My Reading Obsession & Free Kindle Books

I love to read and have a huge weakness for books.  After a while, the shelves and tables are all filled, and the damage to the budget mounts up, but one thing that really works me is using a Kindle.

I'm on my third Kindle.  Let's see, there was the K1 that I gave to my husband because (1) he kept borrowing mine and (2) I wanted a K2.  Then there was the K2 I bought used, but I broke the screen by dropping it.  Now I'm on the replacement K2. 

I listen to books on my Kindle, almost every day, as I drive, as I knit, and as I do housework.  This is a very nice thing for me, because I do close work all day and should rest my eyes, and I sit at a desk all day and should get up and moving.

Of course, you don't need a Kindle, or any e-reader or smart phone, to read Kindle books.  You can download free Kindle software for your computer.  There are some things about that Kindle program that are even cooler than the Kindle device - like the full-color book covers.
So far I have collected 1,098 Kindle "books," and 99%+ of them were free.  I get them free from Amazon.  When I first got the Kindle and read The Kindle Cookbook, I got a lot of books from other places, but now I get almost everything from Amazon.  Since I like old books, I used to get classics from Gutenberg and other sites, but now just about all of that is on Amazon.  My favorite site for finding books is Free Books for Your Kindle, which Laura at work told me about. You have to grab the books quickly, though, since they often stop being free and you miss them.  Therefore, I simply check the site about once a day and look at the latest free books.

You would think that with a thousand free books that I'm not at all picky, but there are plenty of books that come up free that I skip.  I don't "buy" books with mainly bad reviews.  Secondly, I avoid vampires, zombies, or werewolves.  I'm finicky about sci-fi and fantasy. What are my favorites?  Well, anything in Christian fiction or life; romantic stories; historical novels; thrillers; mysteries; business, economics and finance; how-to books; KNITTING (who knew?); and almost anything that promises to be funny. 

I have developed several new favorite writers by reading freebies.  Since most authors have websites, I have even sent positive feedback and a thank-you note for making a good book free.  Of course, the best thank-you is to buy more stuff from the same writer, but I've only done that with the best ones because I'm drowning in lovely books I haven't read yet. 

Now, that's a problem - I can't read 'em fast enough!  In fact, it's hard to keep straight which ones I have read.  I put the books I've finished over in "archive," which helps a little.