E-Books

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 179

Public access ebooks

How to Find Free and Cheap Ebooks

Where I live, decent public libraries with connections to the software service Overdrive allow surprisingly easy checkout of “library books” wirelessly to your Kindle. The Overdrive system provides libraries with both audiobook downloads and eBooks. I find, like most, that reading or listening to these books on a computer is untenable, but transferring audiobooks to my Sansa Clip player is as easy as pie.

For the (increasingly) large selection of books with Kindle versions, it’s very easy to get free content to show up via Amazon’s Whispernet. Nothing fiddly about it, no cables either. And for the earlier cool tool of “User Manual First“, Kindles are a pretty good place to keep these PDF files. Either transfer via cable (easy) or use your Kindle’s email address which allow your docs to show up via Whispernet.

Finally, if you sign up for Amazon Prime service, you not only get free shipping on your purchases, you also get access to the “Kindle Owner’s Library” – more books without fees. And if your Kindle is a Fire (or you don’t mind watching on a PC), you also get access to lots of streaming video (my wife is re-enjoying Ally McBeal (and I’m enjoying not being exposed to it, too)).

Anyway, go to your library’s website and look for Overdrive services. Another convergence of several cool tools that merge to form a new level of cool tool. — Wayne Ruffner

Retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have the lock on bestsellers and the like, but a flourishing underground market for free and cheap ebooks has become a boon for readers.

The best established source for free ebooks is Project Gutenberg whose archives contain over 36,000 ebooks that represent nearly every out-of copyright classic piece of literature along with a vast archive of obscure but pleasurable reads. The quality of digitization is excellent, and the site’s vibrant community ensures that any errors are quickly fixed. They also offer the ebooks in a variety of formats (ePub, mobi, html), including some as downloadable audiobooks.

With more and more libraries getting into the game of lending ebooks, the software company Overdrive (that Wayne mentioned) has been leading the way. Libraries contract out their ebook libraries to OverDrive who make them available for a limited loan period (via a proprietary DRM from Adobe) through their software that is available on most operating systems including iOS and Android. Once you have the application, simply add your local or state library system (some are better stocked than others) and Overdrive allows you to browse the ebooks that they have available to check out. Everything’s automated so there are no late fees, and often times you can get best sellers without waiting (or, if they’re “checked out” you can reserve them and when they become available they are automatically downloaded).

ManyBooks.net is the friendliest index of free ebooks of the bunch. It will search Project Gutenberg’s archives, as well as troll through numerous other archives. They also provide recommendations and reviews (which is incredibly useful given the sheer number of available titles).

Outside of strictly free sources, InkMesh is the best search engine I have found for identifying if an author or a book is available in ebook form, whether it is free, where I can download it, and in what format. They have also collated a comprehensive list of free ebooks available for a variety of platforms.

Two more sources for the ebook crazy are the blogs Pixel of Ink and Books on the Knob which highlight attractive deals for the Kindle.

Finally, to manage this inundation of ebooks I heartily recommend the previously reviewed Calibre. If you have other recommended sources for eBooks and the like, feel free to leave a note in the comments and I’ll make sure to update this page. — Oliver Hulland

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Digital magazines

Long Form * Instapaper

Longer than a newspaper item but shorter than a book, a magazine article is the ideal length for my attention span. I’d rather spend an hour with a great magazine article rather than read a book any day. Ditto for hopscotching through shallow blogs and newspaper bits. But there are fewer print publications running long form journalism. Ironically, a new website, called Long Form, points to the best long form articles appearing anywhere in print, and also collects the great magazine articles from the past. Long Form fits perfectly into a small ecosystem whereby you can read these great pieces of writing on a Kindle, iPad, or phone. I’ve found the easy-reading portable screens of these tablet devices fit a 1 to 2-hour window perfectly.

Here is how this system works. The Long Form website lists great magazine articles just published as well as past hits from the archives. You mark the articles you want to read, which are then downloaded to your tablet via Instapaper, another website, which has an iPad app and Kindle connection. You can then read the articles, without ads, at your leisure on your gadget. The whole migration is seamless and unconscious.

I mentioned this was an ecosystem. You can also select pieces to read on your tablet or phone directly at Instapaper, which does not specialize in long forms but also includes short pieces. Instapaper’s sister site, The Feature, like Long Form, makes reader selections of the best magazine articles. On both sites you hit a button “Read Later” to move it to your reading device. In fact you can mark any web page to be “read later” from an Instapaper button on your menu bar and it will move it to your tablet, phone, or even RSS feed. And you can send to Instapaper (and therefore to your reading device) any item from your Twitter stream or social apps like Delicious or Digg, Reddit, etc. to be read later on your Kindle or iPad (or computer screen).

However, I prefer to read long form factuals, and so I keep returning to Long Form to find the gems. I particularly enjoy classic great magazine pieces that I missed over the years. In fact, I realized that I’ve never seen a list of the best magazine articles ever, but see no reason not to make one now. If you have a nomination for one of the top 100 magazine articles of all time, please send it to me (with a link if possible). I’ll share what I accumulate on this page here. — KK

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Short digital installments of long books

DailyLit

DailyLit sends you bite-sized chunks of public domain books (including many classics) daily, on weekdays, or three times a week via email or RSS — for free. Each serving takes less than five minutes to read, and if you want, they’ll send you the next installment right away if you click a link. So far, I’ve read “Bartleby, the Scrivner” — 18 segments over the course of 3 weeks or so — and I just signed up for Crime and Punishment – more than 240 segments! Yes, it may take 9 months to read, but I’m certainly more likely to finish it this way. I read them in my email reader (Thunderbird) and don’t print them out. The whole idea is to read short segments for a few minutes in your spare time. I’d imagine it would work well on a PDA or Blackberry if you have one (I don’t); if you have a long cab ride or something you can get the next segment immediately. — Jonathan Fromme

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Tech knowledge subscription service

Safari Books Online

I’ve had a subscription to Safari for over five years now. For a monthly fee (pricing is dependent on the plan you choose), Safari grants you instant access to thousands of tech and business-related digital books. New titles become available surprisingly regularly and quickly (occasionally Safari will get the digital version of a title before Amazon does). In short, the service gives me access to a wealth of knowledge in a much less expensive and more convenient manner than any alternative. —Loren Bast

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

03/2/26

Free sports TV / Hot and cold face wand / Best pencil

Recomendo - issue #503

Free sports TV

I wanted to watch the Superbowl live and the Olympics but I don’t have cable and I don’t subscribe to Peacock. A friend tipped me off to the solution which is a $15 digital antenna. There are tons of no-name generic models. I used the URIIU Digital HDTV Antenna which is cucumber-sized stick with a long cable that plugs into my big LG screen. I now get all the over-the-air commercial-saturated channels for free, including NBC, which is streaming the sports. — KK

Hot and Cold Face Wand

I bought the Therabody TheraFace Depuffing Wand as a Christmas gift to myself. At first I thought of it as a fancy, possibly overpriced ice roller — battery-powered so that it stays consistently cold—but then I realized the real benefit for me is the heat function with its three temperature levels. I give my face a heat massage when my head hurts or I’m feeling anxious, and it helps relax my facial muscles and myself. I keep it at my work desk to soothe my tired eyes from too much screen time. — CD

My favorite mechanical pencil

I’ve tried dozens of mechanical pencils over the years, and my new favorite is the Staedtler Triplus Micro 0.5mm. The triangular barrel feels natural in your hand and doesn’t roll off the table. The twist-up eraser is full-size, and the retractable tip means they won’t stab everything when loose in a bag. Best of all, the lead stays tight in the barrel while writing or drawing. At about $3 each, they’re an easy upgrade from whatever pencil you’re using now. — MF

26 Useful Concepts for 2026

This list of 26 Useful Concepts for 2026 is offered as lenses or perspective shifts for staying afloat in this new age of “slop.” Each one has a short definition—some expose the invisible forces trying to hijack your attention or distort your perception of reality, while others help you stay aligned with your own truth and meaning. I especially loved Cammarata’s Razor: If you want more agency, ask yourself what you’d do if you had ten times more agency — then do it, and The Shower Test: “We’re socially conditioned to chase what we think everyone else wants. But your true heart’s desire can often be found in the thoughts you gravitate to while undistracted, such as in the shower. As Walt Whitman said, ‘If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.’” I wish I could remember where I first came across this to give credit, but it’s absolutely worth passing around. — CD

Prompt therapy

People can be helped meaningfully by reading books that know nothing about them. If you tell a reputable AI chatbot a lot about yourself, it can help you far more than a book or lecture can. In a 20-minute video Dan Pink crafted a dozen prompts that will enable an AI to give you helpful feedback of a type you may not get from your family and friends. It is a partner in honesty. This kind of prompt therapy is just a first step towards a whole new avenue of self-help that will only expand quickly from now on. I’ve done some of Dan’s prompts and they really will stir up something important in you and for you. — KK

Searchable Cool Tools and Recomendo

We built a companion page for Recomendo that tracks live Amazon prices on every product we’ve ever recommended since 2020 — over 2,500 items from both Recomendo and Cool Tools. Prices update nightly. Sort by biggest discount to find the best deals, filter by price range, or search for a specific product. Each listing links back to the original review. It’s like a permanent, always-updating clearance rack for our recommendations. Bookmark it and check back next time you are ready to buy. — MF

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03/1/26

Book Freak #198: How We Know What Isn’t So

The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

Get How We Know What Isn’t So

Cornell psychologist Thomas Gilovich examines the cognitive, social, and motivational processes that lead us to believe things that simply aren’t true — revealing that our false beliefs aren’t products of irrationality, but of flawed rationality applied to incomplete information.

Core Principles

We See Patterns in Randomness

Our brains are pattern-recognition machines that often work too well. We see meaningful clusters in random data, believe in “hot hands” in basketball when the streaks are statistically normal, and find significance in coincidences that are mathematically inevitable. The clustering illusion makes us trust our intuitions about randomness when we shouldn’t.

Confirmation Bias Shapes Everything

When examining evidence, we see what we expect to see and conclude what we expect to conclude. Information consistent with our existing beliefs is accepted at face value; evidence that contradicts it is scrutinized and discounted. Worse: for conclusions we want to be true, we ask “Can I believe this?” — but for unwelcome conclusions, we ask “Must I believe this?”

We Overestimate Agreement

The false consensus effect leads us to overestimate how much others share our beliefs. Because we associate with like-minded people and disagreement often stays hidden, we don’t subject our beliefs to healthy scrutiny. This social bubble reinforces false beliefs and makes them feel like common sense.

We’re Better at Generating Than Evaluating

Humans are extraordinarily good at generating ideas, theories, and explanations that sound plausible. We are far less skilled at rigorously testing them. We prefer black-and-white thinking over shades of gray, and we’ll always be tempted to hold oversimplified beliefs that feel satisfying even when reality is more complex.

Try It Now

1. Identify a belief you hold strongly. Now ask yourself: “What evidence would convince me this is wrong?” If you can’t name any, that’s a warning sign.
2. Think of a recent “streak” or “pattern” you noticed — in sports, luck, or daily life. Consider: Could this be random variation that I’m interpreting as meaningful?
3. Notice the next time you encounter information that supports your existing view. Pause and apply the same critical scrutiny you’d use for information that contradicts it.
4. Ask someone you trust but who thinks differently: “What do you believe about X that I probably don’t?” Listen without defending.
5. Before sharing a surprising “fact” today, ask yourself: “Did I verify this, or did I believe it because I wanted it to be true?”

Quote

“For desired conclusions, we ask ourselves, ‘Can I believe this?’, but for unpalatable conclusions we ask, ‘Must I believe this?’”

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Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.

02/27/26

Best Hotel Values/Reserved Seat Tactics/Fastest-growing Tourism Destinations

Nomadico issue #195

The Best City Hotel Values

There are a lot of badly researched articles out there on finding vacation bargains, so I try to highlight the ones based on solid research and data. This article on the most affordable destinations uses booking info supplied by Expedia to highlight the best hotel values in the USA and abroad, based on average booking prices. For the former it’s mostly small or unpopular places, but the international spots are a different story. The top five are Salvador (Brazil), Guadalajara, Bogota, Merida (Mexico), and Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon. Nomad faves Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur also made the list.

Reserved Flight Seats Require $ or Patience

Hopefully you’ve learned to avoid the “Basic Economy” fares that make your legacy airline ticket as no-frills as one on Spirit or Ryanair. Unfortunately, even if you buy a regular economy ticket, the legacy airlines are all over the map on if or when you can pick your seat for free, even if you’re willing to sit in the back of the plane. With AA/BA, United/Turkish, and Delta/KLM I’ve had a flight series where I could pick the first leg’s seat upon booking, but had to pay on the longer flight unless I was willing to wait until check-in 24 hours before departure. On this latest KLM one I held off and got a good seat for today, but it’s yet another source of stress from an industry that keeps piling on more. Do some research so you don’t pay up in advance if the plane is half full, but perhaps pony up again to avoid a middle seat for 12 hours on a full flight.

Where Tourism is Growing the Fastest

Mexico had a record tourism year in 2025 thanks to all those Canadians bypassing their southern neighbor, but some other destinations did even better in terms of increases. According to this article from the BBC using UN data, Brazil, Bhutan, and Egypt were the big winners last year for percentage upticks, increasing 37%, 30%, and 20% respectively. A weak currency and increased flight capacity helped Brazil, while the museum we’ve been waiting 20 years for finally opened in North Africa: the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza. The two others with big jumps were the Seychelles and Ethiopia. See the link for details.

High Costs, High Frustration at Disney Parks

I would imagine the Venn diagram connection between Nomadico readers and “Disney Parks lovers” is a very small convergence, but I’m still linking to this insane article from Frommer’s about how hard it is to be a non-rich person doing a Disney World vacation just so you can feel smug about avoiding Orlando if you’d like. If nothing else, it makes every other kind of vacation in the world that you could take look like a bargain. (Unless you’re cruising to Antarctica or going on an African safari maybe.)

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

02/26/26

What’s in my NOW? — Eric Goebelbecker

issue #243

I’m a science fiction author, CTO at an online marketing firm, and part-time dog trainer. — Eric Goebelbecker

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PHYSICAL

• FiiO JM21 – Listening to music and podcasts free from interruptions and distractions is something we lost around 2008. I wanted that back.
• IBM Model M Keyboard – After years of trying to find a substitute for this crunchy masterpiece, I picked this one up, did some work on it myself, then finally paid an expert to restore it. It’s glorious.
• Author Forecast – I love writing, but I’d often rather be outside on a bicycle. So, having the weather at my fingertips is important. The quotes are a nice bonus.

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DIGITAL

• News – RSS is still the best way to consume blogs and online news. I run this app on my Nextcloud server.
• Moon+ Reader – this allows me to cheat and plug my Boox e-reader. Rather than be locked into Amazon’s ecosystem, I can read DRM-free books (like mine) on an Android device that also runs every reading app on the planet.

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INVISIBLE

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I don’t think I need to point out how relevant Santayana’s famous assertion is right now. While most of science fiction is about imagined futures, I prefer to write about alternative histories in the hopes that readers might learn from it.

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02/25/26

The Art of Finding Dory / Jellyfish: A Natural History

Issue No. 106

THE ART OF FINDING DORY – BENEATH THE SURFACE OF DISNEY’S AMAZING AQUATIC ADVENTURE

The Art of Finding Dory
by Disney and Pixar Studios (preface by John Lasseter)
Chronicle Books
2016, 176 pages, 9.5 x 11.5 x 1 inches

Buy on Amazon

The Art of Finding Dory is more than a companion book to the new Disney Pixar movie – it’s an in-depth look at all aspects of the development and production process for an animated film. Finding Dory the movie explores the life of the forgetful little blue fish known as Dory, while the book not only delves into Dory’s background, but also lets the reader experience the imagination (and magic) of Pixar and Disney. The team behind the movie spent countless hours at beaches, aquariums, marine rehabilitation centers, and along the California coastline to create the most realistic world possible under the sea. They researched how light filters through the ocean, how sea life travels in deep water, and how to make authentic-looking coral reefs out of clay. The Art of Finding Dory chronicles their creative process through photos, hand drawings, computer generated images, story boards, and detailed color palettes. It took four years to bring Finding Dory to the big screen. Once you read The Art of Finding Dory you will understand what a true labor of love the journey was. – Carole Rosner

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JELLYFISH: A NATURAL HISTORY – A LUSCIOUS BOOK ABOUT OUR OCEAN’S BRAINLESS, HEARTLESS CREATURES

Jellyfish: A Natural History
by Lisa-ann Gershwin
University of Chicago Press
2016, 224 pages, 8.2 x 9.5 x 1 inches

Buy on Amazon

Five interesting facts I read in the just-released Jellyfish: A Natural History:
1. The deadly box jellyfish is the world’s most venomous animal, and its sting feels like “a splash of boiling oil, searingly hot and indescribably painful.”
2. The immortal jellyfish is just what it sounds like – its cells keep regenerating so that it forever cycles from baby to adult back to baby again.
3. Recently, jellyfish blooms – or swarms – have become denser, are covering much larger areas than ever before, and are “lasting far longer than normal,” due to climate change.
4. Jellyfish can clone themselves, but the replica is so different from the original that it ends up being classified as a separate animal.
5. The giant heart jelly can grow to 165 feet, longer than a blue whale.

And this is nothing. Every page of text in Jellyfish has facts as fascinating as these, woven into a thorough coverage of jellyfish history, biology and ecology. Author Lisa-ann Gershwin, a marine biologist who has discovered over 200 new species of jellyfish, does an excellent job of combining a compelling narrative of 50 different jellyfish with luscious, I-can’t-believe-they’re-real photos. Put this book on your coffee table with caution – you might lose your guests as they submerge themselves into a book that’s as exotic as it is absorbing. – Carla Sinclair

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Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

02/24/26

What’s in my NOW? — Eric Goebelbecker