eBooks...and why I'm glad I tried them...

I was hesitant for a long time to jump into the world of eBooks and eReaders...  In some ways, I'm a closet romantic (think Anne of GG here...) and like to keep the "old school" way of doing things alive.  But, a conversation last Fall with our children's librarian had me re-thinking things...  She started telling me how much she loved her nook glowlight....  the three things that stood out to me from the conversation were:

1) she liked having the light on the device for nighttime reading....appealing as I almost always want to read in bed after my husband is asleep...

2) she liked being able to check out eBooks from the library...I had no idea this was even an option...

3) she liked only having to take one "book" with her when she traveled but having multiple options available...that is SO me...we will have one less bag to load up when we take long trips now because I will only be taking one "book" instead of the usual 8-10...

So...following that conversation, I put the nook glowlight on my Christmas list and was blessed to receive it from my in-laws, bil, and sil. Thanks, y'all. :-)

I have been nothing but Pleased. (that's with a capital P...)  I've not given up on REAL books by any means, and still enjoy reading them, especially for my highlighting habit. ahem.  But, the convenience of eBooks is delightful.  

Not only being able to have 8-10 books in one, but I love being able to check out books from my local library, and the library (in another state) where I had a card before I was married.  

Soon after getting my nook set-up, I joined the facebook page, and the best part about that is FREE FRIDAYS!  Every friday, they give away a free eBook...  I have yet to take advantage of the offer because the majority of the books they give away are junk, but when you click over to the blog, others will list more free eBooks in the comments.  I HAVE taken advantage of some of these, and my eBook collection is growing faster than I can keep up with.

This article was absolutely the most helpful thing that I read with regard to my nook and getting it set-up for borrowing and purchasing eBooks.  I was thankful that I read it before downloading the (free) adobe digital software, because in order for the programs to communicate you have to use the same username and password for the adobe software and (in my case) barnes and noble.  

I'm still amazed at how many FREE eBooks are out there...  it seems that there are more that are formatted for the Kindle as opposed to the nook, but even if you don't have a tablet eReader, you can still download the eBooks and read them on your computer.  You can download Kindle for PC from amazon for free.  Every week, Money Saving Mom posts about free eBooks that you can download.  And we all know how I  looooooove free stuff!

I have downloaded 6-7 books and have them stored on my PC and hope to begin reading some of them soon.  This is especially nice for cookbooks, and there seem to be lots of those for free.

Another way to find free eBooks is to search on barnes and noble or amazon for "free" or for "0.00".  This way of searching has a LOT of returns, but be warned that a LOT of them are JUNK.  But, you may find a few diamonds in the rough....

So, that is a quick re-cap of how I'm loving this whole new world of eBooks...  Hope some of that is helpful or at the very least interesting to you...

In the comments, let us know... have you found good sources for free eBooks? Share your favorite eReader/tablet and why?