50 Places for Free Books Online

Update 2:  There now are over 100 sites (129) listed and I have added Search by Genre options.

Update 1: Since this article has proven popular, I decided to go looking for additional sites and found a few worth checking out. Obviously there are more than fifty sites listed now, but  I did not change the number in the title as I was uncertain how that would affect links and searches.

I recently went looking for some free Ebooks and was surprised to find that there are many resources for this.  I decided to put together this list of sites that offer free Ebooks as a reference.  Since there are so many, I was not able to check each one out thoroughly.  So comments from you on any of these sites would be appreciated.   I did verify that these all are active and working.

I have tried to make certain that all of the EBooks at these sites are legally available for viewing/downloading.  However, it is possible that I have made a mistake.  If you suspect any of these sites of illegally offering copyrighted materials, then please let me know.

Putting this together was exhausting, but the list is not exhaustive, so I encourage you to post any sites that you know of that are not listed here.

The listings may be search in the following methods:

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Alphabetical Listing

2020k Large collection, divided into categories and sub-categories for download in a variety of formats.

Alive and Free - Links to free ebooks of living authors

AllBooksFree A small, but unique, listing of free fiction ebooks, available for download, mostly in pdf.

American Mathematical Society has a pretty complete listing of books involving mathematics.

Arthur's Classic Novels - Over 4000 novels covering a great variety of topics, nicely separated into categories and "best" lists.  Some very interesting entries here.  Available for online viewing.

Ask Sam - A small collection of classics, including Shakespeare, and legal, resource and government texts.

AstrologyWeekly 10 books for online reading and about 30 for download.  All on astrology.

Authorama offers a few hundred books, searchable by author, for online viewing.

Baen Free Library - A small library of downloadable science fiction novels in a variety of formats.

BaenCD - A small collection of science fiction books from Baen's promotional CDs.  They are downloadable in a variety of formats as well as viewable online.

Baldwin Online Children's Projects 520 classic  children's books in a variety of genres for online viewing

Bartelby - Harvard classics and encyclopedias.  HTML only.

BBC (Dr. Who) for those who like Dr. Who, this is  a collection of 8 books for online reading or download in a choice of 3 formats

Berkely SunSite Classics - A small collection of classics.  HTML only.

Bibliomania - Over 2,000 classic novels, study guides, biographies and more.  HTML only.

Book-bot  14,571 books available for online viewing in their easy to view reader.  Very nice find by fellow editor Rhiannon.

Book Glutton is a collection of 1200+ books for online reading with the added  feature of  groups available for discussion of the readings.  Nice combination of reading and socializing.  Suggested by an anonymous poster.

BookRags - Small collection of free with many paid.  Hard to find the free ones.  Available in Word or PDF.

Bookstacks is a small collection (100+) of classic works available for online viewing, with many also available in Adobe PDF and Microsoft Reader versions.  Nicely set up.

BookYards - 16,000+ books, videos, educational material.

Bored.com has over 15,000 books available for online viewing.  Nicely divided into a good variety of categories.

Chessville 40+ ebooks on Chess available for download (mostly in PDF)

ChestofBooks Large collection, divided into categories, for online viewing.  Nice collection.

Children's Books Online is an excellent collection (600+) of illustrated antique children's books for viewing online.   They are also available for download at a fee.  This little gem was suggested by an anonymous poster.

Classic Authors.net contains the works of over a hundred authors (and short biography for each), with a varying number of works per author.  Online viewing only.

Classic Book Library is a small collection (100+) of classic works arranged by genre.  Online viewing only.

Classic Book Shelf Electronic Library offers the works of 50+ authors in varying amounts.  Online viewing only.

Classic Literature Library Decent size collection that has complete works of a small variety of authors and works of others and a nice children's section available for online viewing.

Classic Reader offers thousands of free classic books for online viewing.

ComputerBooks.us larger collection, subcategorized and available for download in pdf

CrankyLibrarian 3011 books by 752 authors available for online viewing.  Complete works of several authors and some interesting categories.

DailyLit - Read books online by daily email or RSS feed. Over 700 titles.

Diesel eBooks - Offers 750+ ebooks formatted for Microsoft Reader and MobiPocket

DivineLifeSociety over 200 books on Yoga, religion and philosophy available in pdf or HTML

DragonBytes Nice collection of horror novels available for online viewing.  Separate section for Vampire novels.

Earthbound The 5 book science fiction series of Earthbound available for download in lit .pdb .pdf .txt .rtf.

E-Books Directory 944 books in 344 categories available for download in varying formats.

eBooksJustPublished Interesting collection of DRM free eBooks listed daily.  Most are free.

eBooksRead Over 41,000 books available for download in pdf or text.  Search by author or title

eReader.com has a small collection of free ebooks for download, but a couple interesting entries.  Registration required.

eServer - Over 30,000 works covering a variety of interests

eText.lib The University of Virginia online library has a large collection of works available for online viewing (some are available in Microsoft Reader).  Even though a good number are limited to UVA students and staff, there is still a good amount of interesting material available to the general public.  Suggested by poster mikedutch.

Federal Citizen Information Center offers informational booklets on a great variety of subjects.  Many are free and most of the paid ones are available for a free download.  Suggested by an anonymous poster

FeedBooks - Thousand of eBooks downloadable in a variety of formats

FindingFreeeBooks Links to author sites with free eBooks and promotional giveaways.  Nice way to find eBooks that would not be listed at the larger sites.

Fiction eBooks is a interesting small collection of works of fiction (including some Beatrix Potter illustrated childrens books) as well as some books for writers and works philosphy and sociology.  Online viewing only.

FictionWise has 35 books available for free download in a great variety of formats.  Most are the usual classics avialble elsewhere, but there are a couple of unusual ones and a few reference books that might be interesting.

Franklin - Thousands of free titles available in text and HTML format

FreeBookCentre links to thousands of computer ebooks divided into many sub-categories

FreeBookSpot - 5,000 free eBooks downloadable in 96 categories available for download in a number of different formats.  Suggested by devinathann.

FreeBooksClub 1500+ books, in a wide variety of non-fiction categories, available for download.  Registration required.

FreeBooks4Doctors Over 650 works (in varying languages) dealing with medical matters.  Available in pdf download.

FreeBooksforAll A fairly large collection of non-fiction books availabe for download (mostly in pdf)

FreeComputer Books - Free computer, math, technical books and lecture notes

Free eBooks - Smaller collection divided into categories

Free eBooks Net - Free books and resources for authors.  Also magazines

FreeOnlineBooks Interesting collection on individualist feminism and libertarianism available for online viewing.

Free Online Novels Interesting collection for online viewing.  Several hundred novels separated into categories.

FreeRead a bibliography of Australian writers who died before 1955, with links to a good number of them for download or viewing.

FreeSFReader Collection of links for mostly science fiction, fantasy and horror novels and short stories, but also some other genres

FreeTechBooks - Computer science and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes.

FullBooks - Thousand of free full text books.

GetFreeEbooks - Smaller collection of all free ebooks.

Globusz - A place for new authors to post their work and for readers to check them out for free.

Google Book Search - Good selection of free ebooks available in a variety of categories.

GrtBooks - A large collection of great books and classics.

Gutenberg - Over 25,000 books for download there and over 100,000 available through their affiliates.

Heygidday Thousands of works in a great variety of categories available for download in pdf (zipped).

HorrorMasters 2100 classic horror novels available for download in pdf, plus links to horror novels at other sites.

Infomotions - 14,000 listings from full classic novels to Western philosophy.  HTML only.

InternetArchive - Over 500,000 texts available for download

Internet Sacred Text Archive very interesting and large collection of books on religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric available for online viewing.

Islaam Pure & Clear around 50 Islamic books for reading or download

Kellscraft Studio Around 250 books available for online viewing.  Kellscraft lists out of print, public domain novels, most published prior to 1923.  Searchable by title, author and topic.

Kidspace A small collection of childrens books, available for online viewing, from the Internet Public Library.

LearningIsland Nice collection of children's books available for online viewing.

Librivox Although mostly know for its excellent collection of audio books.  A poster named Les has pointed out that they also have links to online viewing sites for all of its large collection of audio books and also download links.

LilFingers Storybooks Small collection of books for very young children for reading and being read to.

Linux Online Around 25 linux, open source and programing, books for download or reading

Literature.org has a collection of classics, arranged by author,  for online viewing.

LiteratureNetwork has over 1900 full books and over 3000 short stories and poems by over 250 authors available for online reading.  Searchable by author and they have a few unusual ones.

LiteraturePost 825 works from 71 authors available for online viewing.

ManyBooks - 22,000 books available for download in a variety of formats

Master Texts is a collection of 30+ authors for online viewing.

MedLine Plus is a great, trustworthy site for general health information, including tutorials, clinical trial updates and the latest news in medicine. You can also find plenty of books, including some intended for children.

MemoWare - Free books for PDA

Mises Institute Several hundred books, mostly on economics (and from a libertarian point of view) available for download as pdf.  Some unique entries here.  Suggested by poster, Bill Starr.

MIT Internet Classics Archive - Over 400 works of clasical literature available for download.

MobileRead - Forum listing thousands of free ebooks.

MobiPocket over 10,000 works, in a variety of categories, available for download in MOBI.

Molwick Small collection of scientific and educational books available for download in pdf

Munsey's - Over 18,000 ebooks available in a variety of formats

NetLibrary - Small selection of free.  But annual membership is only $8.95 for over 500,000 works.

OnlineBooks4free large collection of links to other sites for online viewing or download.  Nicely categorized.

Online Books Page from the University of Pennsylvania  is a listing of over 30,000 free books on the web.   Mostly this references to other sites, but they do have the Gutenberg listings available for download as well as some interesting special exhibits.

OnlineComputerBooks - Good selection of free computer books.

OnlineFreeeBooks - links to various ebooks (mostly pdf) in 9 categories

Online Library of Liberty hosts over an interesting collection of over 1,100 books available for online viewing and also for download.

OnlineSapiens has a small collection for online viewing, but a few unique entries worth a look.

OxfordTextArchive - Over 2,000 classical texts downloadable as ASCII or DOC

PagebyPage a few hundred works available for online viewing.

PDFBooks - 4,700 pdf ebooks

PDFFreeBooks Small collection of children's books and two rare books on Syriac grammar and Arabic-Enclish lexicon.  Available for download in PDF or DJVU.

PerseusDigitalLibrary - A large collection of classical texts broken down to time period written.

PlaneteBook - Free classical literature

PlanetPDFeBooks - Small collection of classical works.

Project Gutenberg Australia over 1600 novels and an assortment of other works available in varying ways, including test, pdf and online viewing

PublicBookShelf around 150 books in varying categories for online viewing. 

PublicLiterature Has some unique public domain novels among its classic collection of around 100 books.  Also has a large selection of writings submitted by authors which are free and legal to download, but not to distribute.  All are available for online viewing and download in several formats.

PubMed Bookshelf is an engine which lets you search for books containing keywords of your choice and then browse them.

PubMed Central This search engine covers all the open-access articles [rather than books] available on PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's main scientific portal (where you can also find abstracts from many restricted-access articles).

Questia Online Library offers over 5,000 classic and rare works for free online viewing

Qvadis hosts over 6,000 free titles available in Palm Database (.pdb) format.

ReadBookOnline has a nice collection of classics available for online viewing.

ReadEasily - Small collection of works that has option for larger print.  HTML only.

ReadPrint - Thousands of books, poems and short stories.

ReadTheseLips short fiction, poetry and other writings especially for and about lesbians.

RealTime - Free media for IT professionals

Scholastic Small collection of children's books available for online viewing (or read to you).  Featuring Clifford the Big Red Dog.

SnipFiles - Small collection of free ebooks and software.

Starry FreeOnlineNovels small collection, but some interesting entries, available for online viewing.

TechToolBlog Links to 345 online programing books

TopMystery A good amount of each of the few mystery authors listed are available for online viewing or download

Webooks is a small (150) collection of "How To" books on unusual topics available for online viewing or download as pdf.  Suggested by an anonymous poster.

Web Literature has 6500+ works of over 350 authors available for online viewing.  A nice feature is that they try to display the full works of the listed authors

WitGuides - Small collection of free ebooks in a variety of categories.

WordIQ Nice collection of over 10,000 books available for online viewing.    There are some unusual entries here, but hard to find unless looking for specific title or author.

Wowio - Good size collection of novels and also comic books.

 

Libraries

On the advice of anonymous poster that most public library systems offer free ebooks, audiobooks, and music downloads to their customers for free, I did some checking and found that there are a large amount of offerings available through online libraries.  It appears most, if not all, require a local library card.  These are sites that have links to local library sites.

LibWeb is a good search source for local libraries online. A good selection of US and worldwide locations.

Public Libraries very good for US, looked not as thorough as LibWeb on worldwide.

Internet Public Library also has some links, but I found the above two to be superior set ups.

 

Listing by Genre

The following is a listing of sites by genre, which hopefully will ease your search. This is a work in progress and additional genres will be added in the future. If you have any suggestions for additional genres, please post in the comments section below. If you have any additional sites, or additional information on sites listed, please post in the comments section below. The genres available now are

Science Fiction/Fantasy     Children's Books     Horror/Ghosts/Gothic     Romance     History

Mystery/Detective/Thriller/Crime (fiction)   Westerns     Cooking, Food & Wine    

Health/Fitness/Medicine    Biography/Autobiography/Memoirs     Travel     Computer/Internet 

Religion & Spirituality

 

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Arthur's Classic Novels (Science Fiction) - Arthur's classics of science fiction collection (450+)

Baen Free Library - A small library of downloadable science fiction novels in a variety of formats.

BaenCD - A small collection of science fiction books from Baen's promotional CDs.  They are downloadable in a variety of formats as well as viewable online.

BBC (Dr. Who) for those who like Dr. Who, this is  a collection of 8 books for online reading or download in a choice of 3 formats

BookYards (SF Fantasy) 51 novels available in pdf download

Feedbooks (Science Fiction) - nice size collection downloadable in a variety of formats.

Fiction Press (Science Fiction)  (Fantasy) a large collection of writings by new unsigned authors

Free ebooks.net (Science Fiction) 68 books.

Free SF Online over 2,000 links to books for reading online

Globusz (Science Fiction) 10 books for online viewing or download

Google Book Search (Science Fiction) 14 books for online viewing or download as pdf

Gutenberg (Science Fiction) Large collection available for download in several formats

Gutenberg (Fantasy) Large collection available for download in several formats

ManyBooks (Science Fiction) 687 books downloadable in a variety of formats

MemoWare (Science Fiction) 659 ebooks downloadable in a number of formats

MobileRead (Science Fiction) 103 works listed in forum posts with links to html or download for mobile

Qvadis (Science Fiction) 373 books available in doc format

Munsey's (Science Fiction) 646 books viewable online or downloadable in a large selection of formats.

Wowio (Science Fiction) 78 books available for free online reading 

 

Children's Books

2020ok around 100 books for babies through 12 nicely divided into categories. (Also a teen section at site)

Archive.org (Children's Library) large collection of children's books available for online viewing (original books) and download

Baldwin Online Children's Projects 520 classic  children's books in a variety of genres for online viewing

Bored.com (Children's) has 1572 works available for online viewing in their children's section.  Searchable by author name and title.

Children's Books Online is an excellent collection (600+) of illustrated antique children's books for viewing online.   They are also available for download at a fee.  This little gem was suggested by an anonymous poster.

Classic Literature Library (Fairy Tales) Small collection, but a nice collection of the Oz and Peter Pan books along with Lewis Carroll's children's books available for online viewing

ClassicReader (Young Readers) Several hundred classic books for young readers available for online viewing

Denver Public Library (Children's) small, but interesting, collection (100+) available mostly in pdf (but some mobile readers)

Feedbooks (Young Readers) a nice collection of books (100) for the older children available in a large variety of downloads

Fiction eBooks (Children's Illustrated) 8 of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books very nicely illustrated

Google Book Search (Fairy Tales) 496 works for online viewing, from the 1850s-1920s

Gutenberg (Children's) Large collection divided into sub-categories available for download in several formats

HeyGidday (Children's) nice size collection of classic children's books for download as pdf (zipped)

International Children's Digital Library nice collection of children's books from around the world in a variety of languages and nicely categorized, available for online viewing

Kellscraft (Children's Books) nice collection (100) of childrens books from the 1890s-1920s

LearningIsland Nice collection of children's books available for online viewing.

LilFingers Storybooks Small collection of books for very young children for reading and being read to.

Magickeys small, but interesting and unusual, collection for online viewing

ManyBooks (Young Readers)  1678 books available for online viewing or download in an extremely large variety of formats

MemoWare (Children's eBooks) 678 books available for download in varying formats

Munsey's (Children Books) 1872 books available in HTML or a good variety of downloads

Qvadis (Children's) 418 works available for download in Doc format

Scholastic Small collection of children's books available for online viewing (or read to you).  Featuring Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Starfall nice little collection of works to help children learn to read

Wowio (Children's) large collection with sub-categories for different age groups for free online viewing

 

Horror/Ghosts/Gothic

2020k (Horror) 313 books available for download in a variety of formats

Arthur's Classic Novels (Horror) (Horror2)(Gothic) Nice collection of classic horror novels available for online viewing

BookYards (Horror) 72 novels available for download in pdf format

DragonBytes Nice collection of horror novels available for online viewing.  Separate section for Vampire novels.

Feedbooks (Horror)(Ghosts) (Gothic) Good collections available for download in a variety of formats

Free eBooks.net (Horror/Gothic) 48 books available in pdf or html

Gutenberg (Horror) (Gothic) Large collection sorted by Author available for download in several formats

HorrorMasters several thousand works separated nicely into categories available for download in pdf

ManyBooks (Horror)(Ghost Stories) (Gothic) 142 horror and 94 ghost novels available for download in a large variety of downloads

MemoWare (Horror) 257 classic horror novels for download in varying formats

MobileRead (Horror) 68 works listed in forum threads for download in varying formats

Munsey's (Horror) 989 books available for download in a large variety of formats

OnlineBooksPage (Horror)(Ghosts) Links to a good amount of novels available for online viewing or download.

Qvadis (Horror) interesting collection of 144 horror novels for download in doc format

Wowio (Horror) 100 classic books for online viewing

 

Romance

BookYards (Romance) 162 novels available for download in pdf

eBookNook (Romance) Around a hundred love stories available for reading online

Feedbooks (Romance) 100+ classic romance novels available for download in a variety of formats

Free eBooks.net (Romance) unique collection of 80 books

FreeOnlineBooks (Romance) around a hundred novels for online reading

FreeOnlineNovels has around a hundred romance novels (scroll down) linked to for reading online

HeyGidday (Romance) (Love) small, but unique, collection of classic romance novels in pdf (zipped)

ManyBooks (Romance) 1118 novels available for download in a large variety of formats

MemoWare (Romance) 153 books available for download in varying formats

PublicBookShelf (Romance) 30 classic love novels for online reading

Qvadis (Romance) 86 novels available in doc download

TrinityMoon a small collection of novels and short stories for online reading

 

Computer/Internet

2020k (Computers&Internet) large collection nicely sub-categorized links to downloads in varying formats

4eBooks - Thousands of free eBooks in every computer programing field with reviews and descriptions.

BookYards (Computers) small collection of sub-categorized books available for download in pdf

ChestofBooks (Computer)  4 books available for online viewing

ComputerBooks.us larger collection, subcategorized and available for download in pdf

eServer Technical Communications has 875 works in its software section and 161 in its webdesign section (although a number were no longer available) as well as some articles in its other sections.

FreeBookCentre links to thousands of ebooks divided into many sub-categories

FreeBookSpot (Computer)(Internet) nice size collection available in pdf download

FreeComputer Books - Free computer, math, technical books and lecture notes

FreeeBooks (computers&Internet) 148 books, many on programing, available for download in pdf or linked to other sites with varying options.

FreeTechBooks - Computer science and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes.

ManyBooks (Computer) 52 books available for download in a variety of formats

MemoWare (Computers) 758 writings available for download in varying formats

OnlineComputerBooks - Good selection of free computer books.

OnlineFreeeBooks (Computer,Programing,Technology) nice collection divided into sub-categories for download mostly in pdf

RealTime - Free media for IT professionals

WitGuides (internet&Computers) 84 works available in pdf download (zipped)

Wowio (Computers&Internet) Nice collection divided into sub-categories available for free online reading

 

Mystery/Detective/Thriller/Crime (fiction)

2020k (Detective) (Mystery/Thriller) Large collection (2,000) available for download in a variety of formats

Arthur's Classic Novels (Mystery)(Detective 1)(Detective 2) These three links provide a nice collection of classic mystery and detective stories for online viewing.

BookYards (Mystery) 109 classic novels available for download in pdf

FeedBooks (Crime/Mystery)(Thriller) (Detective) has about 165 classic works between these two sections available for doanload in a variety of formats.

Free eBooks.net (Mystery) has an interesting collection of 132 mystery novels available for download.

FreeOnlineNovels has about 25 novels (scroll down) available for online viewing

Globusz (Mystery) has 10 books available for online viewing or download.

GoogleBookSearch (Mystery) has 48 classic mystery novels available for online viewing or download as pdf.

Gutenberg (Mystery)(Detective)(Crime Fiction) between these three sections, Gutenberg has a large collection available for download in several formats.

ManyBooks (Mystery/Detective) has an interesting collection of 588 books available for download in a variety of formats.

MobileRead (Mystery) has about 200 works linked to download for mobile or HTML in its forums (there are some others mixed in for some reason)

Munsey's (Mystery) has 736 mystery novels available in a variety of formats

OnlineBooksPage (Mystery/Detective) Small amount of links to mystery and detective novel downloads. 

Project Gutenberg Australia has a large collection of novels by Australian authors, some available for online viewing and some for download.

PublicBookShelf (Mystery/Suspense) 14 novels available for online viewing

Qvadis (Mystery) 115 unique novels available in Palm Database (.pdb) format.

TopMystery A good amount of each of the limited authors listed are available for online viewing or download

Wowio (Mystery) has a good size collection of mystery novels available for free online viewing

 

Westerns

2020k (Westerns) around 100 books available for download in a variety of formats

Arthur's Classic Novels (Western) (Western2) Good collection of over 600 books available for online viewing.

FeedBooks (Westerns) Interesting collection of over 100 books downloadable in a variety of formats

Gutenberg (Westerns) Nice collection available for download in several formats.

ManyBooks (Westerns) 396 books available for download in a variety of formats.

MemoWare (Westerns) 104 books available for download in varying formats.

MobileRead (Western) 69 books listed in forum available for online viewing or download.

Munsey's (Westerns) 146 novels available for download in a large variety of downloads.

Online Books Page (Westerns) Small collection of links for online viewing.

xooqi Small, but unique, collection.  Available for online viewing.

 

Cooking, Food & Wine

2020k (CFW)  Large collection, nicely divided into sub-categories, available for download in a variety of formats.

Bored.com (Cooking)  has 70 cookbooks available for online viewing.  Searchable by title.  Some interesting entries.

Bookyards (CFW)   23 interesting cookbooks available in pdf download

ChestofBooks (Cooking)  Around 100 books available for online viewng

FreeBookSpot (Cooking) Around 30 cookbooks available in pdf download

Freeebooks.info (CFW) 18 books available for download in varying formats

FreeQuickRecipes 3 cookbooks available for download in pdf and a large amount of recipes for online viewing as well as other information on kitchen and diet

GetFreeBooks (Cooking) 6 cookbooks available in pdf download

Globusz (cooking) 3 cookbooks available for online viewing or download

Gutenberg (Cookery) Large collection of cookbooks and other informative food books available for download in several formats.

HealthRecipes 8 cookbooks available for download in pdf

Heygidday (Recipes) Large collection of cookbooks available for download in pdf

ManyBooks (Cooking) 108 cookbooks available for download in a variety of formats

MemoWare (Food and Nutrition) 266 works, including cookbooks and nutritional information available for download in varying formats

Witguides (Cooking&Recipes) 26 cookbooks available for download in pdf (zipped)

Wowio (CFW) 18 books available for online viewing

 

Religion & Spirituality

2020k (Religion&Spirituality) Large collection, divided into categories and sub-categories for download in a variety of formats.

Arthur's Classic Novels (Bible)(Christian Writings)(Jewish History) (Prophets) (Koran)  (Islam)  (Islam History) Good collection, different versions of the Christian bible as well as books regarding the bible and various christian and Jewish writings available for online viewing,  Also sections on Islam and the Koran.

BookYards (Religion&Spirituality) Around 700 books available for download in pdf

Bored.com (Religion) has 1013 books from atheism to zoroastrian, most are on Christianity available for online viewing.  Seperated into categories and sub-categories.

ChestofBooks (Religion) 5 books available for online viewing

DivineLifeSociety Several hundred books and a large number of writings on Yoga, relgion and philosophy available for online viewing or pdf download.

eBook.com (Sacred texts&Religion) a great deal of links to books and works on world religions, past and present.

FreeBookSpot (Christianity)(Hinduism)(Islam)(Religion) Between these four categories there are about 75 books available for pdf download

FreeeBooks.net (Religious) 70 books available for download in varying formats

FreeOnlineChristianBooks several hundred books available for online viewing

Globusz (Religion) 7 books available for download or online viewing

GoogleBookSearch (Religion) 684 books available for online viewing

Gutenberg (Religion) Large collection in categories and sub-categories available for download in a variety of fromats

Heygidday (Religion) 10 books available for download in pdf (zipped)

Internet Sacred Text Archive very interesting and large collection of books on religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric available for online viewing.

Islaam Pure & Clear around 50 Islamic books for reading or download

ManyBooks (Religion) 1200 books available for download in a variety of formats

MemoWare (Religion) 1992 works available for download in varying formats

Munsey's (Religion) 824 novels available for download in a large variety of formats

OnlineBooks4Free (Religion) over a thousand books available for online viewing or download

OnlineBooksPage (Religion) Links to a large number of works some for online viewing and others in varying download formats

Online Library of Liberty (Religion) Over 200 classical novels on religion available for online viewing or download in pdf or ebookk pdf.

Qvadis (Religion) 973 works available for download in doc format

Religion-Online over 6,000 works on religion and society available for online viewing

Wowio (Religion&Spirituality) 108 books available for online viewing

 

Health/Fitness/Medicine

Search engines provided by the the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) are placed at the top of this list (rather than alphabetically).  Note that MedLine Plus is a portal designed to give the general public ready access to trustworthy health information. 

MedLine Plus is a great, trustworthy site for general health information, including tutorials, clinical trial updates and the latest news in medicine. You can also find plenty of books, including some  intended for children.

PubMed Central This search engine covers all the open-access articles [rather than books] available on PubMed, the NLM's main academic portal (where you can also find abstracts from many restricted-access articles).

PubMed Bookshelf is an engine which lets you search for (and then consult) books containing keywords of your choice.

2020k (Health Mind & Body) Large collection of links divided into categories and sub categories

BookYards (Health)  Around 50 books on medicine and personal health available for download in pdf.

ChestofBooks (Health & Healing) Around 100 books available for online viewing.

FreeeBooks.info (Health Mind&Body) Links to 35 books on varying health and self-help topics some available for online viewing and some for pdf download

FreeeBooks.net (Health)  (Fitness) (Psychology) 140 books on health and self-help topics available in pdf or html

FreeBookSpot (Medicine)(Health&Care)(Self-Help)(Psychology) Between these four categories there are several hundred interesting books available for download in pdf

GoogleBookSearch (Health) 146 books available for online viewing or download as pdf

Heygidday (Health)(Psychology) Interesting and relatively large collection of health, fitness, health science and psychology available for download in pdf (zipped)

ManyBooks (Health)(Psychology) Around 250 books on unique topics in the health and psychology fields available for download in several formats

MemoWare (Medicine) 572 writings regarding medicine and health available in varying formats

OnlineBooks4Free (Medicine) Over 200 writings, mostly studies, but some books available for online viewing or download

OnlineFreeeBooks (Recreation) 4 martial arts books

Qvadis (Medicine) 154 works available for download in doc

WitGuides (Health) 87 books on fitness, parenting and relationships

Wowio (Health Mind & Body) 112, mostly self help books available for online viewing

 

Biographies/Autobiographies/Memoirs

2020k (biographies & Memoirs) Large collection of links to books divided into categories and sub-categories

Bibliomania (Biographies) 8 biographies and autobiographies available for online viewing

BookYards (Biography/Memoirs) Over 700 works available for download in pdf

FeedBooks (Biography) 20 books available for download in a variety of formats

FreeeBooks (Biography & Memoirs) 76 books available, some for online viewing some for pdf download

FreeeBooks.net (Biography) 49 books available for download in pdf

Globusz (Biographies) 14 books available for online viewing or download

GoogleBookSearch (Biography) 652 books available for online viewing

Gutenberg (Biographies) Large collection available for download in several formats

Heygidday (Famous Lives) Not all are biographies, but most are.  Available for download in pdf

ManyBooks (Biography) 1568 ebooks available for download in a variety of formats

MemoWare (Biography) 252 works available for download in varying formats

MobileRead (Biography) Links to 10 works listed in forum threads

Munsey's (Biography) 740 ebooks available for download in a great variety of formats

PublicBookShelf (Biography & Memoirs) 6 unusual books available for online reading

Qvadis (Biography) 169 works available for download in doc format

Wowio (Biographies & Memoirs) Over 100 books available for online viewing

 

Travel

2020k (Travel)  Large collection of links to books divided into categories and sub-categories.  Varying formats.

BookYards (Travel)  130 books listed in categories available for pdf download

Bored.com (Travel) has 164 travel books searchable by name available for online viewing.

ChestofBooks (Travel)  Around 50 books available for online viewing

Chordata 29 travel books on Africa available for online reading

FreeeBooks.info (Travel) 17 books available in varying formats

FreeeBooks.net (Travel)  10 books available in pdf or html

GoogleBookSearch (Travel)  565 books available for online viewing

Gutenberg (Travel) Large collection available in several formats

ManyBooks (Travel) 724 books available for download in a large variety of formats

Moxon.net About 20 ebooks representing writings from a travel writer's articles combined.  Available for download in several formats

Munsey's (Travel) 85 books available for download in a large variety of formats

Wowio (Travel)  89 books available for free online viewing.  Lots of hiking books for U.S.

 

History

2020k (History)  Large collection of links.  Available in varying formats

Arthur's Classic Novels (History)  Interesting collection available for online viewing

BookYards (History)  Over a thousand books available for download in pdf

Bored.com (History) has 2035 books available for online viewing.  Separated into countries and world history categories and then searchable by title.

ChestofBooks (History)  3 unusual books for online reading

FeedBooks (History)  Around a hundred books available for download in a variety of formats

FreeBookSpot (History)  Around a hundred books available for download in pdf

FreeeBooks.net (History)  3 books available for download in pdf

Globusz (History)  12 books available for online viewing or download

GoogleBookSearch (History)  811 books available for online viewing

Heygidday (History)  Nice size collection available for download in pdf

ManyBooks (History)  2467 books available for download in a variety of formats

MemoWare (History)  1122 works available for download in a variety of formats

Munsey's (History) 1437 books available for download in a large variety of formats

OnlineBooks4Free (History)  106 books available for online viewing or download

Online Library of Liberty (History) over a hundred works available for online viewing or download in pdf or ebooks pdf

PublicBookShelf (History)  7 books available for online viewing

Qvadis (History) 726 works available for download in doc format

Wowio (History)  62 books available for online viewing

Related Links

 

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Hello :-)

These website links are brilliant - thank you so much! It's especially good that you have listed the sites both alphabetically and also by genre. My younger sister and I have particularly enjoyed your children's book list but my dad is not impressed that we keep using all the ink in the printer! Hehe.

There is another website I'd like to suggest - it doesn't have free books, but it does have lots of good book suggestions that you could probably then try and find free online. There are online competitions, so I guess you might be able to win a free book?!?!

Anyway, thanks again for all your website links,

Jemma and Lucy (my little sister)

x

Thank you for this post.
The children section was the reason I started the genre listings so it is especially nice to see that being used.

As to your site link, when I have the time I am going to set up a separate section featuring contests and giveaways for books and yours will be listed.

Thanks again
Steve

Of all the lists available on our site, this is where I come most often. I'm simply staggered at our Editor's achievement.

Beautiful! As a totally blind reader, I appreciate resources of reading material. This is a brillient compilation. I really appreciate your work on this.

www.harunyahya.net

thousand of good pdf books about science and religion

http://www.wizz-e.com A collection of multimedia children's books classics and new authors, 2 free sample books, view online or download to pc. Animated illustrations, read along with the audio as words highlight, or click on a word to hear it spoken.

A new one for you!
http://www.kidsstoriesonline.com
The site is for online kids stories

You could also add

http://knowfree.net

That site offers copyrighted material illegally.
This list is only for legally transferable content.
Thanks
Steve

Thanks for that Paul. I've done a little editing of my own on the NLM resources - see if you think it's OK.

Are there no lists specifically for Business?

- Arthur

RE Health and Medicine:

For free peer-review articles in the field of Medicine, there's PubMed Central:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=PMC&itool=toolbar

This search engine covers all the open-access articles available on PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) main portal, where you can also find abstracts (when available) from restricted-access articles:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

A more recent addition is the PubMed Central Bookshelf — an engine which lets you search for books containing keywords of your choice and then browse them:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=books

NLM's search engines (and there are several others too which can also be accessed via PubMed) are great for academics and health professionals. But the vast majority of the material is not written primarily for the general public. So you have to know what you're doing if you decide to consult this stuff.

For more general health information, it's usually much better to turn to reliable websites designed to provide useful information to the general public. To do that, you can consult NLM's extensive resources on MedlinePlus for finding free and trustworthy health information:

http://medlineplus.gov/

And you can find plenty of books there too:

http://vsearch.nlm.nih.gov/vivisimo/cgi-bin/query-meta?v%3Aproject=medli...

Bob
I finally got around to adding these in.
I think I got the gist right on the links, but if you have any corrections, let me know.
They are listed alphabetically under MedLine Plus and PubMed and under the health section. (both locations identical language)
Thanks again
Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks. I've done a little editing of my own on the NLM resources - see if you think it's OK.

Bob

Very nicely done.
Thanks
Steve

Thanks for these great links.
This is a great resource of medical knowledge.
I will be adding to list.
Steve

Hi Steve,
You've got a great list there
Bob

Thanx for the info. This has become a wonderful list.

I am making my own e-books as most of the computer related ones contain nothing of interest or they are too technical. I have alos started making my own e-book covers with Photoshop using a free action I downloaded to help me make them look great. Here are some examples of what I have created so far. http://pctipforum.com/index.php?topic=256.0

If anyone is interested in finding out how to make these e-book covers leave a message at http://pctipforum.com/index.php?topic=256.0 I will be glad to help.

I was very Fustrated by what I found:
The first site I went to was 4ebook - When I selected a title and then went to download it I was directed to "Rideshare" - For the uninformed this is a spyware haven that downloads tons of spyware to your system. Then after I cleaned up that mess I tried to open the book I downloaded only to find it was encrypted and password locked. So the whole process left a bitter taste

Normaly I'm a great fan for Freeware / open source but So far regarding Ebooks - Seems a lot like Pirated music or movies, To many of the wrong kinds of perople with bad intentions for you...

Thanks for the info.
That being a medical site, I do not download from there regularly. I did try out a couple when searching for listings and did not have your issue.
After your post I went back there and found that they were offering copyrighted materials, which is the kind of place that people end up distributing malware through.
Very surprised that McAfee Site Adviser gives this a green (which is one of the reasons I listed it).
It has been eliminated from this list.
Steve

I have two site for your kind attention

www.developnew.com/books
www.onlinebookslink.com

thanks for the list I have some more sites which may increase your collection.

Download free ebooks collection | Free Download Ebooks

authors can publish their books at http://www.libdib.com/

What about saying something about the books available? A lot of these sites simply provide the same public domain books available at hundreds of other sites. No need to go to all of them. Which ones offer more recent books?

I was hoping people would post in the comments about things like that. As I say in the article, there were so many places, I would be unable to go through them in detail.

There were many sites not listed as they did not have anything that was not available elsewhere. Each of the sites listed will have at least some works that are not available at other sites.

Looking in the genre sections would give a better chance of finding material. However, I personally do not think newer is the best thing to look for. There are some sites that offer new material that I did not list as most of the works looked unprofessional.

In the article, I wanted to keep the info on each site short or the list would be too long. But, when a site had a good amount of offerings not available elsewhere, I used words like interesting, unique etc., to describe the site.

At the time I put this list together, I had a good amount of free time and that was used in setting the links and briefly perusing many sites. There were quite a few that did not make the list because either they offered copyrighted material, did not have anything different from other sites or were not professional works. However, now I do not have such time.

So I urge those that have visited these sites to post with more info and I will add the info into the list.

Steve

Scribd does little, if anything, to weed out illegal uploads. That's just one reason I don't like that site.

Thanks. Removed from list.
Steve

www.readtheselips.com for free lesbian ebooks. Thanks

Added to list.
Thank you
Steve

Finding Free eBooks http://finding-free-ebooks.blogspot.com/

At least two posts every day which link to legal free fiction online, mostly modern, mostly novel length.

Added to list.
Nice work on finding those links.
Thank you
Steve

eBooks Just Published - fresh, DRM-free, daily ebook announcements.

with the correct link this time

Added to list.
Interesting list. I am checking one out already.
Thank you
Steve

Added to alpha list.
Will add to genre list when I have some more time.
Thank you
Steve

Just did an article about this list on our TeleRead site, www.teleread.org

Here is the permalink in case it gets pushed down

http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/20/compendium-of-e-book-sites/

Thanks for the resource,

Paul

Thanks for that Paul.
Some interesting articles at your site.
Steve

Wow thank you
Thank you
Thank you for this awesome list.
Thank you

You are welcome.
Thanks for the kind words.
Steve

Pls, have a look at http://pdfreebooks.org , we try to make a collection of ancient languages grammars.

Added to list.
Thank you
Steve

Arthur's Classic Novels does not restrict itself to the early 20th Century. For instance, a number of titles by Mary Shelley are included.

You are correct.
I must have said that because the home page has listings for the top ten of the twentieth century.

They also have an extensive religion section, where the works are thousands of years old.

I have not looked much at the older entries on the alpha list as I have been doing the genres and adding sites.

Thanks for pointing that out, I will correct it.
Steve

General

BookChan http://anonib.com/bookchan/
Dwalin (plain text, Russian) http://dwalin.ru/books/
Electronic Book Links http://www.refdesk.com/factelec.html
Floodle http://www.floodle.net/
Free Ebook Download Links http://free-ebook-download-links.blogspot.com/
Free eBook Miners http://freeebookminers.com/
ibiblio http://www.ibiblio.org/
Independent Publishers Group http://www.ipgbook.com/ebooktitles.cfm
Just Free Books http://www.justfreebooks.info/
KnowFree http://knowfree.net/
LibraVox (free audio books) http://www.librivox.org
Wikibooks http://en.wikibooks.org/
Wikisource http://en.wikisource.org/

Specialty

Comic Books http://www.marvel.com/digitalcomics
Connect eBooks http://musicstore.connect.com/
Epicurious Recipes and Menus http://www.epicurious.com/recipesmenus
International Music Score Library Project http://imslp.org/
Logos Ancient Language Software http://www.logos.com/
The NY Times (1st issue to 1920s online) http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser

Textbooks

eCampus http://www.ecampus.com/
SafariX http://www.safarix.com/
socialbib http://www.socialbib.com/

Universities

Electronic Text Center (Univ. of Virginia) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/
The Online Books Page (Univ. of Penn.) http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ or http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu

Government Publications

Government Printing Office Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov
National Archives http://www.archives.gov

Thanks for the post.
I have just gotten around to checking them out and already have a few new ones from this listing to add.
Steve

also check http://book.populair.eu (tip)

It looked impressive, but I was a bit disappointed.
I was hoping to pick up a number of links, but only got one new one.
Many of the sites really did not offer books, mainly writings of unpublished authors. Almost all of the others were listed here already.
I still need to check out the banned books links. Hopefully, that will produce some additions.
Anyhow, thanks for the post. I had not run across this site in my searches and everything helps.
Steve

Great collection.

I see you have put referred to http://www.webliterature.net here, I personally like it a lot. I like htp;//www.gutenberg.org too.