I recently discovered BookBub, a free service that sends daily personalized emails featuring discounted and free ebooks. After a quick signup, you select the genres that interest you—legal thrillers, science fiction, biography, history, fantasy, whatever you prefer. Each morning, you get an email with curated book recommendations in your chosen categories, most priced at 99 cents to a few dollars, with some completely free.
How It Works
An editorial team picks the selections, so you’re not sorting through thousands of random titles. The books include bestsellers and lesser-known authors. When you find something interesting, you buy it directly from your preferred retailer (Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, or Google Play) and own it permanently.
BookBub offers over 40 genre categories that might appeal to legal professionals during off-hours reading—legal thrillers from authors like John Grisham and Scott Turow, true crime investigations, courtroom dramas, political fiction, and biography. The New York Times has described it as offering “bargain-basement deals on ebooks.”
Solving the Library Wait Time Problem
I’ve been using BookBub for a few weeks and have already downloaded a bunch books. It solves a problem I sometimes face with library ebooks—long hold times for popular titles.
Like many readers, I rely heavily on my public library for ebooks. Wisconsin residents can access thousands of ebooks and audiobooks for free through Wisconsin’s Digital Library using the Libby app, a free mobile app that lets you borrow digital books with your library card. Libby offers tremendous value and selection at no cost, and I use it regularly. But hold times can stretch to weeks or months for popular books. That’s where BookBub comes in—it provides an affordable alternative when you want to find something to read now while waiting for the popular titles from the library.
Note: This post was developed by the author with organizational and drafting assistance from Claude AI. All content was reviewed and refined for accuracy.