I manage to get through life without an ereader or iphone. If I had a lot of money I would most probably donate it to all the poor girls, standing alone and cold in the street, before I got around to buying the latest technology.
For all that I get to do a lot of reading using my old-fashioned laptop. Up to now I have downloaded in PDF format but yesterday I downloaded Adobe Digital Reader which may, or may not, let me read books in EPUB format. If not I will try another programme.
While many free books are rather old that is not a problem to me. I have just finished reading the autobiography of Lady Susan Townley, who travelled around the world at the turn of the 20th Cent, and found it fascinating. Many modern books are available, but you do have to hunt to find them.
So far I have found Google Books to be the best source for books. I just select the "Full View" option and then hunt around. It has a lot of good features, including being able to bookmark, so I think it is worth a look.
There are many sites with free books so it is best to Google something like, 'free books + epub' and start exploring.