Welcome to Toll Free Books

I grew up reading old books—adoring children’s classics like Heidi and The Secret Garden, sneaking peeks into my mother’s Jane Austen novels, plowing through Dickens’ David Copperfield and enjoying it immensely even though I hadn’t a clue what most of it was about.

For Christmas 2010, I got my first Kindle, and it didn’t take me long to discover the enormous treasure trove of the public domain. Hundreds of the great classics, along with myriads of popular fiction from past centuries, are available to download to your e-reader for free. Year by year I’ve discovered new authors, deepened my acquaintance with the classics, and stumbled upon hidden gems of nearly-forgotten fiction—all without spending a cent. The perfect scenario for a penny-pinching book lover like me. And since one of the things I love best is sharing my favorite book discoveries with other readers, the idea of this blog was born.

There are other blogs that highlight free books for Kindle, but Toll Free Books aims to focus on classics and hidden gems from the public domain, presented in an attractive and easy-to-navigate atmosphere and categorized by genre, by country and by author. Links will take you to the cleanest-formatted free ebook editions available, whether from Amazon Kindle or somewhere else. I don’t have any personal experience with free books from Nook or Kobo, but links to Project Gutenberg editions will always be included, so you can find a suitable format no matter what kind of e-reader you own. This isn’t intended to be a review site—posts will simply include a brief description of the book, but if I happen to have written a Goodreads review of the book myself I’ll toss in a link to that.

So spread the word among your book-loving friends! Even if you don't have an e-reader, you may find recommendations here for some wonderful books you may have missed. Regular posting will begin on January 5th; you'll find new posts here on Mondays and Thursdays.

In private life I am a historical fiction author; if you’d like to find out more about me or my books you can visit my writing blog, The Second Sentence.