Free books can be found everywhere--if you know where to look. Below you'll find 50 places offering free books online, including fiction and nonfiction ebooks, audio books, poetry, reference books and even free textbooks.
Free Fiction and Nonfiction Books
Authorama - You can find more than 100 free books from a variety of different authors on Authorama. New books are added to the site each month, and they've all been translated into plain ASCII or HTML so that no e-reader is required.
Book Stacks - Book Stacks hosts tons of ebooks that you can download and read as PDFs.
Bored.com - More than 10,000 free books are available at Bored.com. Book categories include but are not limited to: American literature, British literature, world literature, children's literature, cookbooks, travel books and history books.
Chest of Books - Visit this site to access hundreds of free nonfiction books. A wide range of topics are available.
Classic Authors - This site, also known as Great Literature Online, offers dozens of free, HTML-formatted classic books.
Free Classic Books - This library offers readers free online access to a selection of literary classics.
Classic Bookshelf - Classic Bookshelf uses a Java applet to allow users to fully customize the ebooks they're reading, which makes this a nice place to read classic books online.
Classic Reader - Classic Reader provides more than 3,000 classic books, plays and short stories. Users can read books, print books and add their own annotations.
Daily Lit - You can read free books via email or RSS on Daily Lit. Offerings include classic books and contemporary works and it can all be delivered to your personal computer or mobile device.
Ebook Lobby - Ebook Lobby is flush with free nonfiction books. Categories include art, business, computing and education.
Fiction.us - This site is a great place to find full-length novels, plays, short stories, poetry, picture books and other free digital books.
Fictionwise - Although this site is primarily focused on selling ebooks, readers can download an impressive selection of free fiction and nonfiction 'sample' books.
FullBooks.com - This site offers thousands of free, unabridged books. Both fiction and nonfiction are available.
GetFreeBooks.com - This free ebook site has thousands of books on every topic imaginable. GetFreeBooks.com is a great place to find modern works by lesser-known authors.
Internet Archive - The Internet Archive, also known as Archive.org, is one of the web's largest sources for free media. It offers over 2.5 million free ebooks and electronic texts.
ManyBooks.net - 20,000+ free books are available through ManyBooks.net. Most books are designed to be enjoyed on an iPod, PDA or ebook reader.
Microsoft Reader - Get the free Microsoft e-reading device for access to more than 1,500 free books via direct download. Offerings include fiction, nonfiction and reference material.
Page By Page - Lovers of the classics will find hundreds of books to read on Page By Page. The site includes works by renowned authors like Dickens, Doyle, London and Poe.
Project Gutenberg - With more than 25,000 titles, Project Gutenberg is widely be considered the ultimate source for free books online. The site has tens of thousands of volunteers, which means that new books are constantly being added to Gutenberg's online catalog.
Public Bookshelf - This online library allows users to read romance novels and stories for free. Public Bookshelf offers both classics and modern works, all in the romance genre.
Public Literature - This site offers a fantastic collection of free books, plays and poetry. Modern and classic works are both available.
Questia - With more than 5,000 free books, including classics and rare works, Questia's online library is a must see for any reader.
The Literature Network - Designed for students, teachers and enthusiastic readers, this free literature library offers over 1,900 books, 3,000 short stories and hundreds of poems. Users can also access free author biographies and quizzes.
UPenn's Online Books Page - You can find more than 30,000 free books on the University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page. Search books by author or title.
Free Education Books and Textbooks
Free Tech Books - This site offers a wide range of free computer science and programming textbooks, lecture notes and ebooks.
Open Book Project - This site, which is dedicated to the free and open dissemination of knowledge, is a great place to find free textbooks and other educational materials.
Textbook\Media - A wonderful selection of textbooks and educational materials are available for free download at Textbook Media. Students can get free access to these materials by choosing 'sponsored' books, which include brief 'study break' ads.
Textbook Revolt - Students fight back against the high cost of textbooks on this site by offering up their used books for free or renting them for a low cost.
Textbook Revolution - Textbook Revolution is one of the best sites on the web to find free textbooks and other educational materials.
Free Reference Books
Bartleby - Reference books on every topic imaginable, including literature, government, anatomy, mythology and religion.
Biblomania Reference - The Biblomania Reference Section contains a decent collection of dictionaries, thesauruses, books of quotations and other free reference materials.
Encyclopedia.com - Free access to information from the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Oxford University Press and the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Internet Public Library - This site provides an impressive collection of almanacs, dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Ref Desk - The Ref Desk is a fantastic place to find all sorts of free reference materials, including information on recent news and current events. One section of the site that is definitely worth checking out is the Encyclopedia Collection
Free Audio Books
Books Should Be Free - This site is a great place to find free fiction and nonfiction. Users can download plain text files and MP3 audio books files.
Free Classic Audio Books - A wonderful collection of free classics. All audio books are available in MP3 and in M4b formats for iTunes and iPods.
Gutenberg Audio - The Gutenberg Audio Book Project has a wonderful collection of audio books read by both humans and computer generated voices.
Internet Archive Audio - In addition to millions of free electronic texts, the Internet Archive offers over 6,000 audio books and poetry recordings for download.
Kiddie Records Weekly - Hundreds of free recordings of classic children's albums. Kiddie Records features golden age characters like Bugs Bunny, Howdy Doody and Walt Disney's Robin Hood.
Kids Audio Books - 200+ free audio books for kids in MP3 format. Most books are from the 40s and 50s.
Learn Out Loud - Learn Out Load is the Internet's largest directory of free audio learning resources. The site also offers educational videos and podcasts.
Librivox - There are nearly 2,000 free audio books available on this site. Librivox is attempting to make an audio recording of all of the books in the public domain, so new books are constantly being added.
Lit 2 Go - A nice collection of free stories and poems from the Florida Educational Technology Clearinghouse. Users can download MP3 files or play MP3 files on their computer and read along as they listen.
Literal Systems - A modest selection of free classics in audio format.
Naropa Poetics Audio Archives - The Naropa University Archive Project features more than 5,000 hours of poetry recordings.
Podio Books - Free serialized audio books that can be delivered to you on a schedule that you set up. More than 200 modern titles are currently available.
Poet Scoop - Poet Scoop offers hundreds of free MP3 recordings from spoken word artists. The site also includes videos of poets reading their work.
Simply Audio Books - This site offers free classic audio books. A new download is available every month.
Spoken Alexandria Project - This Creative Commons library provides free AAC, Ogg Vorbis and MP3 audio books. Classics and modern works are both available.
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