The humble paperback is under threat, with Apple and Amazon locked in a battle with publishers to get us to switch to digital readers - yet elsewhere on the internet there are millions of titles available for free. Here's where to find them
Consumers look set to lose out in the battle between Amazon and Apple for dominance of the emerging e-book market. In the US, Amazon currently charges $9.99 (£6.25) for the e-book version of most new releases for use on its Kindle e-reader - but Apple has said that publishers can set their own prices for books on its iPad platform in exchange for a 30% commission.
And the result looks set to see prices for e-books actually rise across the board. Publishing giant Macmillan this week forced Amazon to raise prices for its e-books to $14.99 (£9.38) - the price suggested to publishers by Apple. And, of course, all this is before the cost of a Kindle (£175) or iPad (unknown) is taken into account.
So it seems the old-fashioned way of enjoying books is set to remain cheaper - particularly as there are online sources where you can find millions of titles for free.
Swap Shops
The so-called 'freecycle' movement has spread across the globe to see millions of people exchange unwanted goods for items they can use, with no money changing hands - and the market for free books is particularly strong in the UK. And, with one tree felled for every 24 new books produced, the scheme is good for the planet too.
There are two major domestic players. The first - Read It, Swap It - works as a swap shop for book lovers and boasts more than 315,000 titles available at any one time. Registration is free and the only charge you'll pay is postage - sending an average paperback second class currently costs 90p, first class £1.40.
It's also very simple to use - all you have to do to search through the site's library to find a book that you'd like, and then send a request to the owner of the item inviting them to exchange it for one of your unwanted books (which you list on the site). If they agree to swap, you get an automatic email containing their address so you can post the book to them - and if you don't want to swap the matter ends there.
The only downside is, if items are lost in the post, you'll have to take the matter up with Royal Mail - but a user-recommendation system similar to that used on eBay helps weed out dishonest users.
The other major player is the US-based site BookMooch - again, like Read It, Swap It, the site allows users to exchange unwanted books for fresh reads, but it works slightly differently in that books are not swapped but traded using a points system. After listing the items you want to dispose of, you receive one point for each book despatched (three if it's sent overseas), while each book you receive costs you one point (two if it's sent from overseas).
The service boasts more than half a million books on offer at any one time, but be aware that some of these will be located overseas and possibly printed in a foreign language.
Free Offers
One other source of free reads is from online book discounter Wotnix - since November the site has been offering a free book of the day with no strings attached. The promotion is set to run for the foreseeable future and each day's book is chosen randomly from a collection of 500 titles.
All users have to pay is £2.65 postage - which can be made more cost-effective by ordered additional charged items from the site's catalogue of over two million titles.
Online libraries
Google's move into the publishing arena has met with resistance from authors and publishing houses. The search giant plans to create the world's biggest online library comprised of all books that are out of copyright and "snippets" of in-copyright titles with the option to buy a full copy.
Publishers are angry at the terms on offer and the proposal has met with resistance from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Regulators in the US claim that Google's plans have failed to address antitrust and copyright concerns. A final "fairness hearing" has been scheduled for 17 February. EU regulators have also attacked the search giant's plans - which suggests that Google Books could remain in its current format for the foreseeable future.
The service offers users more than 10 million of out-of-copyright titles including classics and periodicals, which are free to browse online to download in PDF format. It's certainly an impressive collection - a quick search yielded full versions of titles including Treasure Island, Heart of Darkness and Jane Eyre.
An alternative source of books is the Project Gutenburg website, where you can read more than 30,000 books for free - and download them to read on your PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable device. There are, however, certain copyright restrictions on downloading titles in the UK.
A word of caution - if you don't have a bespoke e-reader, using online libraries only works if you're happy reading titles on your laptop. Printing them off to read on the train would cost far more in printer ink than purchasing the title from a shop!
Books for charity
The major complaint levelled at free book sources is that they deprive charities of vital income they receive through second-hand books. If you want to ensure a charity benefits from your reading and don't mind paying a small premium, try the Oxfam Online Bookshop - which also stocks more obscure titles than you may find elsewhere.
Failing that, you can always make use of your local library...