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Where To Get Free Ebooks For Nook

The graphic images on this page are from the book, Little Black Sambo, and are a courtesy of Project Gutenberg, an online library of classic, free books for Nook and other ereaders. Little Black Sambo is just one example of the free, copyright-expired materials that are available there.

This article about free books was originally going to be about places where you can get free books for your Nook. However, research has led me to believe that Project Gutenberg is probably all that's needed. That, along with Barnes & Nobles' free, more current books on offer.

Listen in; I'll tell you some more about getting free books for your Nook from Project Gutenberg and Barnes & Noble.

Contents at a Glance

Free Ebooks For The Nook
Why I've Chosen Project Gutenberg For Fr...
The Birth Of Project Gutenberg
Free Nook Books From Barnes & Noble
Careful Of Free
Little Black Sambo On Your Nook
You know I have to ask you!
Links Recap, Nook Gear
Donate To Project Gutenberg

Disclaimer Time

Not yet have I purchased a Nook. [See updates below] First, I am making sure that I know where I'm going to get free books. After all, I'm from the age of brick and mortar libraries, where you get to read a book just by having a library card. Plus, I love books and bookshelves loaded with books. They are the only thing that I collect, so it's really quite a wrenching decision.

Indeed, Nook has turned my head, but not my heart. I've been building up the nerve for this purchase for about a year now, and am still not quite converted, but my brother-in-law has recently purchased a Nook, so the fun I've had with that gets me one step closer.

Barnes & Noble NOOK COLOR eBook Reader (WiFi Only)

Amazon Price: $135.00 (as of 06/01/2012)

Actual purchase could be as far away as the Christmas holiday season, but this is the Nook I have my eye on. Due to the speed of new technology, it's likely to have changed by year's end, though.

Update: 8.26.11 Just purchased the Nook Color Wi-Fi, along with the Da Vinci cover. Even to the point of purchase, I had still wondered whether Nook really is the one to choose. The deal-breaker was that I found that the Kindle would keep me hostage to the Amazon ereader format, but the Nook lets me read from the more global, non-amazon format of ePub files. Will update more about my purchase later next week.

Update: 9.3.11 The Nook and cover is in hand. What a thrill this is. I've already checked email on it, seen some YouTube videos, connected to my Twitter account, checked out how my work at Squidoo looks on it. The built-in guidebook is very handy. Plus, you can actually read books on it! :) I figure with the Labor Day weekend upon us, I will have ample time to quit learning and get to enjoying a good book. Really thrilled with this so far. One issue though. It's the cover. Lots of storage like I wanted, but when you compare a leather carrier to the precision-made piece of equipment that it will hold, I guess there has to be a let down in the quality department. But, I still would rather hold it in "something" than not!

Update: 9.3.11 Spent a lot of the day getting familiar with the Nook. Having just gotten over a migraine, it seems to have brought it back. Hoping the headache is just another in a cluster, because I'd hate to have a Nook I can't read. ...There are some "fixes" such as making the display white text on black instead of vice versa and even just by adjusting the brightness level. ...But, I did download a book from Project Gutenberg in order to see the procedure at work. The process was extremely easy if you follow the directions here for your own Nook Color WiFi. My test download is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and it all took less than five minutes. Closer to half that time, really.

Update: 9.6.11 Migraine for days now. Afraid that using my Nook too much at this time will only make my headache worse. Very easy to quickly check your email, and to set up for status updates at Facebook and Twitter. Screen is nice and clear. Squidoo looks great on it.

Important!

Why I've Chosen Project Gutenberg For Free Books For Nook

1) Free
2) Dedication to quality
3) Served by a passionate leader and passionate volunteers
4) Forty years of dedication
5) Points add up to "trustworthy"

The Birth Of Project Gutenberg

Remembering July 1971

From the Gutenberg News : Michael Hart [right] keyed in The United States Declaration of Independence (eBook #1) and informed the first 100 internet users. Project Gutenberg was born.

Michael was a freshman in college at the time. ...More on the history of Project Gutenberg.

1971! Gracious. I was just starting to dream of owning my own typewriter. Yep. Typewriter. ...By the time I got online—26 years later!—Project Gutenberg was cranking out a total of 32 digitized books per month.

Free Nook Books From Barnes & Noble

BN outfits you with some Nook freebies

Barnes & Noble has a generous section giving away free ebooks in an array of topics. And it's sometimes the latest reading material, as opposed to the older titles you'll get at Gutenberg.

Tip: Double check your order page to make sure the free book from BN you ordered is showing a price marked in zero dollars ($0.00).

Tip: When you see a book "for sale" at Barnes & Noble that's pre-1923, check to see if you can get it free of charge at Project Gutenberg.

And if you're looking toward more up-to-date books than I'm sharing here, I've found a lens that gives you more free sites for ebooks.

Careful Of Free

Other free sites

It's fun to get free ebooks, no doubt, and this is not to say that no free site but Project Gutenberg will serve you well, but you do have to be careful. Don't automatically trust a site you're not familiar with unless you really trust your source. And even then, be on the lookout for things suspicious.

Case in point: While searching for sites with free books for Nook readers, I found a site that has an "about" page that does not give me any information about who is behind the site. In fact, nowhere on that site could I find the owners.

But, what makes me the most nervous about this particular site is that you can only get access to their collection by downloading a tool bar.

That's just nonsense, and probably just so they can get some kind of virus installed on your computer. Besides, a lot of these sites get their free books right from Gutenberg, so you might check to see if that's the case when you're on a site offering free books.

Little Black Sambo On Your Nook

A bit of background about Sambo

The book, Little Black Sambo, by Helen Bannerman, is thought of these days by a number of folks as being racist; however, I can tell you that it taught me nothing racial when I read it as a child. I remember it fondly as a wonderfully imaginative story for a young reader.

Many years have passed since reading it back in the Sixties. Since then, I have met no one else who has even heard of it. I don't know how I came across the book then, and I don't know how I have never met another person who has read it—not even my brothers or sister, all close to my age, can remember it.

I had long given up on remembering the title or ever being able to read the book again. And then, the Internet. A few years ago, with a few keywords on Google, such as "tiger" and "butter," I was soon reading it and maybe seeing the same artwork I had seen as a child. How cool! It was like finding an old friend.

If I remember correctly, the only option to see it was as an HTML page. Nowadays, books such as this, with copyright expired, are available to load for free onto your Nook.

You know I have to ask you!

I cannot possibly be the only one...

It truly was a special treat the day I found "Little Black Sambo" again. And I am still searching for someone that has read it. Tell me please:

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Links Recap, Nook Gear

And then some

Project Gutenberg: Home page
Barnes & Noble: Free Nook books
Nook And Gutenberg: Getting the most from your Nook experience at Project Gutenberg.
Nook How-To Videos: Videos about your Nook at YouTube.
RSS Updates: Subscribe so you can get announcements of what's new at Gutenberg right in your reader.

Donate To Project Gutenberg

Although this page is set to automatically share royalties with Friends Of The Park, a charity I regularly support, it would be remiss of me not to include a link and a call to donate (perhaps the cost of a hard-copy book) to Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF).

Free Books For Nook © 2011 GrowWear (MiMi). All Rights Reserved.
Thank you for stopping by and spending time with me. I hope you enjoyed your visit. —MiMi

Reader's Turn

What are your thoughts about free ebooks for Nook?

Thank you for stopping by and spending time with me. I hope you enjoyed your visit.

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SpicyCabbage Apr 28, 2012 @ 10:59 pm | delete

I love free books. Thanks.

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hysongdesigns Sep 10, 2011 @ 9:12 pm | delete

Gosh, I'd forgotten about Little Black Sambo. I have resisted buying an ereader; I love real books and like to snuggle in bed with them at night. I can read things from The Gutenberg project and other places on my computer.

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GrowWear Sep 10, 2011 @ 9:25 pm | delete

Still love books. Have not been able to read much on my Nook as yet, but looking forward to curling up with it when I'm feeling better. The cover I bought for it actually makes the Nook "feel" more like a book. ...The Gutenburg Project books will probably always be online reads -- as well as mobile reads.

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traveller27 Sep 10, 2011 @ 6:57 am | delete

Always nice to know about free books.

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sousababy Aug 27, 2011 @ 1:31 pm | delete

Well, you certainly have an eye for quality. Good to know about these free ebooks. Thank you for sharing. Sincerely, Rose

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GrowWear Aug 26, 2011 @ 1:31 pm | delete

Well, I finally know some folks who've read Little Black Sambo. Yay!

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Tipi May 31, 2011 @ 10:21 pm | delete

Oh thanks for the sweet memories of "Little Black Sambo"! All 3 of us kids would lay on the bed with Dad as he would tell about "Little Black Sambo", Peter Rabbit, something about a Troll under a bridge, The Three Little Pigs, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Back on subject, I think free ebooks are wonderful and would be even more wonderful if I had a NooK!

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OhMe May 27, 2011 @ 9:42 pm | delete

I am enjoying my Kindle but have a friend who loves her Nook. I am not sure what the difference is.

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deldobuss May 24, 2011 @ 8:15 am | delete

We use our Nook for homeschooling- reading older G.A. Henty books and some great "living" history stories. I also love Christian Classics Ethereal Library- you have to pay for a membership but the vast amount of religious public domain books is worth it!

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Squidster May 22, 2011 @ 1:30 pm | delete

I just got my hubby a Nook Color. This will be useful information to give us a head start loading it up with reading material. I hadn't heard of Project Gutenberg before - thanks!
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