It's summertime, which hopefully it means you have a little more free time to do the reading that you hadn't been able to during the rest of the year. You're in luck! Here are seven sites that will help you satisfy your ebook and audiobook needs.
1. Bookbub
I'll start with one of my favorites. Bookbub is a site that my AP Literature teacher recommended to me a couple of years ago, and I've been in love with it ever since. You make an account, and you select the book categories that you're interested in. Spoiler alert: not all the books are free. One of the aforementioned category options is simply "free" books. While Bookbub has mostly low-price books, if you're like me and you're not willing to spend 99¢, then go ahead and just check that "free" category.
The thing about Bookbub is that the books are typically available at the low price for a very limited time. If you see a free book one day and then come back a few days later to download it, it may no longer be free at that point. I've had to learn that the hard way.
2. Amazon
Yep. Surprisingly enough, Amazon has tons of free ebooks. You just have to know where to find them. Honestly? While looking for the best link for this article, I downloaded eight ebooks. The best thing about getting free Amazon ebooks is that all you need is an Amazon account and a device that you can access Kindle books on (typically with the Kindle app). You don't need to have a payment option attached to the account (unlike with GooglePlay…). It's a pretty nice system, especially since there are tons of amazing, undiscovered books out there.
The key to accessing Amazon's free ebooks is the filters. On the far left panel of the screen, make sure that you have the "Kindle Edition" filter on under the "Book Format" heading. Then, on the "Sort By" dropdown menu in the upper right, under your cart, make sure it says "Price: Low to High." You're all set.
I'm a big fan of zombies and post-apocalyptic literature. I popped "zombie" into the search bar and set the filters I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I now have more zombie books than I know what to do with.
3. Audiobooksync
This opportunity is targeted at fans of YA books. Every Thursday morning during the summer, Audiophile sends out two new audiobooks free for downloading. The only prerequisites are having an email and access to the OverDrive App (be it on a mobile device or on a computer). Audiobook Sync (and Welcome to Night Vale) are what got me into audiobooks. I love having one on while I'm painting or cleaning or some other low-stress activity.
Unfortunately, books from previous weeks are unavailable for download, we are almost halfway through the summer at this point. However, as long as you sign up for the notifications, Audiophile will send you a text every Thursday for the rest of this summer. It'll also notify you when the next book-downloading season starts. You can completely forget about Audiophile (like I did) until the program starts up again in April/May.
I will warn you though; if you're using the OverDrive mobile app, try to move each audiobook file to a computer or external hard drive after you're done listening. OverDrive is currently the largest app on my phone because audiobook files are pretty big, and you might not want to have too many audiobooks at once if you're running low on storage space.
4. Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is best for those who are interested in the classics. It was one of my best friends in middle and high school, and this is where I got all the Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle that my teachers were fond of. Admittedly, I didn't really visit this site for much outside of school assignments, though I will say that this is where I got my Mark Twain fix.
You can typically download books as ePubs (which are compatible with eBook apps such as Kindle or OverDrive) or PDFs. Project Gutenberg also has audiobooks, for those that are interested.
5. OceanOfPDF
Ocean of PDF is a site that my sister recently showed me, and man am I grateful. This website is probably my favorite on this list, simply because I've found most of the books I've searched for. It's quite amazing, if I do say so myself. This is another one where you can download books as PDFs or ePubs.
6. Scribl
Scribl, admittedly, is not a site that I personally have used before. However, I decided it was worth including mostly because of its "crowdpricing" feature. Essentially, the site will automatically price books based on how popular they are. The more popular the book, the more it will cost, which gives lesser known authors and genres a chance to shine in the market.
7. Spotify
Apparently, Spotify has an entire playlist dedicated to audiobooks. DBS Audiobooks is also another good Spotify profile to visit for the wayward audiobook seeker. I haven't had a chance to do more than peruse it, but I'm definitely going to take a better look at it later.
