Free books and you don’t even have to go to the library to get them! Yay Project Gutenberg.
Maria Thompson Daviess: The Melting of Molly is delightfully tongue in cheek. And has a lovely ending.
A. A. Milne: He didn’t just write books about Christopher Robin. I’ve been enjoying his very silly plays. Belinda, for example.
Mary Roberts Reinhart: Lovely romantic suspense, lovely romance, lovely suspense. Fun all around.
Raphael Sabatini: Sadly not all of his stuff is good; he was prolific. But they’ve got his best: Captain Blood, Scaramouche, The Sea-Hawk. Mmmm swashbuckling romance! I don’t think they have Master at Arms, which is a shame (also titled The Marquis of Carabas… under which you can get it for cash money as a paperback).
Booth Tarkington: I loved the Penrod books growing up. (So did my mom!) They’re like a lower key Tom Sawyer set in a slightly later time period.
Carolyn Wells: The Patty books are so very silly. So much like brain candy. Quite soothing! Even if women’s best career ambition is to be a homemaker. (Ptuii!)
Oscar Wilde: The Canterbury Ghost, plays, so soothing, so wickedly funny.
P.G. Wodehouse: There are at least two Jeeves books. And assorted crap not worth reading (juvenalia, stuff that is a bit racist and just not very good in other ways). There may be some non crap stuff too but I haven’t gone through it all yet. Jeeves and Wooster are soothing my anxious soul. I like hearing Steven Fry and Hugh Laurie in my head as I reread them. It adds another dimension.
I say!
What are your recommendations for free kindle books?
June 30, 2011 at 10:09 am
One mustn’t forget all the wonderful children’s books available. All the Oz books, L.M. Montgomery, countless children’s classics, E. Nesbit… and more!
June 30, 2011 at 10:09 am
Though not so enjoyable for actual children without the illustrations…
Thank goodness for libraries.
June 30, 2011 at 10:29 am
I just read My Antonia by Willa Cather on my Kindle and loved it. I can’t believe I hadn’t read it earlier.
And next time someone tells me that working mothers are a new phenomenon, I will refer them to that book!
June 30, 2011 at 10:45 am
Oh man, I remember reading that book back in college (for fun). I also read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which was really ahead of its time. I think Anne is my favorite of the Bronte sisters, as much as I love Jane Eyre.
June 30, 2011 at 10:52 am
You will probably enjoy this too – http://youtu.be/-NKXNThJ610
June 30, 2011 at 4:02 pm
I suspect this book is available for free, since it was published in 1918: The Magnificent Ambersons. Very dramatic and fun to read.
June 30, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Booth Tarkington is good stuff.
June 30, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Cloud is right. Willa Cather’s My Antonia is wonderful, and free. So is “The Professor’s House.” I’d forgotten how compulsively readable Cather is. I just got back from Maine where I read both of the above on my Kindle as well as “The Case of Jennie Brice” by Mary Roberts Reinhart, and Jeffrey Deaver (and others’) “Watchlist,” all for free
June 30, 2011 at 7:49 pm
I don’t know about free books, but Jeeves and Wooster are great.
November 3, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Thanks for this. I finally have kindle through my iPad and I knew you have done your homework on free books.
I ahe to say, I like that you can make the font bigger for reading. Time will tell if this becomes a preferred format. Although battery is almost dead. I ca see that being a downer when you are thick in the middle of a book.