Can’t Afford Self-Improvement Books? Get an eReader & Begin Digital Reading for Free!

Some call it “sharpening the saw.” Others talk about “working the pump handle.” But all agree that for things to change—whether it be your business fortunes or your life—you must change.

Go to Church, Read a Book

There are a lot of ways to seek change in ourselves. Regular church attendance is a good place to start.

Someone once said you can worship just as well in the mountains as you can in a church, which may be true. But it’s also true that you probably won’t!

One of the benefits of any regular practice—whether it’s an athletic workout, a spiritual exercise, or a reading schedule—is that it keeps us on track. When we go to church, we think about church stuff. When we’re in the mountains, we think about fishing!

So, part of the benefit of reading is not only what we learn and wind up doing and becoming, but because reading gets us thinking about the right things, helps us think about them in new ways, and provides us resources outside our own analysis and creative insight.

eReader + Portable Library = Islands of Time

With the advent of eReaders and downloadable books, you literally can take a library with you wherever you go. That accomplishes a number of things, but among the most important is that it provides us opportunity to fill our “islands of time” with something other than frustration. Remember the last time you had to wait at a doctor’s office? (Shoot! Who can remember when they didn’t have to wait at a doctor’s office!) Now, instead of reading a 7-month old magazine and fretting about the time you are wasting, you can be building your business by building yourself!

And there are lots of places you can go to get good books that cost little or nothing at all! (www.ziglar.com frequently has downloadable books on sale for 99¢ each!)

Amazon sells its eReader—the Kindle—for as little as $79! Barnes & Noble’s Nook has gotten a recent revamp and is a solid choice. Sony has an eReader, and you’ll find a dozen others just by walking into Best Buy and looking around.

Before you Buy, Try

Before you begin to buy the books you want, browse through a few of the FREE BOOKS SITES to get some ideas and discover books you may not have thought of yourself. Many free eBooks are either promotional items or older, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books…but still, that’s a library of nearly 2 million books! And you can start today by downloading some to your computer or eReader…and never again be without a book to read!

So, whether you want to build your business skills, get motivated, or help one of your kids get through New Math, here are some “Free Bookstores” to get you started!

Amazon Kindle Store

Everybody knows you can buy books at Amazon.com—both hard copy and digital books. But there also are regular free promotions and thousands of classics available for FREE! And these aren’t second-rate books, but great books spanning a range from Pride and Prejudice to Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon.

Link: Kindle Popular Classics

Google eBookstore

Google now has a bookstore with free eBooks for download. Their traditional formats are supported on Android and Apple iOS devices, Nook and Sony e-readers, and the web.

Link: Top Free in Books

Internet Archive Texts

You’ll find motivational books and videos downloadable in a variety of formats: ePUB, Daisy, PDF, plain text, DjVu, MOBI or Kindle.

Link: eBook and Texts Archive

Open Library

But an easier way to search for eBooks from the Internet Archive is through their initiative Open Library, where they’re trying to provide a page on the web for every book ever published! Just go to the website and do a search, making sure the “only show ebooks” option is checked. Then just click on the book link to see the formats.

Link: Open Library

Project Gutenberg

This amazing website is run by Michael Hart, the guy credited for the 1971 invention of the electronic book. More that 33,000 100% legal books, including everything from 7th century manuscripts to books on motivation and business practices.

Link: Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg

ManyBooks.net

ManyBooks is just like Gutenberg, only some say it’s “cooler” (what could be cooler than a 7th century manuscript?) and is easier to navigate. More than 26,000 free titles in 20 digital formats including LIT, LRF, ePUB, MOBI, PDF, etc.

Link: ManyBooks.net

FeedBooks

FeedBooks does sell eBooks, but it also has a large collection of public domain books, along with a section where authors can publish their own books for people to download and enjoy freely! You can get books here for free that are available nowhere else! ePUB format.

Link: Public Domain Books

Link: Original Books

Many, Many More….

The ones above are among the most versatile places on the web to get free reading content for your e-Reader, but there are many others worth giving a look, and one of them may even be better suited to your reading habits or motivation/training needs:

Baen Free Library

Just search for a book (available web, Kindle, MOBI, Palm, ePUB, Nook, RTF, HTML and more).

Barnes & Noble’s Free Nook Books

If you’ve got a Nook, it’s worth a glance.

Kobo Read Freely

Available in ePUB format.

…and once you get looking, you’ll be telling us where to look!  Share your favorite sites in the Comments section, and we’ll share them with THE WORLD OF MLM eREADERS!

In the meantime…HAPPY SAW SHARPENING!