Tenner Week May 2016: Day 2

Welcome to Day Two of our latest Tenner Week challenge. Did you spend any of your £10 cash yesterday?

Today is all about keeping yourself entertained, amused and informed with a free book or two. Let’s track down a few places where you can find free books… Bear in mind that it’s usually easiest to find free ebooks, although sometimes you can get hold of free print books too.

Some quick ideas to get you started:

• Borrow a book from your local library, and show your support for the free service.
• For books to keep that are past the end of their copyright, try Project Gutenberg. They have thousands of classic books to download in all kinds of formats, from Jane Austen to Edgar Allen Poe.
• For free Kindle books, go to any subsection of the Books category at Amazon and use the ‘sort by price’ (low to high) function to find thousands of free Kindle format books. You don’t need to own a Kindle to read them, there’s official free software to use on your computer, phone or tablet.
• Many websites and blogs offer free ebooks, often in return for joining their mailing list. Think about your favourite topics and interests, and track down a few of those sites.
• There are various regularly updated Facebook pages dedicated to listing free books, for example Free Books for Kindle UK and FreeBooksy.
• Follow your favourite publishers and authors on social media, and look out for promotions on sites such as Goodreads for giveaways and reader panels.
• Start your own book blog or podcast, and start networking with friendly publishing PRs.

There are millions of free ebooks and audiobooks out there, so get searching.

What’s happening here

I managed a no spend day yesterday. We had a big brunch of huevos rancheros and Tex-Mex beans and cheese on toast before we set out for the day. There was a stroll through town in the sunshine followed by a free movie, and some window shopping (okay, what really happened was that I couldn’t find what I was looking for in a hardware store). The hefty brunch kept us going for hours without snacking, although we did pilfer some sweets from a jar on a reception desk for on the way home.

When we got back in the late afternoon, we did some work on the house and garden to keep busy. We also had fruit juice ice lollies on the deck to make the most of the sun. After that I picked an armful of rhubarb and roasted it up to have as dessert after our mini-roast dinner, as well as doing some food prep and a menu for the rest of the week. Can confidently predict that we won’t be starving…

I’m doing the TV Diet, and after we’d eaten I watched an episode of House of Cards which fortunately was only 45 minutes long. That leaves three hours and 15 minutes out of the total ration. Might be reading this evening instead!

How is your Tenner Week going so far? Any suggestions for free books? Let me know if you’re joining in, and anything fun you’re getting up to.