Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (30 Jan 2009)

Once you've purchased an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, the wonderful world of public domain, Creative Commons and free e-book promotions opens up to you. In this weekly Kindle Reader feature, I point you to a few of the most interesting new free (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web.

Free e-book selections for this week include an illustrated edition of Treasure Island, crime noir sci fi, a novel of romance and adventure, a book of quotations, a first-hand account of travel to Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras in the early 20th century, and a contemporary young adult fantasy.

Police Your Planet, by Lester del Rey, 1915-1993. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: Manybooks. Format: Kindle. Price: Free.
"Written under the pseudonym Eric Van Lhin, this hard-boiled story of cheap grifters, Martian slums, and rampant crime features ex-cop Bruce Gordon, shipped to Mars with a knife, 100 credits, and a yellow card that means no return..." - Manybooks.

The House of a Thousand Candles, by Meredith Nicholson. 1866-1947. ROMANCE/ADVENTURE. Download site: Manybooks. Format: Kindle. Price: Free
"A novel of romance and adventure, of love and valor, of mystery and hidden treasure. The hero is required to spend a whole year in the isolated house, which according to his grandfather's will shall then become his. If the terms of the will be violated the house goes to a young woman whom the will, furthermore, forbids him to marry. Nobody can guess the secret, and the whole plot moves along with an exciting zip." - Manybooks.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature, by John Bartlett, 1820-1905. 9th edition, 1875. REFERENCE. Download site: Manybooks. Format: Kindle. Price: Free.
This is the 1875 edition of the reference classic, currently in its seventeenth edition (2003). If you must have the latest version, you'll have to shell out $31.50 for the hardcover edition.

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894. NOVEL. Download site: MobileRead. Format: PRC. Price: Free.
An illustrated version of this classic tale of pirates, villains, maps, treasure and shipwreck.

Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabondby Harry Alverson Franck, 1881-1962. NONFICTION: TRAVEL. Download site: Amazon Kindle Bookstore. Format: AZW. Price: Free.
Harry A. Franck, called the Prince of Vagabonds, was a travel author who wrote more than thirty books on his travels, starting with A Vagabond Journey Around the World (1910) and and ending with his last published work, Rediscovering South America in 1943. He served in both World War I and in World War II, was one of the first travel writers to travel by air and, in between travel adventures, married and raised five children.

Mortal Ghost by L. Lee Lowe. FANTASY. Download site: Feedbooks. Format: Mobipocket/Kindle. Price: Free.
"It's a fiery hot summer, and sixteen-year-old Jesse Wright is on the run. An oddly gifted boy, he arrives in a new city where the direction of his life is about to change. He's hungry and lonely and desperate - and beset by visions of a stranger who is being brutally tortured. And then there are Jesse's own memories of a fire ..." Recommended by the author for readers age 16+.