Will Amazon Rule the eVerse (of books)?

GreenPorch Winter of eReadingProbably, but only in the same way that the Alliance rules the Verse in Firefly. There will always be Independent browncoats and fringe planets. Currently these confederates are as motley as you would expect: Barnes and Noble, Apple, Google and Kobo being the rowdiest.

Barnes and Noble knows how to sell books. They are and have been primarily a bookstore. Having survived the economic downturn and the rise of the e-book, they have advantages over Amazon when it comes to relationships with libraries and book distributors. Plus they have brick and mortar stores, which I hear some people still go to. B&N also makes a mean eReading device, that along with Kobo and Sony will read .epub format (the universal format that Amazon is doing its best to bury like they did to .mobi a while back). The Nook, by most measures, is as good or better than the Kindle. (Their actual eReader software is better, so thhppp!)

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Let the eBook Binging Begin

GreenPorch Winter of eReadingNow that you’ve slept off your fudge hangover and fully charged your new eReading device, it’s time to start binging on eBooks! But where to begin, and how to avoid the dreaded eBook hangover?

1.) Focus, focus, focus. Every port and galactic eBar in the eBook eVerse promises cheep or free eBooks. Most of these sites are trying to harvest clicks or funnel you toward their own books (of all the nerve. Oh, if you haven’t yet, click here to buy my latest book). Find a few trustworthy sites you like and learn how to get the most out of them. Learning how to find what you want on a even a high quality site for free/cheap eBooks is an art as well as a science.

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eBooks are for Cheapskates

GreenPorch Winter of eReadingAdmitting it is only half the solution. Okay, you’re a cheapskate. But where can you find free, quality reads? The Green Porch is here for you.

As our society crumbles around us and public libraries become Alpha Omega zombie apocalypse survival training centers rather than the bastions of cultural information they once were, readers will have to find alternative sources for free reading. Until the singularity seizes the internet from human hands that source can be eBooks.

There has never been a better time for penny-pinching readers to rollick in scads of free 0’s and 1’s worth of their favorite books. With no further ado, here are the Porch’s best sites for free eBooks (click on the names to visit the sites):

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