Free Books

by Melinda Carroll
A few weeks ago my husband and I went on a business/pleasure trip to Palm Springs.  My husband is a huge bargain shopper, so naturally he checked Craiglist once we got there to see if there was anything worth looking at (yes, he really did this-- did I mention he's in sales?  The adage that salesman are the easiest to get sold is sooo true.  But that's a different post).  He found a furniture store that was advertising free books.   Yay for me!!
We drove down to check it out.  Sadly, most of the books were not really the kind we read, but we did find a few gems.  We walked out with two leather bound sets of books-- neither collection was complete, but they still look great on our family room bookshelves.  We looked up one of the collections and, even incomplete, it was worth over $100.
For good measure, I grabbed a romance book to have something to read while on vacation.  I tried to pick something that looked tame-- I figured it was free, so if it was awful I could always get rid of it.
But I discovered that I really liked it.  It was a Regency-era book that was not too graphic and was really well written.  After I got home, I went to the bookstore and bought the other three books in the series.
So why am I telling you this story?  First, because you guys are the best audience for a fun story about free books.  Second, I've learned that you never know where you'll find inspiration.