Kindle News: Amazon's 50 Kindle books at up to 75% off thru' Aug 13 + Spotify app for Kindle Fire + textbook rental + today's Kindle Deal - UPDATE

See Update under Spotify for added information.

Amazon's new (temporary) discount feature - Kindle Books up to 75% Off

These are 50 "Select Titles," categorized by time period, with a discounts of up to 75% off through August 13 (that's through next Monday).

Categories:
Life in Biblical times, the 1700s, and the 1800s
Life in the early 20th century
Life in the 1940s and 1950s
Life in the 1960s and 1970s
Life in the 1980s and 1990s

Spotify (Kindle Fire Edition)
 
Spotify is a streaming music subscription service that many are already using, and if you already have the subscription to millions of songs "on demand," you can use the app on the Kindle Fire now to make playlists and share the music with others.

  The app has one free feature, which that is radio-streaming only.
  The more popular use is unlimited streaming, without ads, of new music on-demand (and the ability to play some of it offline) and that costs $9.99/mo.  You can start a 48-hour free trial "when you log in" (via Kindle Fire or another mobile device) "to Spotify with your Facebook account," and if you like the service, you can choose to extend your free trial by 30 days.  If you're happy with only the free radio-listening part, you can use that for free.

  It's version 0.5.2.89, and the current version doesn't have a Landscape mode.  I've never used the service but have read that others enjoy it quite a bit.

  Update - Just read some caveats that Spotify users should know about:

' Although users can stream music for free from the desktop client, free streaming is limited to 2.5 hours per week and 10 hours a month (unused time stacks up to 10 hours).

 Listening for free will play ads regularly, usually for around 30 seconds. Unlimited streaming subscriptions, sans advertising, begin at just $5.99 a month, rising to $9.99, and include offline listening and the ability to play music through connected devices
  ... [ More details and then this summary below ]
  Spotify currently holds a 4- out of 5-star rating and is almost essential for users not planning to buy music. The service finds itself in a market with rivals including Last.fm and Rdio.  Spotify's draw is that, although buying music buying is an offered feature of the service, it is not a requirement.  In fact, $5.99 is the cost of an album on iTunes.  How many albums could be listened to over a month on Spotify? '

See more details at mobilenapps.com


Reminder that textbooks can now be rented
It's almost September, so the reminders are cropping up on my screens quite a bit.
  An earlier Kindleworld blog article explains how this works, and here's the Amazon page for textbook rentals.


Today's Kindle Daily Deal (Wednesday) is Random Harvest, a novel about a man's long-buried memories of World War I resurfacing suddenly at the start of World War II, threatening "to fracture the peaceful life he has worked so hard to create."
  It has 26 customer reviews, with an average rating of 4.6 stars.
  $9.99 on Tuesday, it's discounted by $8 today and is $1.99 for Wednesday only.

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Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links

US: Kindle Fire  7" tablet - $199 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109 Kindle Touch, WiFi - $99/$139 Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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New Free Kindle Books + Newly-Discounted Ones Found by Forumners + Amzn specials + Other discussions (8/8/11)

ONGOING FREE PLUS DISCOUNTED KINDLE BOOKS DISCOVERED BY FORUM MEMBERS

After today, the forum alerts for temporarily free books as well as discussions of newly discounted Kindle books will be on a separate page.

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Amazon's own ongoing listing  - of LIMITED-TIME OFFERS Promos
  Amazon sorts these by Bestsellers first.
  I've added a separate sorting by Low-to-High pricing.

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Other forum threads on books that might interest some
  . What have been your favorite public domain books not so well known?
  . Best "Free" books you've read (many are no longer free, however).
  . Highly Recommended Books That I Didn't Like

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ONGOING UPDATES
This blog entry regularly changes the forum-topic-links below, updating them to the most recent forum recommendations, especially since the message threads are often difficult to find.  The dates are in Red to make them easier to see.  These will be kept for about 3 weeks (unless they're reported to be no longer free or discounted) and then scroll off.

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NOTABLE DISCOUNTED BOOKS
Am regularly pointing you, with this changing blog entry, to the latest messages on Kindle-customer recommendations for newly-found discounted Kindle books:
7/18-7/20, 7/20-7/21, 7/21-7/22, 7/23-7/25, 7/25-27, 7/27-29, 7/29-30, 7/31-8/2, 8/2-3, 8/4-6, 8/6-8, 8/8-9

  8/3 - Publisher Harper Perennial: sale of 20 titles for $20, for August
      reported by Emily Bronte.
  8/2 - Macmillan's Kane & Abel series, $2.99 is a popular entry.
  7/25 - Amelia Peabody, now all $4.44
  Many of the ones mentioned in June are still discounted.   While you're reading the message threads with links to the discounted Kindle books in them, Kindle customers will be adding new recommendations there for ones they've found while you're reading the thread.  I can check these daily and give a good starting point for the day.  It's been suggested (and I agree) that I remind people that on the first visit there they should go to Page 1 of the message thread (you can click on the number while there) and read the opening post by  RandomizeME, which includes

' This thread is NOT a book promotion thread for authors, or for people to post about indies. (And it's not for posting freebies either.) This thread is to post discounts and price drops that readers find for books from publishers." '

  Amazon made a separate forum for "Meet Our Authors" where authors can talk with customers about their books.
  Some here will just follow the discounted-books forum thread daily.

  On a couple of posts there, I saw that people had seen a couple of books drop even further right after they bought them, partly due to people noting that the two were lower at B&N's sales, and Amazon has given (with no problem, they say) $credits on those further drops in that short time.

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THE KINDLE COMMUNITY FORUM'S NEW-FREE-BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY OTHER CUSTOMERS
(Mainly contemporary books) - Main Finder: Happy Reader "Joyce"
  These are almost daily, and I'll link you to these also, so you can quickly see the latest that other Kindle owners have found from various sources.  Will keep them here for about 3 weeks.

  Here are: July 19, July 19 - afternoon, July 19 - add'l, July 20, July 21, July 21 - afternoon, July 22, July 24, July 25, July 26, July 26 - afternoon, July 26 - late, July 27, July 27 - afternoon, July 28, July 28 - evening, July 29, July 29 - midmorning, July 29 - afternoon, July 30, July 31, Aug 1, Aug 1 - Evening, Aug 2, Aug 3, Aug 4, Aug 4 - afternoon, Aug 5, Aug 5 - Evening, Aug 5 - Very Late Evening, Aug 6, Aug 6 (later), Aug 7, Aug 7 - Evening, Aug 8, Aug 8 - evening.

Additional info for the dates above:
  Customer "A" at the forum reminds everyone that the "Vook" series includes some "enhanced" books with video and says those are listed for iPads and iPhone apps and not for the Kindle e-reader, and they tend to have file sizes of 100-500 megs (an average regular Kindle book is less than 1 meg).
  Luckily, some Vook books are regular and not "enhanced" books.

  July 19 - 1 book (Innocent Monster), 9 books (afternoon), 4 add'l in horror/fantasy
  July 20 - 3 books
  July 21 - 6 books, 2 books (afternoon)
  July 22 - 3 books
  July 24 - 10 books + 31 Vook Kindle-app books w/Audio/Video content for Apple devices
  July 25 - 6 books
  July 26 - 4 books (2 "Enhanced", for iDevice apps), 1 book (afternoon) Children's, 1 book (late) Christian.
  July 27 - 1 book (1st of Fey series), 14 books + 1 game (late morning)
  July 28 - 1 book (morning), 10 more-diverse books (evening)
  July 29 - 7 books, including Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #7
  July 29 - 7 more books (mid-morning), 14 books (afternoon)
  July 30 - 1 book (short mystery-thriller)
  July 31 - 3 books
  Aug 1 - 20 books (some repeats + some with good reviews), 10 more (evening)
  Aug 2 - 5 books
  Aug 3 - 4 books
  Aug 4 - 23 books (a.m.), 2 books (afternoon)
  Aug 5 - 14 books (a.m.), 1 book (evening), 9 books (very late evening)
  Aug 6 - 3 books (a.m.), 1 book (later)
  Aug 7 - 4 books, 1 book (evening), the 2nd book of 3, for
      The Days and Months We Were First Born-Family By Fate is back after being free only a few hours last week, but it's $2.99 now.  Book 1 is still free
  Aug 8 - 8 books (a.m.), 19 books (evening)


  The main (speedy) free-book finder is Happy Reader "Joyce", and she lists them each day and is the originator of that regular topic thread.
  While you're reading the latest there, other customers and Joyce tend to find more that day.


ONGOING, NEW FREE KINDLE BOOKS - MANY TEMPORARILY FREE (mostly contemporary)
On the usual free Kindle books, the links in the box below will give you most of them with several sorting methods, and the listings are usually limited, to eliminate previews, chapters-only, and single short stories to save people time (although some of the lists linked to in the box will point to the most popular free Kindle books and you'll see some short-stories there), so they are doable when short on time.

  Some of the free contemporary Kindle books are growing by 30 to 70 free books per day and it's not practical to list them all, and I must say, there are free ones which aren't of the highest potential as seen in the writing just for the product descriptions!), but you can see those books in lists via the links-box at the bottom of this and other blog articles here and can decide quickly -- with Amazon summary product info -- which might be worth trying.

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For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW:  June  July  Aug 2011    Publication Date   Late-listed    Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($139)   DX Graphite Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!