How to get English-language materials for leisure reading?

[peterdwje2]

I am an avid reader, especially of news and all sorts of non-fiction (but also classic novels). With libraries and other usual places shut, I have read everything in the house and am itching for more. Anyone know where I can go find and take home recent magazines, journals, books at this time? I mean used or free of charge; I can't afford all the foreign publications sold at the supermarkets.

[Greyhat]

Library Genesis

[Pilotman]

I was criticised by some for bringing my whole library with me from the UK, all 500 + books.  Boy, was that a good idea and a blessing right now when the attraction of Netflix and Amazon Prime starts to fade.  

[Denim]

14 hours ago, peterdwje2 said:

I am an avid reader, especially of news and all sorts of non-fiction (but also classic novels). With libraries and other usual places shut, I have read everything in the house and am itching for more. Anyone know where I can go find and take home recent magazines, journals, books at this time? I mean used or free of charge; I can't afford all the foreign publications sold at the supermarkets.

 

Do you mean in Thailand or elsewhere ?

[1FinickyOne]

There is plenty of material free on line... Guggenheim [I think] has an enormous library of classic books... I have a kindle and have come to like reading in the tablet as I can adjust type size, but it makes everything available... 

[peterdwje2]

Thanks to all who responded.

 

Sorry, I should have clarified that I am in Bangkok and that I cannot read much on screens due to migraines, so am looking for printed materials.

[ColeBOzbourne]

Dasa Book Café on Sukhumvit has a big selection of used books very cheap. Of course closed now, but offering 20% discount on mail order books. They have an inventory of books online. www.dasabookscafe.com

[uncleP]

Free books here

www.gutenberg. org

[billd766]

7 hours ago, Pilotman said:

I was criticised by some for bringing my whole library with me from the UK, all 500 + books.  Boy, was that a good idea and a blessing right now when the attraction of Netflix and Amazon Prime starts to fade.  

Back in 2009 during my last year at work I sent parcels of s/h books home from New Zealand and I have about 5 or 600. 

 

About 2014 I bought an Ebook reader and found hundreds of books. A couple of years later I met a guy who gave me 1.6 Gb of Ebooks and I am slowly categorising them. My Barnes & Noble Ereader died and I moved on to a Lenovo tablet and I use that for a lot more than Ebooks.

 

At the end of December last year I had 4,092 authors and about 10,000 books or more. At 75 it seems like a lifetime project.

 

There are literally millions of Ebooks out there, some free and some you have buy, and for serious book readers it is the way to go. You can keep thousands of books in a space smaller than 1 paperback.

[OneMoreFarang]

5 hours ago, peterdwje2 said:

Sorry, I should have clarified that I am in Bangkok and that I cannot read much on screens due to migraines, so am looking for printed materials.

Did you ever try a decent eBook reader?

It looks like paper. And it has many advantages like:

- light pocket book size with thousands of (often free) books inside

- you can change the font size

 

 

[Stocky]

7 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Did you ever try a decent eBook reader?

+1

I can't do with the screen on a tablet or the laptop for any length of time without getting headaches, but I'm fine with a Kindle paperwhite. 

[OneMoreFarang]

9 minutes ago, Stocky said:

18 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Did you ever try a decent eBook reader?

+1

I can't do with the screen on a tablet or the laptop for any length of time without getting headaches, but I'm fine with a Kindle paperwhite. 

I never tried the paperwhite.

I have an old SONY with slightly yellow "paper" without backlight. At night I use a small LED lamp which is build into the case. It shines light on top of what I read, just like a normal book.

 

[Enzian]

9 hours ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

Dasa Book Café on Sukhumvit has a big selection of used books very cheap. Of course closed now, but offering 20% discount on mail order books. They have an inventory of books online. www.dasabookscafe.com

i'm pretty sure I stopped there yesterday, or at least looked in, Friday, and it was open. 

[Enzian]

5 hours ago, uncleP said:

Free books here

www.gutenberg. org

gutenberg.org is incredible, I can't say enough about it. Thousands of titles literally, in the public domain. Last year I read Boccaccio's Decameron, which is about people holed up in a country estate during a plague! I've used it to read Petrarch, Georgio Vasari, Cicero, Greek and Roman philosophers, recently Kipling, next planning to use it for Darwin's Origin of Species. 

[toast1]

A matte screen has no glossy cover and no reflection, I know someone who reads on a laptop with a non-glossy screen.

You should find Kindle or other non-glossy e-readers OK.

And there are so many places to download free books - if yuo know what I mean (wink wink)

 

[kokesaat]

I've had a Kindle and it was fine.  When that died, I bought a Samsung tablet and used it as a reader, with the added bonus of reading all my newspapers online.  You can adjust the highness to a wide variety of levels and read in black and white or color if you want.  The full version of the nyt and so together cost about $30 a month....?about what I was spending on paper editions of the Bangkok Post 20 years ago.

You can easily download digital editions of books from Amazon or bootleg, if you're so inclined.  

You might try changing the lighting in your room if reflections are a problem.

 

Digital books, newspapers are the greatest thing for those of us living overseas.......since atm machines

 

[peterdwje2]

Thanks to all for the idea of eReader. I think what gives me migraines on laptop -- even set to only black-and-white and brightness all way down -- are the backlighting and (not consciously seen) flickering. Are the Kindle paperwhite, Samsung tablet and Lenovo tablet mentioned by you guys not backlit/flickering? Do they really replicate reading a print paper? With Kindle, can you also access email,surf and do writing, or only read?

[jayceenik]

I read PDF books a couple hours everyday on my 8" Teclast tablet.

I mostly download PDF eBooks from the PDFDRIVE website.

Just write the name of the book I'd like in the search box or just write a general "Crime", "Travel", etc and it'll go search for whatever free PDF are available for your interest.

Try it !

 

[billd766]

On 3/28/2020 at 5:55 PM, billd766 said:

Back in 2009 during my last year at work I sent parcels of s/h books home from New Zealand and I have about 5 or 600. 

 

About 2014 I bought an Ebook reader and found hundreds of books. A couple of years later I met a guy who My  and I am slowly categorising them. My Barnes & Noble Ereader died and I moved on to a Lenovo tablet and I use that for a lot more than Ebooks.

 

At the end of December last year I had 4,092 authors and about 10,000 books or more. At 75 it seems like a lifetime project.

 

There are literally millions of Ebooks out there, some free and some you have buy, and for serious book readers it is the way to go. You can keep thousands of books in a space smaller than 1 paperback.

My bad.

 

gave me 1.6 Gb of Ebooks.

 

It should read 160 Gb of Ebooks.

 

Stupid boy Pike.

[Logosone]

There's a website where you can download the latest magazines, Stuff, T3, TLS, anything really, all European languages too. You pay a very small fee for the file share provider and get unlimited downloads.

 

This way I still get Essen&Trinken, Muscle & Fitness, Terra Mater, Stiftung Warentest and any other magazines I want, as they come out.

 

It's awesome. Shame you can't use a tablet to read.

[Stocky]

On 3/31/2020 at 3:53 PM, peterdwje2 said:

Thanks to all for the idea of eReader. I think what gives me migraines on laptop -- even set to only black-and-white and brightness all way down -- are the backlighting and (not consciously seen) flickering. Are the Kindle paperwhite, Samsung tablet and Lenovo tablet mentioned by you guys not backlit/flickering? Do they really replicate reading a print paper? With Kindle, can you also access email,surf and do writing, or only read?

My Kindle Paperwhite is backlit, there is no flicker and it's remarkably like reading the page of a book, except you change the font size, and you can read in the dark. I was very reluctant to move to an eReader I couldn't accept it would be the same as a book, but I was wrong and have found it a godsend.

 

I purposely went for a eReader rather than making use of a tablet precisely because I want to be able to sit and read a book undisturbed, so I don't want emails or phone calls, WhatsApp pings or anything else to distract me.

[Muzzique]

If you have an Android device just select the Google Books feature. Its installed as a default. Inside there you can select many paid and free books from Google Play and download them. To increase your English language library there is one easy way.

 

britishtv.club

 

If you join the British TV club. (PM for an invite as its invite only ) You get free VPN to the UK then you can select all the free English language book titles from Google Books that you can ever want.

 

In addition you get 70 UK TV live channels including 8 in HD for about £3.75 month for the Gold subscription and you can watch them anywhere in the World. 

 

It's worth every penny believe me as their VPN is not blocked by the BBC iPlayer or any other UK TV catch up channels. Plus regional specific contents as on BBC sport news video is now viewable.

 

[Muzzique]

If you need an Android eReader App that is easy on the eye try FBReader.

 

No point to pay out for a separate eReader device when your Android tablet can do the same without straining your eyes.

 

https://fbreader.org/

 

Its low contrast and not back lit. 

 

[Muzzique]

52 minutes ago, Stocky said:

I purposely went for a eReader rather than making use of a tablet precisely because I want to be able to sit and read a book undisturbed, so I don't want emails or phone calls, WhatsApp pings or anything else to distract me.

You know you could simply have turned on Flight Mode on the tablet and achieved the same result.????

[Stocky]

1 hour ago, Muzzique said:

You know you could simply have turned on Flight Mode on the tablet and achieved the same result.????

Sure, but I didn't want that, I wanted something that's just a 'book'. I have a desktop, a laptop and a smart phone, I don't need anymore duplication.

 

.

[billd766]

On 3/28/2020 at 6:24 PM, Stocky said:

+1

I can't do with the screen on a tablet or the laptop for any length of time without getting headaches, but I'm fine with a Kindle paperwhite. 

I use a Lenovo 10 business tablet with FB reader to read my Ebooks. I can adjust the brilliance and I can use it in black script on a white background or white script on a black background for night time reading.

 

The problem I have with a Kindle ass an Ebook reader is that is exactly what it is. Using my Lenovo is just like using a bigger smartphone (except I cannot make phone calls). In the evenings I do crosswords, read the news on Google and still use it as an Ebook reader.

 

The program I use for that is free and called FB Reader. There is also a paid version which I haven't bought yet which is the audio book version for when your eyes get too tired and need a rest.

[recom273]

I have found many books from this site over the years.

 

http://arouseyourpassion.blogspot.com

 

16 hours ago, Stocky said:

 

I purposely went for a eReader rather than making use of a tablet precisely because I want to be able to sit and read a book undisturbed, so I don't want emails or phone calls, WhatsApp pings or anything else to distract me.

 

I think you have to own one a kindle to appreciate this. A tablet, just doesn’t cut it - the simulated paper, the size - a tablet always seems too tall to replicate a book, weight - a tablet couldn’t be held in a book reading position for a length of time, the battery life is awesome and a true distraction free reading experience.