The Download
- You can find and download free books from sites like Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks.
- Many of these sites offer books in different formats, such as PDF, EPUB, and audiobooks.
- Some sites need you to create a free account to download books.
Free books on almost any topic imaginable are available on the internet, ready to be downloaded, read, and shared. These are our top sites for free book downloads across a range of subjects.
Starting in 2019, a large number of books previously unavailable to the public became accessible, thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Due to an amendment to that act, works published between 1923 and 1977 enter the public domain 95 years after their publication. Many of the sites listed below provide access to tens of thousands of books (as well as movies, songs, and cartoons) under this act. These downloads are free and permissible without legal issues under U.S. copyright law.
What We Like
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More than just classics and Creative Commons books.
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Great categorization makes searching easier.
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Variety of download formats.
ManyBooks is one of the best online resources for free books in various download formats. Hundreds of titles are available in diverse and interesting genres, all completely free.
Not all books here are classics, so if you enjoy other genres, this site offers a good alternative to others on this list.
Unlike some sites, ManyBooks allows you to browse free books by language. You can also search by author and genre. The ManyBooks Articles page is another useful way to explore their collection, featuring articles such as “Books Like A Match Made in Venice” and reviews.
To download books, you need a free user account unless there’s a link to Amazon, where you can access it with your Amazon account. Several download options are often available, such as EPUB, PDF, AZW3, and FB2. Additionally, books can be read online via the site’s built-in book reader.
Open Library is a search tool that draws information from the Internet Archive. It can be useful if you find the original site (mentioned below) unhelpful in locating a specific book.
You can search through hundreds of thousands of books, most available in multiple formats like PDF, ePub, and Daisy.
The Library Explorer section is especially enjoyable as it resembles browsing through real bookshelves.
You can specifically search for e-books by selecting the E-book option after conducting a search.
If you’re seeking a great place to find free audiobooks, Librivox is a good starting point. The site features many volunteers who contribute quality recordings of classic books.
All titles here are free, which is great news for those tired of paying high fees for substandard audiobooks.
Using the New Releases RSS feed with a feed reader service helps stay updated on new additions.
If you enjoy reading eBooks through Google Books, there is a full page dedicated to free titles.
Google lists dozens of free books available on Google Play via the link below. Categories include history, religion, fantasy, and health, mind & body.
Books “downloaded” from this site appear in your Google Play Books account, where you can read them online, via the mobile app, or offline if exported to a file.
Wikibooks is an open collection primarily of textbooks, covering subjects from computers and engineering to science, humanities, languages, and more. Each book includes a contents list and other details to provide an overview.
The Featured Books page is a helpful starting point if you’re uncertain about what to browse.
Project Gutenberg is one of the largest and oldest sources for free books online, offering over 75,000 downloadable titles in various formats and millions of downloads per month. While most books are in English, some are available in other languages.
If you know what you’re looking for, search the database by author, title, language, or subject. You can also explore the top 100 list to see popular downloads.
Authorama provides a selection of current and classic books from various authors, organized alphabetically by the author’s last name and formatted in HTML and XHTML for easy reading. Most books are in English, but there are several in German as well.
This site offers a high-quality selection of free books to read in your browser. Being in the public domain, they are freely accessible and distributable, so there are no legal concerns.
The website is simple to use, though somewhat basic. The search box is straightforward, and the only alternative is to scroll through the author list. However, you don’t need a user account to read these titles online, and they are all well-formatted.
Every computer subject and programming language imaginable is represented at Free Computer Books, offering free textbooks, comprehensive lecture notes, and more.
Genres include computer and programming languages, computer science, data science, computer engineering, Java, and networking and communications. Numerous subgenres are also available, making it easy to find the books you’re looking for.
Sacred Texts presents the largest online collection of free books about religion, mythology, folklore, and esoteric subjects.
View all books by title or author, or browse by category. You can also search by book title, author, or subject.
Every book is accessible online from their website. You can save each page for offline viewing, but it won’t be in a formatted version.
What We Like
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Books across a wide variety of interests.
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You can sort by view count or popularity.
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Several downloading options.
Internet Archive offers a digital library filled with fiction, popular books, children’s literature, historical texts, and academic materials. The free books on this site cover a broad range of interests.
You can sort books by view count, title, or publication date to find the most popular ones. Another method to explore the site’s millions of books is by browsing collections like California Digital Library, Getty Research Institute, and Boston Public Library.
If you prefer not to read online, several download options are typically available, including PDF, EPUB, and Kindle.
eBooks.com offers several ways to find free books. Use the link below to access a few hundred entirely free e-books available for online reading or download as ACSM file—which are DRM-protected and work with Adobe Digital Editions (directions can be found on the download page).
Alternatively, browse their DRM-free eBooks. Some aren’t free to download, but you can save and open select titles like any EPUB file.
These books can be filtered by subject, such as computers or religion, or by various fiction and non-fiction subcategories. A format (PDF or EPUB), release date, and language filter are also available.
The Online Books Page, managed by the University of Pennsylvania, lists over 3 million free books available for download in numerous formats. The site may appear dull, but its extensive list of titles could keep you coming back.
Browse these free downloads by new listings, author, title, subject, or serial. A search tool is also available for finding books with partial author or title queries.
Free-eBooks.net offers a diverse array of free books, including fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, academic texts, classics, and more. Subcategories include advertising, parenting, humor, science, engineering, self-teaching, sci-fi classics, and poetry.
Registration for a free user account is required to use this site, but only one book per month is free, so choose wisely.
SlideShare also offers free and paid books. It serves as an online platform where users can upload digital presentations on any subject. Millions use SlideShare for research, idea sharing, and learning about new technologies.
The site supports documents and PDF files, all available for free download. You must log in to download books, but registration is free.
What We Don’t Like
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Free only for 30 days.
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Costs $11.99/month.
Everand (formerly Scribd) offers a fascinating collection of varied reading materials such as books, audiobooks, documents, sheet music, magazines, and more.
This collection is one of the largest sources of published content on the web, with millions of documents published monthly, organized by category.
However, the site is free only for 30 days. Unlike others on this list, you must pay monthly after the trial to continue using it. Membership grants you access to the entire database.
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