How to Find Free eBooks
Get public domain books from Project Gutenberg., Use Free Book Search to expand your collection., Check the Internet Text Archive., Check out books from your library.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Get public domain books from Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg is a non-profit organization that provides free downloads of books whose copyrights have expired.
It is the first and oldest eBook repository on the Internet, and contains thousands of classic books in nearly every genre.
Simply visit the website and use the search bar in the upper left to browse by title or author.
Project Gutenberg provides eBooks in many different formats, ranging from HTML and plain text to EPUB and Kindle reader formats.
All available versions of the book you choose are clearly displayed on its page.
You can also browse through the site library, or browse books by category.
The links for these options are below the search bar.
Chances are, if you've heard of a book published before the 1920s, it's available for free at Project Gutenberg.
Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and Franz Kafka are among the authors richly represented there. -
Step 2: Use Free Book Search to expand your collection.
http://www.freebooksearch.net is a powerful search engine that collects results from Project Gutenberg and hundreds of other sites.
If you can't find what you're looking for at Project Gutenberg, Free Book Search is your next best bet.
Search results include the type of download file that's available, if Free Book Search can tell.
Not every book is available in every format, but results tend towards widely used formats like PDF and HTML.
This is an excellent way to find older famous books that are still under copyright for free, but search results also often include notes, summaries, or discussions of the book instead of the actual book itself.
You may need to dig to find what you want. , The text archive is a part of the larger Internet Archive, a project to collect and preserve content posted on the web.
It has over
4.5 million searchable texts, including many books, old census reports, and other published documents.
The archive is easy to search, but tends towards obscure texts over popular ones.
Nevertheless, it's a fascinating source of research material and surprisingly absorbing books you never knew existed. , More and more libraries are offering eBooks to check out, just like physical copies.
This has some disadvantages – most notably, the fact that the library's license only allows a few people to have the book “checked out” at any given time – but it's the best (legal) way to read new eBooks for free.
You can usually sign up for the service at your library's website, assuming you've got an account with the library.
Once you're in, you can browse the library's selection and download or reserve books directly from the Internet.
Since eBook borrowing is designed to match physical borrowing as closely as possible, you can only have the book for a few weeks before you need to renew or return it.
The book will be unusable after the due date otherwise.
The waiting list for a very popular book (such as the latest Game of Thrones title) can be ludicrously long.
Fortunately, most libraries will clearly display how many people are ahead of you on the list. -
Step 3: Check the Internet Text Archive.
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Step 4: Check out books from your library.
Detailed Guide
Project Gutenberg is a non-profit organization that provides free downloads of books whose copyrights have expired.
It is the first and oldest eBook repository on the Internet, and contains thousands of classic books in nearly every genre.
Simply visit the website and use the search bar in the upper left to browse by title or author.
Project Gutenberg provides eBooks in many different formats, ranging from HTML and plain text to EPUB and Kindle reader formats.
All available versions of the book you choose are clearly displayed on its page.
You can also browse through the site library, or browse books by category.
The links for these options are below the search bar.
Chances are, if you've heard of a book published before the 1920s, it's available for free at Project Gutenberg.
Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and Franz Kafka are among the authors richly represented there.
http://www.freebooksearch.net is a powerful search engine that collects results from Project Gutenberg and hundreds of other sites.
If you can't find what you're looking for at Project Gutenberg, Free Book Search is your next best bet.
Search results include the type of download file that's available, if Free Book Search can tell.
Not every book is available in every format, but results tend towards widely used formats like PDF and HTML.
This is an excellent way to find older famous books that are still under copyright for free, but search results also often include notes, summaries, or discussions of the book instead of the actual book itself.
You may need to dig to find what you want. , The text archive is a part of the larger Internet Archive, a project to collect and preserve content posted on the web.
It has over
4.5 million searchable texts, including many books, old census reports, and other published documents.
The archive is easy to search, but tends towards obscure texts over popular ones.
Nevertheless, it's a fascinating source of research material and surprisingly absorbing books you never knew existed. , More and more libraries are offering eBooks to check out, just like physical copies.
This has some disadvantages – most notably, the fact that the library's license only allows a few people to have the book “checked out” at any given time – but it's the best (legal) way to read new eBooks for free.
You can usually sign up for the service at your library's website, assuming you've got an account with the library.
Once you're in, you can browse the library's selection and download or reserve books directly from the Internet.
Since eBook borrowing is designed to match physical borrowing as closely as possible, you can only have the book for a few weeks before you need to renew or return it.
The book will be unusable after the due date otherwise.
The waiting list for a very popular book (such as the latest Game of Thrones title) can be ludicrously long.
Fortunately, most libraries will clearly display how many people are ahead of you on the list.
About the Author
Logan Phillips
Logan Phillips is an experienced writer with over 4 years of expertise in engineering and technical solutions. Passionate about sharing practical knowledge, Logan creates easy-to-follow guides that help readers achieve their goals.
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