Free ebooks from Borders

In the latest salvo in the digital reading wars, Borders is making a push against competitors such as Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's nook, by offering five free ebooks. Anyone who downloads a free Borders application today through Wednesday, July 14, can choose titles that include "Frankenstein: Prodigal Son," by Dean Koontz, "One Shot" by Lee Child, "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" by Julia Child and "Master your Metabolism" by Jillian Michaels.

The offer follows the launch of the Borders-branded digital store, powered by Kobo, and the release of Borders' BlackBerry, Android, iPad and iPhone ebook apps. The app is also available for desktop comuters.

"We're committed to giving our customers the best possible value in digital books, independent of the device ... " Borders CEO Mike Edwards said in a news release. "To thank our customers for their continued loyalty to the Borders brand, we want to provide them a sample of the great content available on Borders.com."

The competition among ebook retailers is good news for consumers. Just recently, we've seen Amazon drop the Kindle price from $259 to $189, and Barnes & Noble respond with its own deals. At some point, there's likely to be a shakeout, and some competitors will drop out. But for now, the deals are sweet and getting sweeter.