I absolutely love reading! I am a real bookworm. There is nothing better than curling up with a great book. Books can get pretty expensive so I am constantly searching for the best ways to get free books online.
I have a Kindle which I love. While there is something about reading physical books, a Kindle or an e-reader has so many perks that makes it such a great thing to own.
Imagine it’s late at night and you want to read a book but you never made it to the library. With a kindle, you can get all the books you want on the spot! No having to leave your house during business hours. No having to wait for a delivery from a bookstore.
It is also extremely light to if anyone has issues holding heavy books this is a huge bonus. Kindles are also great if you don’t have a lot of space- instead of having to have stacks of books cluttering your home you can have them all conveniently located in one small device. This is also great if you travel. No need to commit yourself to one or two books- you can take your whole bookshelf with you! You don’t need to have an e-reader to be able to read online. You can use various devices including any web browser, various apps, like the Kindle app, and other e-reader devices.
Now that I’ve sold you on the perks of reading books digitally here are some of the best places to get free books online.
3 Places that Have Free Books Online
- Overdrive. Many public library systems use overdrive for their e-book collections. Yes, libraries have extensive online book options. You can easily download free books from your library system. I like to use the Libby app to use Overdrive from my phone. This works the same as a physical library. You can check out books, place books on hold, and even recommend books for the library to purchase. The best part? No late fees. Since books are automatically returned on their return date there is no chance of you forgetting to return them and having to pay fees. So this is really free. Absolutely no money has to leave your hands to use Overdrive. All you need is a regular library card and you are set!
- Project Gutenberg is a digital library that uploads free public domain ebooks to make them available to the public. It’s a great resource for free ebooks but it can be hard to find books you might be interested in reading if you don’t know what you are looking for. Here is how to get the books from Project Gutenberg to your kindle and here is a list of 2780+ Project Gutenberg books you can download- divided by category.
- Amazon Free ebooks. Yes. Amazon has kindle ebooks for free! Simply search for ebooks and sort from price low to high. Make sure to only pick books that have $0.00 as the Kindle price. This is more of a hit and miss as it depends on which books Amazon decides to put on sale at any given point.
2 Ways to Get Creative to Get Free Books Online
- Amazon credit for prime members- this one is specifically for prime members. Before you order that item check if Amazon is offering you a free digital credit for having your order delayed. If you do not need your order within the 2-day time frame then it’s worth it to get the credit. Sometimes your package will still arrive before the later shipping date. These credits can be used to purchase eBooks from Amazon’s Kindle collection. Be warned: these credits expire so you want to use them before they do or message amazon to see if they will extend them for you (YMMV)
- Sign up for author emails. Authors want you to read their books so they will often host giveaways or let you know of deals for their books. Google an author that you particularly like and sign up for their emails and maybe you can enter to win a free book.
15 sites that have free books online in various formats
Freebooks.net – is a website that allows you to download 5 free e-books a month. This is an easy way to download and read free e-books.
E-books.com – eBooks.com has 400 popular classics available free of charge. Once you add them to your bookshelf- they are yours. No need to return!
Manybooks.net – Has many free e-books available for download in various formats. Not all books are free but they do have a lot of free options to look through.
Freecomputerbooks.com – This site is the place to go if you are looking for computer, math, or technical books. They don’t actually have the books but they redirect you to places that do have them. It is a good place to go if you are looking for a specific book and you don’t want to spend money on it.
Book Lending – This is only good for Kindle books. This virtual swap website allows you to lend and borrow books from other members. You can only borrow each book once (and lend each book once) so choose wisely and go quickly if you see something you want. This is only available for Kindle users and you will need an Amazon account to make it work.
DigiLibraries – is a list of different free eBooks from publishers and authors. Just browse through and get the books you want (up to 50 books a day).
The Reader Cafe – is one of the many sites that lists which eBook Amazon currently has for free but they do have other eBooks from other places as well so it gets its own mention.
OpenLibrary – Lots of adult and kids books available to borrow!
Internet Archive – Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. You can borrow books for up to two weeks.
BookBoon – is a free library of educational books. They have thousands to free textbooks and business books (although some are only available if you sign up for a paid subscription).
Open Culture – has a list of 800 free eBooks that are available for download on Kindle, iPad/iPhone, computer, smartphone, or e-reader.
Online Books – has millions of free books. This very bare-bone site boasts that it has over 2 million books available for download.
Feed Books – is an e-book store that also has books that get marked down to $0.00! It takes a bit of searching but you can some awesome eBooks for free!
Alive & Free– is another site with loads of free books online but they only have books by living authors hence the name “Alive & Free”.
Planet E-book-is the home to free classic literature. They take a small selection of classical novels that have expired
copyrights and redo them to make them easier and better to read.
4 Free Trials to get free books online
These programs are all subscription-based but all these programs have free trials of varying lengths. If you cancel in time, then you will get books for free. Only do this if you can remember to cancel in time (set a notification on your phone) or if can afford the monthly fee:
Kindle Unlimited- is a subscription service run by Amazon that gives you access to thousands of books to read free on your Amazon Kindle for a monthly fee. However, they do give you a free trial that you can cancel at any time.
Reading IQ- has thousands of children’s books for kids at all levels- starting from pre-readers and moving up. They also have books in Spanish. You can get 1 month free when you sign up.
EPIC – is another kid’s reading resource. This is more of a teaching resource and it allows you to track your kid’s progress and personalize your kid’s reading. They have a free 30-day trial for parents and it’s totally free for educators. This is really great if you are planning on doing at-home learning or homeschooling this year.
Scribd– has unlimited free books and audiobooks and tons of magazines when you sign up for their subscription. They have a free 30-day trial.
This list of digital books should keep you occupied for some time! Happy reading bookworms!
This article originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks and has been republished with permission.
Robyn Goldfarb
Hi! I am a millennial mom with a passion for personal finance. I have always been “into” personal finance but got inspired to start my blog after a period of extended unemployment. That experience really changed the way I viewed my relationship with money and the importance of accessible personal finance education.
This is an amazing list! I had no idea there were so many sources for great books. Free too? Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this post with all of us. It’s a great go-to resource!
I agree with you about the Kindle as well. Each of your points are true. Holding a book in my hand is still my preferred method of reading. The smell of the pages, the way they sound as you turn, etc. With that said, Kindle does make reading much more convenient and accessible.
I enjoyed this read. Thank you! I hope you and your loved ones are safe, well, happy & blessed.
Some of these I have heard of, others I haven’t. I use my local library app sometimes, but I have so many books already I can go “shopping” on my bookshelves. It’s great to know there are are so many options out there though. Thank you for sharing.