Read an Ebook Week

Whether you know it our not, this week is Read an Ebook Week. AChase's 2006 Calendar of Events has a (very) short description:  "Mar 5-11. A week set aside to learn about and/or read an electronic book (e-book)."
Well, that's really not very illuminating, but the title kinda speaks for itself.  An article on MobileRead Networks (written by the founder of Read and Ebook Week) gives the purpose of the week as: "to educate readers about the advantages of electronic books and to promote the fledgling industry."

So, if you've never read an ebook - why not start now? You don't necessarily have to purchase one. There are several good websites that offer free ebooks, most notably Project Gutenberg, which has a great collection of classic literature. They got started back in 1971, which makes them the oldest ebook service.

There are other places to get free ebooks:

• Electronic Text Center - makes over 2000 ebooks available for use on a PalmReader or Microsoft Reader'
• Memoware.com - makes reference and fiction ebooks available for your PDA;
• Fictionwise.com - has a page dedicated to free ebooks, and a notification service to let you know when they've added more free titles.

These are only a few of the services online. Author and publisher websites are also a good place to keep an eye on - you never know when they'll have free stories up! A search on Google for "free ebooks" (with the quotations) brings back over 5 million hits!

So get out there, read an ebook, and tell someone else to as well.