Free your mind and the books will follow

Do you want free books? Of course we all do! But how, man, how? Here are two ways. One is to sign up for the Harper Collins First Look Program. Each month they put out a list of ten or so books. You send them an email about the book(s) you would like to review and if your answer is reasonable they put you in a lottery. If you win, you get the book for free, all you need to do is review it. It's a reviewer copy, but those are just as good as other trade paperbacks. The books are mostly popular fiction with a good dose of mysteries. History and sci-fi pop-up every once and again. I have asked for four and gotten two, which is a decent ratio. So check it out.

MilitaryInk is looking for book reviewers. They have a higher standard in that you should have some prior knowledge of the subject. If you do, apply and maybe they will send you a book in your field to review. The review will have to be quite a bit longer for this one.

Of course, there is always Bookcrossing. Bookcrossing participants leave books in public places to be picked up by someone else. For example, someone "released" this book in the Bakery of the N. Interstate New Seasons. Each book has a numeric code, the idea being each book can be tracked as it makes its way from person to person. Anyway, it's interesting and quite a few people participate.