With all the worry over Coronavirus in 2020 and the massive upheaval of self isolation and social distancing, we can often forget to check in on each other. So first off, how are you?
A lot of people in the UK, in fact around the world, have found themselves forced to stay at home and outings have been limited to the necessary. Even where, like me, you work from home, this can still leave you with time on your hands.
If you’re a reader, then that extra time can be a gift. Suddenly you have all the time in the world, or a little extra at least, to read.
Of course, having so much time to read can quickly eat up all the reading material you have at home. That’s where this blog post comes in, to help you get your hands on more ‘stuff’ to read.
Your bookshelves
Yes, I know I said I’d help you find books to read when you ran out of books to read, but have you really read everything on your bookshelves? If you’re anything like me, then you’ll have a habit of buying new books when you’re still working your way through one or more current reads.
What books do you have at home that you’ve never got around to starting? With a family of four readers in the Phillips household, we have a whole universe of books to choose from. Some of the reads I intend to get through this year from our bookshelves at home include:
- the rest of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King (so far, I’ve only read the first 4 books)
- a collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway
- The Raven’s Knot by Robin Jarvis
- The Golden City by John Twelve Hawks
- The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Otherland by Tad Williams
- The Binding by Bridget Collins
And that’s only a few of them.
Then there’s the novels you’ve already finished that you’re more than happy to read again. For me, those would include Frankenstein, the Word and the Void trilogy by Terry Brooks, and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
Save your pennies and look at what you have at home before you even think of looking elsewhere.
Authors and Publishers
Many author and publisher websites will feature free reading material to download, and their social media is a great place to find out about special offers like price reductions.
Subscribe to their newsletters to get the latest news on book releases, book deals, competitions, and all kind of freebies.
For instance, if you follow me on social media, you’ll have seen that the Haven Wakes e-book is currently priced at only 99p or cents.
Free books online
There are so many websites that offer free reading material, either to download or read online. A lot of the books available are classic fiction but not all.
This list isn’t exhaustive, but all of these sites provide free reading material:
- Project Gutenberg
- Researchify
- The Literature Network
- American Literature
- Classic Literature
- Poetry foundation
- Poets.org
- No Fear Shakespeare
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If you have any other sources of free reading material that I haven’t mentioned above, let me know and I’ll add them.