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If you got an ereader for Christmas (or bought yourself one just because), you can’t miss Read an Ebook week. And if you don’t have an ereader, then you might be able to win one from some of the giveaways going on this week. Even if you don’t have an ereader, you can still read ebooks on your computer (or possible on your cell phone). More on that at the end of this post.

Read an Ebook Week is March 6-12 (that’s today until next Saturday) and it’s usually a good time to pick up some cheap or free ebooks. To start you off, you can find a list of links to publishers and authors who are supporting this week on the official site. There are lots of other sites participating, but that’s a good place to start.

Now if you don’t have an ereader, you can always download software to read ebooks on your desktop or laptop (this software also lets you read ebooks from most libraries):

• Stanza: For Mac and Windows, this program is usually used to transfer files to the iPod Touch/iPhone, but it can be used to read on a desktop.
• Calibre: For Mac, Windows, and Linux, this program is a more robust ebook viewer than Stanza. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve heard good things about it.
• Kindle (you don’t need a Kindle reader to read Kindle books!): If you find a Kindle book that you like, but don’t have the Kindle reader, you can download Kindle for Windows or Kindle for Mac to read on your desktop.
• Adobe Reader and Adobe Digital Editions: Most people are familiar with Adobe Reader (although if you’re on a Mac you probable prefer Preview). PDF format ebooks with Digital Rights Management restrictions usually require downloading Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) in order to read them.

So there you go: a week of free ebooks for anyone who wants them whether you have an ereader or not. Remember to return to sites daily because the freebies may change from day to day or only be available for a limited time or limited number of downloads.

Enjoy.

Despite the cheesy name, I decided to check it out since it is now a free download (it was originally published by a major publisher over 30 years ago).

If you’re doing exactly what you want for a living and have no regrets or unfulfilled dreams, then this book is NOT for you. If you have dreams, but don’t know how to make them come true, this book IS for you. If you don’t know what your dreams are, this book IS for you.

Unlike most books of this type, this book is based on the premise that we are flawed individuals and that we don’t need to turn into perfect superbeings in order to live the life that we want (good thing too, because that’s never going to happen with me). This book is for the procrastinator, the person who starts a diet on Monday and has fallen off the wagon by Wednesday (if he or she even lasts that long).

The first part of the book is focused on discovering what your dreams are. The premise is that we are told too soon as children to be practical–stop dreaming, stop being silly, stop thinking grand thoughts. Even if we are allowed to keep dreaming, most of us are not taught how to explore our interests. That’s part two of the book: how to get from dream to reality.

Everyone should check out this book and since it’s free there’s no excuse not to.

Apparently you can download The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman in ebook form or stream the audiobook for free. No need to even sign up for a mailing list or give any information of any kind.

I haven’t read it yet and I don’t know if there is any kind of expiry date on the file, but it appears to be DRM-free (based on being able to open it in Preview on the Mac).

Let me know what you think if you read it.

Many years ago I wrote a rather sardonic espionage thriller, The Hungarian Game, that became a minor best-seller. Somewhere around 500,000 copies were peddled in a number of languages worldwide, and it earned some favorable reviews as well. (And a few brickbats – but let’s not touch that one, okay?)

I didn’t write a sequel because I felt I’d said all I had to say on the subject.

A few years ago, however, the political situation and the systematic corruption and dismemberment of America’s intell community in the runup to war made me realize I did have more to say on the subject. And so I returned to my trusty Underwood, adding a few more wry comments by way of a rousing adventure yarn, The Last Days of Las Vegas.

You can download a copy of The Last Days of Las Vegas by Roy Hayes either from the author’s site or from Scribd.

[This giveaway is now closed.]

So I was hanging out on Twitter when I saw an author asking bloggers if they wanted to read his new book. That happens quite a bit. But this time it was Michael Palmer. As in New York Times bestselling author Michael Palmer. As in one of the triad of authors who got me interested in science and medicine Michael Palmer (the others were Robin Cook and Michael Crichton).

Except he wasn’t asking me.

So I very politely and demurely said “ME PLEASE! GIMME PLEASE!” Or words to that effect (sometimes it’s hard to remember what I said out loud as opposed to what I was thinking).

A week or so later I got The Last Surgeon in the mail along with a note offering an autographed copy of the The Last Surgeon to Booklorn readers. Which brings me to today’s post: Giveaway!

Not only is Michael Palmer autographing the book, but he’s happy to ship it to a winner ANYWHERE in the world.

In case you’re unfamiliar with his books, Michael Palmer writes medical thrillers. I’ve read my copy and it’s a good read (in keeping with his other books). I haven’t had time to write up my review, but I hope to do that by next week so you’ll see it before the giveaway closes.

I’ve been reading Michael Palmer since I was a teen (or maybe even a tween — like most book-loving kids I was reading grown up books ahead of my peers). I’ve probably read every book that he’s written AND he’s the only one of the triad that I continued to read beyond the ’90s. If you like medical thrillers, you’ll want to enter this giveaway.

Here are the details:

• Random draw.
• Open worldwide.
• Fill out the form below to enter.
• Give me an e-mail address that you check because that’s how I’ll contact you if you win.
• Giveaway closes on February 15th at 1 am MST.

The other day I was reading the update notice for one of my iPod touch apps. Buried in the fine print was the mention of a new web site launching today, January 18th. The web site is by the same people who brought you the Appvent Calendar in December.

Every day, a different iPhone/iPod Touch application will be free for 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether they will branch out from the games-only theme of December, but if you have the hardware it’s worth checking out FreeAppADay.com.

One thing that I’ve been seeing on Twitter is people announcing that they are on Google Wave and then following up that announcement with “Um, now what? How do I use this thing? What does it do?”

Apparently, Google Wave is so revolutionary that quite a few of you have no idea what to do with it. Never fear, I found you a free ebook that explains what Google Wave is: The Complete Guide to Google Wave.

It’s free to look at online or you can download it for a small fee (fair enough since you can look at the whole book ahead of time). It’s written by one of the founding editors of Lifehacker, Gina Trapani, in collaboration with Lifehacker editor Adam Pash so I expect it’s useful–though I won’t read it until I actually get to play with Google Wave too.

Update: Apparently I haven’t been paying attention and Google Wave is available outside the U.S. Oops.

Today’s advent goody is free ebooks from Feedbooks (link courtesy @mikecane) and, if you don’t find anything there, Random House has some new books up on its Scribd account.

See you tomorrow.

In any case, here are your six free ebook leads for the week. I haven’t kept up on Random House’s free ebook releases so there are a few (I expect many of you are keeping an eye on this publisher’s Scribd channel yourselves):

The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry (PDF download) is also available as a free (for a limited time) Kindle edition:

The Templar Legacy has pretty mixed reviews on Amazon.com (click the cover image to see for yourself). It’s a Da Vinci Code sort of story. No cost to download and check it out for yourself though.

According to the Amazon.com description A Kiss of Shadows is “a supernatural fantasy with detective adventure and hot sex.” Sounds like a good escape to me especially since I’m not waiting for the last of Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series to come out.

Another book with mixed reviews according to the-online-bookseller-I-dare-not-mention (click cover to see reviews). This appears to be a YA science fiction adventure. If you are familiar with this author, the consensus seems to be that this book isn’t up to the same quality compared to her other books. On the other hand, it’s free for you to see for yourself.

A collection of short stories and poetry covering a number of genres including fantasy, humour, science fiction, and love stories (so I hear, I haven’t actually read this one either although people seem to be pretty happy with it over on, er, that site.

A science fiction novel of the military kind. A group of marines are stranded in an alien desert and have to get to safety 85 miles away across uncharted territory bristling with unfriendly locals (Wouldn’t they be using metric in the future, or will the U.S. always hold out on that? Sorry, it’s late as I write this and my mind is wandering.).

A fantasy novel complete with elves, goblins, centaurs, and giants (oh my!). I think this one is YA, but don’t quote me on that.