There are many free ebook download sites, but many of them only offer texts in epub format (compatible with iPad, Nook, Sony and other readers, but not Kindle), or force you to read the stories online (bleh! !). Fortunately, there are also ways for Kindle owners to find gifts. Just remember that you need to search for mobi files unless you are going to use a conversion program.

Explore the Amazon store

Okay, this first one is a bit of a no-brainer, but there are plenty of free titles available for kindle on the amazon store. The best sellers list on the main page allows you to check the “Free Top 100” as well as the paid hits. In the left menu, you can drill down into the submenus (such as sci-fi, fantasy, and romance) and find more $0.00 deals by selecting sort by “Price: Low to High” from the dropdown box at the top. Drill down even further by clicking on a sub-genre or release date and again selecting a ranking method from lowest to highest.

You will discover that there are more free offers on Amazon than you could have imagined! There are also plenty of very cheap books, especially by independent authors, if you don’t mind shelling out a couple of bucks.

Head over to Smashwords

Smashwords is a large eBook marketplace that specializes in publishing by freelance authors, many of whom offer very affordable prices for their work. like free. Unlike many other marketplaces, they offer all ebook formats, and I mean all! epub, mobi, pdf, lrf (old sony reader), palm, txt, rtf, etc. You can also read stories on the screen if you don’t have a kindle.

It’s not unusual for someone with a series to let people download the first novel without paying a dime. Later ebooks can cost money, but you have a good chance to see if you’re interested in the series and the author before spending any money. Also, some authors just want to get their work published and have a huge collection of free stories listed.

With Smashwords, it’s also easy to sort to find the $0.00 deals. Simply choose the free filter on the main page or on any of the genre pages. You can also browse new releases, bestsellers, etc.

More sites with texts compatible with Kindle

If you’re looking for classics rather than new releases, there are several places where the mobi format is offered. Here are several:

freekindlebooks.org
manybooks.net
mobipocket.com
justfreebooks.info
Project Gutenberg (use advanced search to find mobi/mobipocket files viewable on Kindle)
labibliotecagratis.com

There you have it: lots of resources for finding affordable Kindle reading. Now, don’t you have some stories to download and some reading to do?