Anyone have a booklist for Kindle's competitor - Kobo?
I got the e-reader for Christmas and I need to populate it with some good books to read.

If you read sci-fi (in particular Baen Publishing authors), try the Fifth Imperium. They occasionally bind a CD of some of the author's works in new releases. The CD's are free to loan or give copies but not sell.

There are several books in the baen free library that you can download. no DRM at all on any of their titles.

many of the books in the free library are the first book in a series.

I personally have several hundred baen books in my library, most bought and paid for, but some from the free library.

http://www.baen.com/library/

Sadly, at one time the free library had several dozens of books in it, but for whatever reasons they have cut way back on them.

some good stuff if you like SF, including some really good military SF. also some alternate history.

I just finished rereading 1632. Great alternate history/SF.

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-379-1632.aspx

I don't know what a Kobo is. I purchased a number of ebooks from fictionwise before they went under and were taken over by BN. I can still read them in the nook reader.

I don't know what happened to the Library (and it's lost a LOT of titles). They have just moved them from the Library but many are still free downloads. Several of the authors that were in there are on the CD's available at the Fifth Imperium web site. They're how I loaded 90% or more of the fiction on my reader. Non-fiction is mostly rtf/text files and PDF's.

Sadly, some of the changes since Jim Baen passed away have not been for the better. They did away with almost all of the benefit of their ebook bundle pricing.

+1

I don't think I've seen one of the bound in CD's since his passing.

> They did away with almost all of the benefit of their ebook bundle pricing.

Hmmm?

I've been buying the Baen Monthly Bundles religiously since 2003.

I paid $18 for last month's bundle, vs. the $56 I would have paid "a la carte". Granted, part of that difference is that Baen just raised the price of individual ebooks, but did not increase the price of the bundles.

Perhaps you were alluding to the period a year or two back when the price on the bundles was raised, but not the individual books. That was probably the point of minimum relative benefit.

Granted, given my purchase history and the fact that most books in a given bundle are from the "back list", there were only three books in the latest bundle I didn't have, and I could have got them for $22 "a la carte". However, for newer customers that haven't amassed the 600+ Baen ebook library I have, I think the bundles are definitely worth considering.

What's going on:

The changes in the last few months were apparently conditions set by Amazon in exhange for letting Baen sell their books for the Kindle. There's some discussion of this at the top of the Baen Free Library page.

This Amazon deal doesn't seem great for Baen customers:

• You now have to buy the monthly bundle in advance - it isn't available after general release
• The price of individual ebooks was raised significantly
• Most of the books in the Baen Free Library disappeared

While last two items don't have much direct impact on me ( I buy each monthly bundle, and little else) it would seem to me that the relative attractiveness of Baen to new book buyers has taken a step down.

However, at the moment I will still recommend Baen, with the DRM-free books (I read mine in three different formats on three different devices) and the monthly bundles still being strong points, in my opinion.

Mitigations:

Getting (former) Baen Free Library Ebooks

As it has for a long time, the site The Fifth Imperium hosts (with Baen's permission) downloadable images of the Baen CDs full of ebooks that Baen distributed freely with some of the hardcover books. There must be over 100 of my favorite books on those CDs. The one change noted at the Fifth Imperium regarding the recent changes is that, at Baen's request, the site no longer permits downloads of individual ebooks - you have to download the full CD image that contains the book(s) you want.

Of course, the recent changes emphasize that good things don't last forever, so if you haven't sucked down those CD images, now might be a good time. (Along those lines, while, generally, you can redownload any of your past ebook purchases from Baen site itself in any (of the many) formats they support, Baen does mention that once the copyright reverts to the author, they may no longer be permitted to provide that service for such books, so backing up your ebooks in the formats you may want in the future is still prudent.)

Getting the Baen Monthly Bundles

The meticulous thing is: put a monthly alert on your calendar to buy before the deadline, then wait patiently until after the release date to download. (The impatient thing is - download immediately at purchase (obtaining the "3/4" version in some cases) and redownload the full ebooks after general release. The "back issues" of the monthly bundles are, alas not available. Had I known this was coming, I would have taken a hard look at the pre-2003 bundles I had not purchased (I had purchased 7 of the year 2000 bundles, thankfully).

I have purchased a few of the bundles but I find that most of the time there are not enough books in the bundle that i actually want to make the bundles worth buying to me.

Baen made a bit of a deal with the devil to get Amazon and some other big distributors to sell their ebooks.

It used to be that the standard Baen price for ebooks was $4, then it went to $6, now it seems to be $7 - $10 depending on the book.

I still prefer ebooks. They take up no space on my shelves.

I am amazed that the Ring of Fire series has managed to produce 40+ volumes of what amounts to fan fiction that is actually selling well.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/free-outdoor-related-kindle-books-3-2-13.html

It appears that Amazon has banned the web sites that used to make comprehensive lists of free Kindle books. It will make it much harder to find stuff now.

AFAIK, Amazon hasn't banned such sites, Amazon will just stop paying click-thru affiliate fees to sites that emphasize free Amazon ebooks, per:

Amazon tightens affliate fees on Kindle books

Amazon to Change Free eBook Policy for Associates

Another concern (which I have not confirmed) is that with the Kindle Fire, Amazon has made it difficult (not impossible, but tedious) to read non-Amazon ebooks: Kindle Fire Revew

Some 29,000 free public domain ebooks in practically any format are available at Manybooks.net which is basically a "convenience" indexing and reformatting engine of the ~42,000 book collection of Project Gutenberg and they say that there are over 100,000 books available through the sites they list as Project Gutenberg Affiliates

Note that the books at Project Gutenberg are two-pass human proofread after the original book was scanned.

If you are okay with a fair amount of OCR errors, or willing to read books in .pdf (scanned) format rather than ePub, there are quite a few public domain books available at Google Books.

As a topical example of such a Google Book, this book with tips on making campfires can be downloaded in either ePub or .pdf form from the "gear" icon dropdown menu at top right: The Art of Travel, or, Shifts and contrivances available in wild countries

Update: This site seems to have a fairly comprehensive list of places to get free Kindle ebooks: 97 Places for Free Kindle Books Online (legally)

I installed Bluefire Reader on my wife's Kindle Fire and it works very well for non-Amazon ebooks. It supports ePub and PDF.

Yes, Adam Engst, in his April 2012 TidBits[1] article: How to Download EPUB, PDF, and Mobipocket to the Kindle Fire lists Bluefire Reader as one of his top three choices for ePub reading on the Kindle Fire:

• Aldiko Book Reader
• Mantano Reader (this link seems dead)
• BlueFire Reader

Adam's article indicates you have to temporarily disable protection to install Aldiko on the Kindle Fire, and this FAQ at the Aldiko site indicates the same: How to install the Aldiko Book Reader on Kindle Fire?

This article also recommends Aldiko for ePub reading on the Kindle Fire, but doesn't say what ePub alternatives were considered:

The Best eBook Format for the Kindle Fire is Epub

[1] I'm surprised TidBits is still going - I used to read it 23 years ago!

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/outdoors-oriented-free-kindle-book-3-9.html

I can't really recommend this one for reasons I mention in my post but you never really know what you might run into in a free book.

I added some of your info to my Kindle page.

Thanks ILBob, I've downloaded 14 books today dealing with medicine, archery and hunting from your recommended links.

There are a lot of out of copyright outdoors books out there. Some are kind of dated, but many have very good information in them even though they are 75 or 100 years old.

Reminds me of some geezers I know.....

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/free-outdoors-kindle-books-3-18-13.html

same free gardening book as yesterday.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/free-kindle-books-3-18-13.html

I linked to a post I made because the very last free book in the post today is The Da Vinci Code. 81 million copies sold. now free for the taking.

I figure with this crowd there is a good chance at least someone is interested in a good conspiracy novel.

some bonus books

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-free-outdoors-kindle-books-3-20-13.html

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/outdoors-free-kindle-books-3-23-13.html

backpacking recipes today. have not had time to look at it.

Thanks again ILBob. You're links have been very helpful. You've added some great reading material to my digital library.

Please do everyone a favor. after you read them, write a review on them at amazon. That way people won't waste time and/or money on bad books.

In the case of free books money is not an issue but there is only so much time in the day for reading.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/03/free-outdoors-kindle-books.html

The backpacking cookbook is still free.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/free-outdoors-kindle-books-4-5-13.html

a holdover from yesterday.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/outdoors-free-kindle-books-4-17-13.html

nothing new today

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/outdoors-free-kindle-books-4-18-13.html

nothing new today

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/outdoors-free-kindle-books-4-19-13.html

nothing new today

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/outdoors-free-kindle-books-4-25-13.html

gardening books

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/outdoors-free-kindle-books-4-26-13.html

gardening books that have been free the last couple of days.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/04/outdoorsy-free-kindle-books-4-28-13.html

lots of gardening books today.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-1-13.html

nothing new

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-4-13.html

chicken raising booklet

food canning and drying

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-10-13.html

shed and chicken coop plans

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-14-13.html

gardening

gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-18-13.html

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-21-13.html

chickens and seeds

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/05/outdoors-free-kindle-books-5-23-13.html

greenhouse and gardening

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CTSA6A0/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1369603219&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

"The ultimate dandelion cookbook" ...free right now on Amazon.

I was checking out today's books and found a foraging & gardening book in one. I haven't tried any of the writers recipes but I have eaten dandelions while foraging before.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/06/outdoors-free-kindle-books-6-11-13.html

gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/06/outdoors-free-kindle-books-6-15-13.html

herb gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/06/outdoors-free-kindle-books-6-24-13.html

interesting no electricity hydroponics book

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html

survivalist gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/07/outdoors-free-kindle-books-7-10-11.html

herbal remedies

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/07/outdoors-free-kindle-books-7-12-13.html

birding

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/07/outdoors-free-kindle-books-7-15-13.html

herbs and outdoor cooking and fly fishing

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/07/outdoors-free-kindle-books-7-19-13.html

interesting assortment today.

backwoods home magazine issue 124

trout flies and wilderness survival

stackpole books

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoors-free-kindle-books-8-1-13.html

composting

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoors-free-kindle-books-8-3-12.html
new - fishing book and natural cleaners

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoors-free-kindle-books-8-13-13.html

raised bed gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoors-free-kindle-books-8-14-13.html

NOLS outdoor cooking

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoors-free-kindle-books-8-17-13.html

organic gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoors-free-kindle-books-8-19-13.html

app trail journel

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/09/outdoors-free-kindle-books-9-2-13.html

gardening

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/09/outdoors-free-kindle-books-9-3-13.html

$10 root cellar

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/09/outdoors-free-kindle-books-9-4-13.html

canoeing

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/09/free-kindle-books-9-8-13.html

I have consolidated my selections into a single post. Might work better for me. Todays post includes several thrillers, a raised bed gardening book, and a paleo book.

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/09/free-kindle-books-9-12-13.html

included today is a book on food drying

http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2013/09/free-kindle-books-9-13-13.html

container gardening
trout fishing

among others

http://centslessbooks.com/sports.html

Free kindle books about:
Trapping
Fishing
Hunting
Wilderness survival
Building a BOB