Thank you Dorothy!

On my way to Las Vegas last week, I was sitting on the plane, reading Eloise, waiting for everyone else to get their butts in their seats so we could get going already.  While everyone was still getting settled, the flight attendant, Dorothy, saw my nook and asked how I liked it.  She'd just gotten the nookcolor the night before and loves it, but she had owned the original nook for a long time and had no intention of giving up either.  We talked books for a little bit and she offered to write down a list of websites where I could find free or low-cost nookbooks.

I thanked her, but expected that she'd forget before the flight was over since she was - you know - working.  As we got ready to land, she handed me a slip of paper with the following sites on them and apologized for not being more thorough (she gave me a list of 11 sites and she was afraid she wasn't thorough?).

Since I don't want to be stingy right before Christmas, I thought I'd share with you.  So here goes (I didn't list the sites that weren't intuitive to use or that were clumsy):

• nook Deals - I visited today and picked up three or four new free nookbooks from B&N.  What's amazing to me is that this site has 40,000+ page views, but only 60 followers (61 including me).  Lots of great links from this site, and most of the books she's got listed (I'm assuming it's a she, I can't find "about me") are straight from the B&N website.
• Inkmesh - Inkmesh has links for all e-readers; Kindle, nook, Sony ebooks, etc.
• Smashwords - I've linked directly to the free books.  This is a good site to visit if you want to try new authors.  Terry Odell, a blog friend and WPA attendee, uses Smashwords to give little gifts to her readers.  Go check it out - her book is free through today.  Then be sure to stop by her blog and tell her thanks for sharing her books with us.
• Feedbooks - You have to join this site, but it's simple to do.  It has a place to publish your own books and find new authors, similar to Smashwords.
• Fictionwise - "Fictionwise.com is committed to providing the Internet's most comprehensive collection of fiction (and yes nonfiction too!) in the most popular eBook formats."  It's also owned by B&N, so I would assume the books are compatable with the nook.
• eBooks - Requires an account to be set up, and I couldn't find a link for free nookbooks, but they do have a very comprehensive list of books/authors and the prices don't seem to be too bad.
• kobo - Finally back to the free books!  You can also link to kobo from nook Deals.  There are some tutorial videos to show you how to use kobo, which I found helpful.
• FictFact - This site and I are going to be good friends.  I love reading series books, but often can't remember which is the next book in the series or can't remember when the new book in the series is due out.  Well, just register with FictFact and they'll keep track of all of that for you!
• Barnes & Noble - I thought I should mention this site for a couple of reasons. 1) If you want an ereader, but can't afford one, you can download one for your PC for free from B&N.  Click on "nook" from the home page and then click on "nook for PC".  nook for SmartPhones is also available on the B&N website. 2) Most of the free books that are compatible with the nook are from the B&N website, but there are literally thousands of them and I don't want to wade through them all, so I'll be checking out nook Deals instead.

Does anyone else have any great places where they find their ebooks?  What are your feelings on e-readers?  I love Eloise and I love "real" books - they'll never be completely out of my life.  I know a lot of people who think it's one or the other, but that's just not true for me.  I love the feel and smell of books.  There's nothing like walking into a bookstore and brousing through all of the titles.  But I also love the convenience of Eloise; I no longer have to load up my carry-on with a million books when I travel.