When I ran my previous article about the benefits of owning an Amazon Kindle, I had responses from people arguing for and against the frugality of the gadget. Regardless of how you feel about the Kindle itself, I don’t think anybody can argue that free books are a bad thing. There’s a virtual treasure trove of resources online where you can find free e-books to download, and nearly all of them can be converted into a format that will work on your favorite portable e-book reader if you don’t like reading from your computer screen.
Here’s a list of a few good places to check:
- Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the go-to site for finding free downloads for nearly any classic book or book whose copyright has expired. You can also find a number of newer public domain works there. The site runs on donations and boasts over 25,000 free books to download, along with over 100,000 more books available through their list of partners. - Google Books
Google is another great source for classic books, old and new (though mostly old). - Baen Free Library
This is a great resource for free sci-fi and fantasy books. It came recommended from our resident bibliophile, Kelly. - ManyBooks
This one has around 20,000 free e-books, and if you do have a Kindle, you can access ManyBooks through www.mnybks.net via the Kindle browser and download books directly onto your device in .mobi format. - FictionPress
FictionPress is a large community of original works by contributing writers. A lot of it consists of Mary Sues and bad fanfic-esque stories, but I’ve actually found a few good and worthwhile pieces here. It’s worth checking out, if only to see what other people are writing and posting up.
One Comment
Now I just wish I could afford a Kindle!