Where to find free e-books

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Looking into the E-reader scene, one of my driving factors in garnering which device would be the best buy was the availability of free E-books from sources other than the proprietary ones. This list is a selection of ones I found and is reassuring that whichever device you choose, most sites seem to offer formats that work with all the major devices out there. Plus the availability of free E-books adds in favor of buying an E-book period.

free-sony-ebooks.com

Clicking on titles takes you to www.smashwords.com but still appears to be connected to the site. Formats available are:

• Kindle (.mobi)
• EPub
• LRF (Sony)
• Palm Doc (PDB)
• PDF
• RTF (Rich Text Format)
• Plain Text (viewable online and download)
• Online Reading (HTML or Javascript)

www.feedbooks.com

At first glance it seems that the only available format is Epub, but the supported devices page provides a few different avenues. It includes a link to a dedicated Kindle page.
Formats available:

• Epub
• Kindle (.mobi)

www.gutenberg.org

Formats Available:

• HTML
• Epub
• Kindle
• PDF
• Plucker
• QiOO Mobile

www.bookyards.com 

Formats available:

PDF

www.archive.org 

Haven't explored this yet so unable to comment on formats or other information. Contains a list of sites that could potentially yield E-books freely. Included among them is gutenberg.org so might be promising.

manybooks.net 

This site seems to have decent quality and range of downloads.

• Formats available:
• ePub (.epub)
• eReader (.pdb)
• Kindle (.azw)
• Mobipocket (.mobi and .prc)
• PDF - regular, custom and large (.pdf)
• Plain text (.txt)
• RTF (.rtf)
• Sony Reader (.lrf)

openlibrary.org

I haven't been able to look into this one yet. First impressions seems to be more of a indexical site than a free resource.

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HTML Dog: The Best-Practice Guide to XHTML and CSS

This is more relevant and applicable than most XHTML and CSS books. A somewhat more comprehensive beginners book would be advised to someone not quite familiar with the basics, as this deals with more practical issues, such as margin collapsing, cross browser issues, etc. however, it is still adequate for someone starting out.

The level is novice to intermediate level. The companion site provides almost all the same content and live examples, handy references to almost any XHTML/CSS query, as well as links to other sources. A definite read for anyone who would like reinforce and improve their XHTML/CSS knowledge.

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HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS, Fifth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide)

My first foray into the world of HTML, XHTML and a splash of CSS. This book helped me on my first baby steps with the building blocks and foundations of website design.

The level is beginner to intermediate and as with all good technical books, starts off at the very beginning and describes the history of the web, technologies, browser wars, the different flavours of HTML, best practices and proper coding tips. The book also explains defunct and proprietary tags as well as elements and their use/misuse.The crucial role of separating content from design is explained via the dichotomy of XHTML and CSS.

This is a very good starting point and handy reference book for anyone looking to start off on a path of web design. I would recommend it to anyone who has the patience and dedication. Some parts of the book are a bit hard to digest, but not by much.Overall its step by step definition and tutorials will leave you feeling ready to take on the finer aspects of XHTML & CSS.