FREE!

Okay - not always.  But pretty darn cheap!!!!

I was chatting with my daughter (Jenny) today.  She's already "looking forward" to their next move.  It's not until next ~June (or whenever the army decides to send them) but anyone who has moved knows that you don't just decide one day to pack up all your belongings and load them into a truck.  Well, not if you don't want to have a total mess on your hands once you arrive at your final destination.

And she's got books...lots of books...and well, frankly they take up a bunch of space.  And with three little guys (each with their own library), well...you can see how that all adds up.

More and more these days, those who are still reading books, are doing so electronically.  I resisted it for a long time because I genuinely love the feel of a book, the fact that I can flip to the end to see if I've figured out where this is headed (and no, that absolutely does not "ruin" the book for me) and if you fall asleep with an actual book in your hand, you can easily find your place again (as opposed to falling asleep with your thumb on the "page turn button" and trying to figure out why you're 167 pages farther along than you thought...or so I've heard).

Anyway, books, even electronic ones, cost a pretty nickel (I was going to say penny but I'm not from Illinois so I side with the rest of the real world that says it's time to retire that particular coin).  So here is a list of places where you can find cheap (and sometimes even FREE) books to fill up your Kindle and/or Nook (some of us have both but only because we live in a house funded by a small startup software company in Redmond, Washington that made a rather sizeable investment in Nook thereby providing an (ever-so-slight) discount for its employees).

Pixel of Ink (tip from my sister-in-law Annie):  They list all kinds of free kindle books or you can browse by genre.  I've subscribed to this site so I get a listing of "deals" emailed to me each day.

BookBub (another Annie tip):  By subscribing, BookBub emails me daily alerting me to limited-time free and discounted eBooks (for both Amazon and BN) that match my interests.  There are lots of categories (including children's and cooking).

Free Nook Friday (on The NOOK Blog):  Each Friday Nook offers a free selection (But be careful - if you're up crazy early like I am you're going to want to be sure you're looking at this week's selection.  Otherwise you will be charged for it.)  They've also added a Free Fridays App Selection to this page.  Often there is a game that I think the 4-year-old (who is very careful with my "toy") will enjoy.  Unfortunately, these apps are often worth exactly what I pay for them.

Amazon's Kindle Daily Deals:  Each day Amazon offers a few "deals" on electronic books.  They are up to daily deals now and they tend to vary.  There is always a Kindle Daily Deal, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and then the other two for today were Business & Investing, Teen.  Often there is a Children's daily deal and I like to buy these and "gift" them to the grandsons so they can read them on their own Nabi (if you're looking for a kid's version of a tablet, this is a pretty cool and more importantly, a fairly indestructible one!)

Of course, you can always check out your local library as they often will let you check out books for either your Kindle or your Nook.  Though I'm a fairly speedy reader, I always feel "pressured" to get a book read in time before it disappears from my reader.  Irrational, yes, but what can you say?

So get out there and READ!

~later, connecting to my Wi-Fi so I can download and start reading, tw