I am a huge fan of free books. While my first inclination is to go directly to the library, there are also tons of options online for finding new, free books for your e-reader. Now that I live an hour from everywhere, I've been getting creative with where I find my reading material. While there is no substitute for the feel of a bound book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, a digital version of said book is a close second.
Here is a comprehensive list of places to download free e-books for your e-reader.
Don't have an e-reader? Download Amazon's free
Kindle Cloud Reader and read them on your laptop. Or get
Calibre, a free piece of software that allows you to not only read but to convert file types. I use Calibre mainly because using Kindle requires you to download a Kindle version of the e-book; this is not always possible or desirable. I use Calibre because it supports multiple file types, allows you to convert files, edit metadata, sort by tags, publishers and formats.
And as an added bonus it never tries to sell you anything.
A lot of these e-book sites are quite similar, while others are drastically different. Due to the nature of people's needs in terms of literature I refrained from labeling them 1-5 because it just doesn't make sense to do so.
I also excluded any site that requires you to signup. I did run across a few great sites that looked informative, but when I tried to explore further I was asked to "sign in".
Thats irritating. The only reason a site is going to ask you to create an account is so they can track you, learn from you and then try to market to you. I find it a little disingenuous to be offering up works that belong in the public domain
(Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, been forfeited,or are inapplicable: read more about the public domain here) and then use those works to create revenue. I prefer to support open-source, truly free websites with great content. The way the internet should be! Enjoy the list!
Project Gutenberg appeared to be the most comprehensive site out there. It also seemed to be the standard that most other sites modeled themselves after.
"The first ebook was available on July 4, 1971, as eText #1 of Project Gutenberg, a visionary project launched by Michael Hart to create free electronic versions of literary works and disseminate them worldwide. In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone to have print books for a small cost. In the 21st century, Project Gutenberg would allow anyone to have a digital library at no cost. "
Search by
popular,
latest or find something completely new with the
random feature. Project Gutenberg provides files for various e-readers including Kindle and EPUB. Keep up to date on new books being added by subscribing to their
Twitter feed. Here are my Gutenberg picks:
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"The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well asarchived web pages in our collections, and provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities. "
English majors rejoice. Taking a class Thomas
Hardy? Writing a paper on
Victorian poetry? Maybe you're looking at James Joyce from a Feminist
perspective? Whatever your academic needs are, the Internet Archive has got you covered. But don't let the intellectual bent deter you from reading for pleasure, they have a lot to choose from, including a ton of children's books:
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"Existing free eBooks on the Web tend to be well beneath the quality of paper books, making them more difficult and less pleasurable to read. At Planet eBook we're trying to change this. Our goal is to publish a small selection of high-quality eBooks — each a genuine alternative for readers wanting to enjoy reading a book without having to pay for it. The books we publish are all in the public domain so there is no real need for readers to continue to pay for them."
Quality over quantity. I really like this concept. If you are looking for a book that is
guaranteed to be well written you should start with this site. The only downside I can see is that they only seem to offer them in pdf and only on your browser. Some of my pics ( two of which have new movies coming out!)
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I am less interested in this site because I do not have a cell phone. But seeing as how 99% of the modern world does, I thought I would include it for people who like to read on their phone. If you have a nice phone, there really is no need to buy a separate e-reader as most of the features are exactly the same. I suggest starting with the
FAQ to see if actually getting the books onto your phone is worth the trouble. After that, check out this
top ten list and give it a go!
Honorable Mention
Amazon's free content is a little harder to find. I've tried going to the Kindle store and sorting by "low to high" but the sheer magnitude of e-books makes this impractical. There are also a ton of self published, low quality books on Amazon for free and no way to weed them out of the search function. The best way to get to the good, free content is to check out a list made by a user. Users make
free Kindle content lists by using Listmania. Since Amazon's free content is changing all the time, its best to rely on one of these list makers that updates frequently. I found a plethora of lists simply by going to the Listmania section of Amazon and typing in "Free Kindle" into the search bar. Really one of the only advantages to using Amazon for free e-book is if you are downloading them onto your Kindle or free Kindle app. If you are using a different e-reader that is incompatible with Kindle files, you may want to skip this one.
Quality lists made by Listmania users:
Best Free Books On Kindle (focus on classics)
Free Kindle Science Fiction and Fantasy
Forty Free Treasures of Philosophy
Where do you get your e-books from? Let me know in the comments!
