberg site now offers Kindle format (you might have to import these manually from your PC to your ereader via USB cable, which is an added step, but it's free so can't complain too much about that).[/quote]

I tend to find the Gutenberg versions are better proof-read and formatted than the free offerings from Amazon.

For the more difficult to find OOC books, the Internet Archive now has Kindle and ePub versions but these are mostly uncleaned scans and the Kindle does not necessarily zoom the PDFs from them very well (some do) but generally you need very very good eyesight or use a magnifying glass. Believe me some of the books available there are otherwise hugely expensive to go hold off that I now have a very good magnifier for when I am out and about with the Kindle.

You might also care to look into the free software called Calibre which will convert between a number of ebook formats -- although I don't think it works with new books bought from Amazon or ePub with DRM but it does work with the free ones. So if you can only find an ePub version and you only have a Kindle, Calibre will convert it for you. It's aso great for cataloguing your ebooks.

PS: Mobi format works on the Kindle as well.

Anna Karenina is my favourite of all novels. I am trying very hard to get to my free edition of Tolstoy's The Cossacks which I have wanted for ages and ages.

Ludmilla · Post by **Ludmilla** » Fri April 1st, 2011, 1:18 pm

[quote=""SGM""]I tend to find the Gutenberg versions are better proof-read and formatted than the free offerings from Amazon.

[/quote]

That's been my experience too. Of course, I've used Gutenberg for years to read books on my computer (though I can't read on the computer for very long). If I couldn't afford to buy another book, I think I could still spend the rest of my life just reading books on Gutenberg. There is so much!

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Fri April 1st, 2011, 6:05 pm

[QUOTE=Misfit;82696]I loved Lorna Doone. A bit hard to get into and used to his style, but once you pick it up it was a wonderful tale.QUOTE]

I enjoyed his Springhaven set in the Napoleonic wars too - may be available at Amazon but definitely available at Gutenberg.