6 Answers2025-07-05
In terms of comparing new, used, rental, and even e-textbooks, sites like Chegg, Textbooks.com, and CampusBooks offer the ability to search for the same book across multiple online retailers. Importantly, the sites aggregate new, used, rental, and e-textbook listings from various online bookstores, so you can compare prices from multiple sellers in a single search. The prices may not always be the cheapest available online, but it’s a good place to start. In some cases, renting the e-book directly from the publisher (Norton) may even be cheaper than renting through an online aggregator, so be sure to click on through to the publisher’s website to compare prices. In just a few minutes, you could save yourself $30 or so by avoiding the campus bookstore, which is generally not the cheapest option for textbooks.
4 Answers2025-12-18
I'm considering ethics here technically speaking there may be ‘Strangers in Time’ torrents floating about on pirate websites etc. But I detest the thought of pirating a book when a die-hard bookworm like myself recognizes authors to be human beings who toil away to produce their work and therefore deserve to be compensated for it.
If you can’t afford a book, I won’t stop you from getting it secondhand or even from renting e-books via services like Scribd (which I’ve found is very cheap and allows you to read lots of books for a low subscription). Plus, maybe the universe is just leading you to another great time-travel story until you can afford this one! The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, for example, totally scratched my time-travel itch last summer when I was otherwise broke.
4 Answers2025-12-18
While 'My Lobotomy' is not old enough to be in the public domain, Dully deserves to be paid for his haunting and powerful memoir. While audiobook trials, such as Audible.com, often have a selection of memoirs available for free to try the service, I paid $5 for a used copy of this book at a flea market. It was worth the hunt.
8 Answers2025-11-14
I have a PDF copy of the book. Unfortunately, it is from an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) that I requested from NetGalley, so it is watermarked with my name as it was intended for review purposes only and I cannot share it with anyone.
Most of the fiction I can get as PDFs are through reviewing books on NetGalley or Edelweiss sites. You can create a profile on either site, start reviewing books and then authors and publishers can grant you access to digital review copies of books – usually in PDF form – before they’re published.
10 Answers2026-01-23
The Nerd Project' sounds like something I'd stumble upon while deep-diving into indie comics or web novels. From what I've gathered, it's one of those passion-driven creations—maybe a comic, game, or even a fanfiction anthology. Whether it's free really depends on where it's hosted. Some creators release their work for free on platforms like Tapas or Webtoon to build an audience, while others might have a Patreon with early access perks. If it's a game, itch.io often has pay-what-you-want models. I'd recommend checking the creator's official social media or website first; sometimes they drop free chapters or demos as teasers.
I remember hunting down a similar-sounding project last year—turned out it was a crowdfunded visual novel with a 'name your price' option. The community around these niche projects is usually super supportive, so even if it isn't free, there's often fan translations or shared snippets floating around. Just be careful of sketchy sites claiming to host 'free' downloads; they’re usually riddled with malware or worse, disrespect the creator’s hard work. If you find it, drop a comment—I’d love to check it out too!
7 Answers2025-12-15
I got the first volume for free a couple of years ago when it was featured in a Kindle Daily Deal. Those still happen from time to time. I have an alert set up on ereaderiq.com for books by Dennis E. Taylor as well as for this specific book, so whenever it goes on sale for zero or even just a few bucks, I get a notification. Note that these freebies are not pirate copies, but rather part of a author’s/publisher’s marketing campaign to gain new readers. It’s a nice, round cycle of getting people to read a book for free, hopefully getting them hooked, then people buying the rest of the author’s books because they’re a fan. That’s certainly better than getting the book via torrent where no one gets any value and you might get some adware thrown in for good measure.
5 Answers2025-11-12
For searching for free PDFs of books like ‘All the Dead Lie Down’ (a book I’m currently researching for work with academic resources), I like to check the usual ‘formal channels’ first. This would include checking if the book is available through interlibrary loan systems and on institutional repositories. JSTOR, University Presses and some book chapters are also available for free. Looking up the book’s DOI and/or ISBN number on the publishers’ website or searching the book’s ISBN number on library catalogs also often helps to clarify access rights.
As authors deposit preprints of their work, as well as permitted versions under their publisher’s green open access policy, in repositories such as arXiv,doaj or researchgate, emailing the author directly is surprisingly often granted. This is in addition to sites such as piratebay that host illegal copies of work. Whilst I steer clear of these sites for legal reasons, it is also that one never knows the quality of the illegal copy in terms of integrity of the file. But, given the ethics involved, taking the extra time to find a legitimate copy, which in the end is usually readable anyway, is well worth it.
3 Answers2026-02-05
Most modern books such as For the Record are not released legally as free books unless the author has chosen to release them as free books. You may occasionally find a fan translation floating about on obscure forums that offer free downloads, but these are generally to be avoided. Instead, consider using your local library through an app.
Some books, like ‘For the Record’, are offered for free by the author, but usually not legally. Fans can sometimes find a translation of a book and offer it for download, but often these are found on dodgy forums and you don’t know where the money from the download is going. A better option are library apps which offer budget readers a vast choice of books and are perfectly legal. Occasionally authors will run a giveaway for their book on Goodreads or Twitter, so it’s worth keeping an eye on those. It’s not exactly quick and will mean you’re reading within the law, but it’s worth waiting for.
6 Answers2025-11-28
I've read most of these comments already. Nobody has brought up the quality of the official translation though, and that is actually very good. As the basis for a ‘pirated’ version it would presumably use an older, rougher fan translation, whereas the JAST/Steam version that you pay for is polished and captures all of the nuance of the original Japanese. And for a story so heavily based in prose and psychological complexity, you really do want the very best translation of it all. It would be a waste of time of the worst kind if you were to settle for a dodgy free version and not even manage to get the story right.
8 Answers2026-06-15
Comedy in the obsessed character department is so underrated. I just read a great parody of the genre where the princess was an utterly pragmatic and no-nonsense engineer type instead. Her responses to classic declarations of love and adoration were to tell the poor guy to sort out the water leak in one of the palace bedrooms, or to summon him to a business meeting, where she would go into battle mode over some perceived slur on her character (like being called jealous in front of a crowd of courtiers). It was brilliant, because it allowed the author to poke fun at all the obsessed character tropes, and yet still deliver the expected moments of inspiration when the princess' complete lack of romantic nonsense was proven to be her greatest quality of all, and won over her man in very sincere and unromantic fashion.