Happy Earth Day!
Well, the free book promotion at AllRomance is over for another year and the audiobook download of Walden has changed into a streaming listen only (it's still free elsewhere, see below), but there are still plenty of free ebooks around. In fact, you can still get the Walden audibook - Tantor read the blog post, saw that you were wanting to download it and gave us a link to get zip file.
Here are a few that have become free in the US Kindle store, that were previously UK only, or that have been added to additional ebookstores as free selections.
Since today is Earth Day, I've picked out some bargain books that are relevant to the occasion. Note that if you go to
Kobo
, coupon code
KoboSpring1 will get you $1 off and
redtag2 should get you $2 off (both unlimited use for non-Agency titles) and
giftread gets you 25% off, where a
quick search
turned up some interesting titles:
Organic Gardening For Dummies
is $7.89 with the coupon code,
Gardening For Dummies
is $1.89 and
Organic Gardening For Dummies® Mini Edition
is free (in fact, all the Mini Editions are free with the coupon code). Below are a few more I found at Amazon.
Green Made Easy: The Everyday Guide for Transitioning to a Green Lifestyle (
$0.99), by Chris Prelitz, was briefly (and apparently mistakenly) free at Amazon UK, but is a great deal on a relevant title (with almost all 5 star reviews and enough that they can't all be friends of the author).
Book Description
In Green Made Easy, author and green pioneer Chris Prelitz shares how to be both environmental and economical at the same time. Going green is not only good for our planet, it’s good for your pocketbook. For over 20 years, Chris has been helping businesses, home owners, and corporations lower their monthly expenses by going green. Chris and his wife, Becky, share a green solar-powered home in Laguna Beach, California, which Chris designed and built. Most months they produce more power than they use and receive a credit from their power company instead of a bill!
In this book, Chris shares personal experiences, lessons learned, and reflections that humorously touch the heart and inspire the spirit. The chapter “Busting Green Myths” will sway even the most cynical person toward better eco-choices that will also save money. Chris says, “We’re rediscovering that it’s so much healthier, more lucrative, and better for every living thing to transition away from wasteful, polluting technologies and make choices that work in harmony with nature.”
Green Made Easy is written in a friend-to-friend, conversational style and examines our daily lives from personal care and cosmetics to solar-energy systems. This book will delight and inspire any and all who dream of making a difference and wish to create a thriving, healthy future for generations to come.
A Guest in the Jungle (
$3.99), by James Polster, was originally released in 1987 and is credited with creating awareness of rainforest destruction.
Book Description
When Pittsburgh attorney Whitehill begins his vacation, he is anticipating a leisurely jaunt across South America. But he gets more than he bargained for when a sightseeing trip goes awry, leaving him stranded in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Whitehill isn’t exactly the outdoorsy type—he hikes in Brooks Brothers pants—so he is relieved when he meets a scientist perusing the jungle for medicinal plants and insects. Of course, the good doctor’s true motives are less than altruistic, and Whitehill soon finds himself being forcibly marched through the rainforest en route to certain death. When he escapes, with the help of some hungry vampire bats, Whitehill falls in with an English-speaking Indian whose tribe is at the heart of a raging land conflict. Trapped in the jungle, Whitehill must gather what little courage he has to stop an Indian war and preserve a vanishing culture from rapacious developers. Along the way, he has a fling with a gorgeous native, narrowly survives being sacrificed to the gods, and is rescued from a bombing by a pair of hard-drinking American expats. A Guest in the Jungle is a smart, engrossing, and uproariously funny novel about the power of one man to make a difference in the world.
Kidnapping the Lorax (
$0.99), by Patricia K. Lichen, obviously has a bit of an agenda, but might be an interesting read nonetheless (at least five people thought so, but that may be just the author's agent, close family and friends).
Book Description
Three young environmentalists kidnap the Secretary of the Interior and take her to the Pacific Northwest woods to reeducate her, in the belief that when she returns to D.C., she will begin making correct, informed decisions for the land.
Greening IT (
$0.99), edited by Adrian Sobotta, Irene Sobotta, John Gøtze and Connie Hedegaard, is a large volume on paper, but bargain priced as an ebook. It's also free on
their web site, as a PDF (there is a "low-res" and "hi-res" version, which seems to apply just to the included images, as the text is readable in either version).
Book Description
The IT sector itself, responsible for 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, can get greener by focusing on energy efficiency and better technologies - we call this Green IT. Yet, IT also has the potential to significantly reduce the remaining 98% of emissions from other sectors of the economy - by optimising resource use and saving energy etc. We call this the process of Greening IT.
This book explores the great potential of greening society with IT - i.e. the potential of IT in transforming our societies into Low-Carbon societies. This is a global problem and demands a global solution, and in the spirit of this fact, this creative commons-licensed book is the result of an internationally collaborative effort by a number of opinion leaders in the field of Greening IT.
The foreword is written by European Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard.
Foreword - By Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action
Chapter 1 Prologue
Chapter 2 Our Tools Will Not Save Us This Time - by Laurent Liscia
Chapter 3 Climate Change and the Low Carbon Society - by Irene N. Sobotta
Chapter 4 Why Green IT Is Hard - An Economic Perspective - by Rien Dijkstra
Chapter 5 Cloud Computing - by Adrian Sobotta
Chapter 6 Thin Client Computing - by Sean Whetstone
Chapter 7 Smart Grid - by Adrian Sobotta
Chapter 8 How IT Contributes to the Greening of the Grid - by Dr. George W. Arnold
Chapter 9 The Green IT Industry Ecosystem - by Ariane Rüdiger
Chapter 10 Out of The Box Ways IT Can Help to Preserve Nature and Reduce CO2 - by Flavio Souza
Chapter 11 From KPIs to the Business Case - Return on Investment on Green IT? - by Dominique C. Brack
Chapter 12 Computing Energy Efficiency - An Introduction - by Bianca Wirth
Chapter 13 A Future View: Biomimicry + Technology - by Bianca Wirth
Chapter 14 Greening Supply Chains - The Role of Information Technologies - by Hans Moonen
Chapter 15 Epilogue
Oceans: The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do to Turn the Tide (
$3.86), by Jon Bowermaster
Book Description
This unique tie-in to the major motion picture Oceans—coming this April from Disney & National Geographic—explores the health of our oceans, and what we can do to improve it.
More than 75 percent of the globe is covered by the oceans. It is sometimes difficult to understand why it is called Planet Earth rather than Planet Ocean. Since half the world’s human population lives within a stone’s throw of an ocean coastline, the oceans’ health is increasingly important. Rich with resources and potential—as a source of renewable energy, new drugs, drinking water—for years we have treated them as both infinite and undamageable. But they are not.
Over-fishing, climate change, pollution, acidification, and more have put the world’s oceans and marine life at great risk.
Oceans gathers some of the most insightful visionaries, explorers, and ocean lovers— marine biologists, politicians, environmentalists, fishermen, sportsmen, deep divers, and more—in a unique anthology, in which each speaks to a unique aspect of our world’s most dimly understood dimension.
Getting Back (
$2.99), by William Dietrich, is one of three
backlist titles from this Pulitzer Prize winner and natural history correspondent for the Seattle Times that are bargain priced.
Book Description
Getting Back is a futuristic thriller, an eco-fable with a touch of 'Survivor,' Mad Max, and Avatar. The world's population has doubled. Wilderness exists only in old movies. Every region on Earth has been explored, organized, and tamed. But in this brave new age one secret organization promises the most forbidden pleasure of all: a true outdoor adventure. The price is a year's salary. The destination is a continent that disease has put off-limits. And the catch is that on this expedition, you may never return...
In the belly of a shimmering 21st Century pyramid, Daniel Dyson occupies Cubicle 17 and fantasizes about love and escape. By day he pursues petty ways to subvert his overly programmed life. By night he flirts with a shadowy group that dares him to rebel and reclaim his autonomy. Then he stumbles onto Outback Adventure.
Outback doesn't advertise and keeps its Internet site heavily encyrpted. Yet Daniel, partly to seek deeper meaning in his life, partly to find a woman who doesn't want to be found, soon finds himself taking a perilous trek across the forbidden continent of Australia. There, Outback has promised he will find out what it means to be truly alive, to test his limits, and to understand real survival. What he and his two dozen fellow adventurers don't know is that all their high-tech gear and all their plans haven't prepared them for what lies ahead. Because this journey will not only plunge them into a stark desert and through a gauntlet of natural dangers, it will force them to face the most dangerous creatures on earth: their fellow humans.
Getting Back is a novel of survival and a search for meaning where both have gone extinct - a thriller that asks us whether getting back is the object of the game, or the punishment for losing...
The Collected Works of John Muir (Unexpurgated Edition) (
$1.99) is a popular collection from Halcyon Classics. This edition is DRM free, includes an active table of contents for easy navigation and errors and omissions have been corrected (versus scanned editions available free).
Book Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook collection contains nine works by California conservationist John Muir (1838-1914). Scottish-born Muir was an early advocate of Conservation in the United States; his activism led to the establishment of the Sierra Club. Muir is perhaps best known for his efforts to preserve the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park, and his unsuccessful attempts to stop the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley near San Francisco.
Contents:
Studies in the Sierra (1874)
Picturesque California (1890)
The Mountains of California (1894)
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado (1902)
Stickeen: The Story of a Dog (1909)
The Yosemite (1912)
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)
Travels in Alaska (1915)
Steep Trails (1919)
Green Living For Dummies®, Mini Edition (
$0.99),
Organic Gardening For Dummies®, Mini Edition (
$0.89) and
Green Building and Remodeling For Dummies®, Mini Edition (
$0.99) are just a few of the
For Dummies®, Mini Editions that are under a buck at Amazon.
Green Living For Dummies®, Mini Edition
Minimize your impact on the world and enjoy a green lifestyle
Whether you want to repair, restore, or reuse, this practical guide is packed with realistic ways to help the environment and create a better home for you and your loved ones — from reducing energy use and waste to scaling back reliance on your car to making a difference in your diet.
Open the book and find:
- Ways to work greener transportation into your lifestyle
- The best ways to eat locally and organically
- How to rid your life of clutter
- Tips for conserving water and energy in your home today
Organic Gardening For Dummies®, Mini Edition
Grow a bountiful garden without harming the environment
Whether you're cultivating fruits and vegetables or growing beautiful flowers, this handy guide shows you how to work with nature, not against it, to create and maintain an organic garden your whole family will enjoy.
Open the book and find:
- How to beat weeds at their own game
- Tips for keeping pests away without chemical pesticides
- Ways to buy or make compost and build healthy soil
- How to work with, not against, your soil
Green Building and Remodeling For Dummies®, Mini Edition
Your hands-on, practical guide to the materials and construction methods of green building
Want to build responsibly and help preserve the environment? This friendly, step-by-step guide introduces you to key facets of green building and remodeling, from looking at long-term costs to working with green professionals to reducing energy and water use.
Open the book and find:
- The benefits of going green
- Green material substitutions
- Where to locate green professionals
- Ten green things you can do in your home today
Green Living by Design (
$3.99), by Jean Nayar, is even greener than the recycled paper of the paperback edition, when read as an ebook.
Book Description
What if someone told you that you could make your home look gorgeous, be more energy and cost efficient and be kind to the environment at the same time? With the help of Jean Nayar and the experts at PointClickHome.com now anyone can remodel, renovate, or decorate their home, all without hurting the planet.
Filled with easy, insider tips on everything from insulation, carpentry, lighting, and complete renovations to simple projects like redecorating; Green Living by Design is the source for anyone who wants their home to be chic and eco-friendly.
Chapters include information on furnishings, fabrics, water use, choosing locally made products, harvesting and controlling sunlight, composting and disposing and energy-efficient appliances.
Laid out in an easy-to-follow format with step-by-step instructions, special tips and hints and material guides, this book makes it easier than ever to follow your conscience while protecting the earth.
The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year (
$9.87), by Spring Warren and Jesse Pruet, is a bit above my usual cutoff (as is the next one), but is one I'm sampling and may make an exception for - if it saves me $5 on food, it's back to bargain priced and might save me hundreds (or maybe at least one), if it improves the production from our garden this year.
Book Description
When Spring Warren told her husband and two teenage boys that she wanted to grow 75 percent of all the food they consumed for one year—and that she wanted to do it in their yard—they told her she was crazy.
She did it anyway.
The Quarter-Acre Farm is Warren’s account of deciding—despite all resistance—to take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard. It’s a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating. The road is long and riddled with mistakes, but by the end of her yearlong experiment, Warren’s sons and husband have become her biggest fans—in fact, they’re even eager to help harvest (and eat) the beautiful bounty she brings in.
Full of tips and recipes to help anyone interested in growing and preparing at least a small part of their diet at home, The Quarter-Acre Farm is a warm, witty tale about family, food, and the incredible gratification that accompanies self-sufficiency.
Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution (
$9.99), by David Tracey
Book Description
Urban Agriculture is packed with ideas and designs for anyone interested in joining the new food revolution. First-time farmers and green thumbs alike will find advice on growing healthy, delicious, affordable food in urban settings. From condo balconies to community orchards, cities are coming alive with crops. Get growing!
About the Author
David Tracey is a journalist and environmental designer who operates EcoUrbanist in Vancouver. A certified arborist specializing in organic fruit trees and edible landscapes, he is also the Executive Director of Tree City Canada, a non-profit ecological engagement group. David is the author of Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, and an advocate for all those reclaiming our right to great food through urban agriculture.
Last, but not least, today's Magazine bargain is a one-year subscription to
Hobby Farms for $5.00, valid today only.
Description
The ultimate owner's manual for rural enthusiasts, Hobby Farms embraces the growing segment of the population that is returning to farm life in search of a more meaningful existence. Hobby Farms is ideal for everyone from pocket farmers looking to make a profit from their part-time farming endeavors to hobby farmers who have a passion for farm life.
Amazon and American Express have teamed up to give everyone a free credit to watch one of the 2011 Tribeca Films, such as The High Cost of Living, for free (as an Amazon Instant Video). You can also use the $6 credit to watch two of the movies from past years (which rent for $2.99 instead of $5.99). The credit can only be used on films on the Tribeca Films page (it's not a general Instant Video credit), expires on May 31 if you haven't used it by then and is currently limited to US customers (physical or billing address or US credit card).
