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783 Places for Free eBooks Online

Updated 18. April 2013 - 19:50 by mr6n8
Introduction

This is a listing of 783 sites that legally offer free books (eBooks) for download or for online viewing.

For a complete listing of the free ebook pages here at Gizmo's, see

Some time ago I 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.  Originally, the list was for 50 sites (hence that number in the link) and I thought that was a lot.  Given the large listing, you may want to check out the various Genre pages that I have put together

Speaking of genre pages, I will point out that the entries on the Comics and Graphic Novels page are not listed in this master list.  Although I am a big comic and graphic novel fan, too many of these do not qualify as books.  I will go through that listing and add in the graphic novel links here when I have the time.  Anyhow, the point is, if you are looking for that type of material, then you will have to look on that page. 

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 through the comments below.

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 listing here is in alphabetical order. Given the size of this list now, it has been separated into different sections alphabetically for hopefully easier access.  You may also search by genre.  I have set up 21 pages here of different genres and 3 pages for different formats (Kindle compatible, read online and ePub).. If you do not see one that covers your interests, let me know and I may be able to put one together.

I have also put together a listing of sites that offer free and legal audio books at

These listings may be searched in the following methods:
Alphabetical Listing
Places for Free Books Online - Page Index
(or click here to view as one huge page)
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.

  • Overdrive is the site to use to access your library online for free ebooks.  It will help you find a branch near you that has this feature.  You must have a valid library card and PIN
  • 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.
Genre Pages

Because this page is becoming extremely long I have switched the genre sections to their own pages.  Please check these separate pages out if you are interested in a particular genre as they have some links that have not been added to this main list as of yet and they also have links to audio books.

Due to the amount of pages for free ebooks and audiobooks here at Gizmo's Freeware, I have set up a separate page for the genre listings, see  Millions of Free eBooks and Audio Books Online for a complete listing of the free ebook and audiobook offerings in 20 different genres.  There are also 3 pages of listings according to ebook format:   Kindle, ePub and online reading without download or registration.
Related Links
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read free ebooks online, search free books online, best places to get free ebooks, top places to read ebooks free, download free books, top free ebooks, best free ebooks.

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Comments

by mr6n8 on 20. May 2012 - 18:47  (93749)

Thanks. I am starting a new round of updates and will add this in.

Steve

Added. Thanks again for this excellent site.
by mr6n8 on 28. May 2012 - 21:33  (94112)

As of May 28, 2012, all links have been checked and are working.

50 sites were added and 25 sites were removed in this update.

Thanks to those who posted new sites to be added.

As always, if you know of any site that legally offer free books, please post here.

If you find any errors in this listing, or have a more accurate description of a site listed here, please post here.

Steve
by HappyHaze (not verified) on 4. June 2012 - 13:18  (94384)

Not usually a pedant, but since this is about literary concerns, and because it is an easy mistake to make, the phrase is 'whet your interest' (originally the idiom is 'whet one's appetite'). As opposed to 'wet' which would dampen rather than stimulate interest.

But that aside, this is a fabulous list of resources and my interest is suitably whetted. Thank you very much.

HH.
by mr6n8 on 4. June 2012 - 14:16  (94386)

I could not figure out where I would have said that in the article as that is not an idiom I use and I would know "whet" from "wet" and I would use "appetite" (maybe an age thing).

Then I realized it must be in the RSS feed (and it is).

I suppose "wet" would be appropriate for the Sports Illustrated annual Swim Suit issue :)

Steve
by happyhaze (not verified) on 4. June 2012 - 18:10  (94392)

Yesh, I didn't put it together that the RSS feed could be penned by a different bloke. Well, no harm, now fowl, as they say. :) (Foul).
by Marie99 (not verified) on 4. June 2012 - 18:52  (94394)

Fantastic. I really like the break out into categories. I checked out the memoirs section at http://2020ok.com/2366.htm. Some look interesting. I will report back.
by mr6n8 on 4. June 2012 - 19:31  (94396)

I noticed I had not put a note on 2020ok on that page. I put it here and some other pages. A number of the links, particularly those to Archive.org are not good. I think Archive changed their link setup and 2020ok did not update.

Anyhow, if you have a chance to let me know how it goes nowadays, I would appreciate it.

Steve
by mr6n8 on 4. June 2012 - 19:33  (94397)

yes fowl indeed. (appetite reference)

To be fair, I am sure whoever puts the RSS out knows the difference, but you can get pretty spaced out after writing for a while here and that is one that spell check does not catch.

Steve
by Marie99 (not verified) on 4. June 2012 - 22:31  (94403)

I was looking under memoirs at 2020ok.com. The link http://2020ok.com/books/55/a-doctor-of-the-old-school-volume-05-29655.htm takes you to a "book rags" pay site - http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/9319/. I was unable to locate a way to download the book for free. They mention it being part of the Gutenberg Project. I looked up the Gutenberg Project link and found the book there. I sent 2020ok.com a notification so we'll see. So it's back to the old unglamorous standby's (Gutenberg, Librivox.com) where it might take a bit of sifting but the price is right.
by mr6n8 on 4. June 2012 - 23:37  (94405)

I was checking through a number of links after your last post and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had fixed their links to archive.org and then I also ran into a BookRags page, which looked like it was going to make the book available for free reading online, but then made it available pay only.

BookRags used to offer some free books, though they were hard to find. I have a feeling they eliminated the freebies on their site.

Most of the links there are still good, but since they link off site, there are risks of dead links. I wish their links told you where they were going so one could avoid the bad ones.

Gutenberg, of course is one of the big ones, but as you say is a bit clunky to get around. Open Library and Archive are also the same - huge collections, but hard to find unless you are searching for a specific title.

I have been meaning to put together a top 10 or 20 for this list to make it easier to find some quality sites. I think I need to get on that next. There are some sites with good sized collections that make it easier to get around.

Thanks for the input on 2020ok. I am going to add some info in on it, when I get a chance.

Steve
by Librarian82 (not verified) on 5. June 2012 - 6:23  (94418)

Hi, Steve!
Why you removed DigiLibraries.com from your list?
by mr6n8 on 5. June 2012 - 7:34  (94423)

Site rules here prohibit linking to a site with a yellow or red rating from Web of Trust (WOT) and DigiLibraries now has a yellow rating.
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/digilibraries.com

Personally, I do not understand how a site that only has free books (legally) would get such a rating. All the downloads I checked were clean. But, since it does, the link may not be posted here at Gizmo's.

Steve
by mr6n8 on 6. June 2012 - 12:35  (94492)

That novel, a Doctor of the Old School, is available either by volume or the complete work for free online reading at Fullbooks. Look under Doctor on this page:
http://www.fullbooks.com/idx13.html
by mr6n8 on 7. June 2012 - 16:26  (94540)

Well, now DigiLibraries is showing green on WOT. (see my post below about yellow before).

A bit of a pain. I just went throughh deleting it from this list and many of the genre lists.

I will get around to adding it back in.

Thanks for the post. You had me keeping an eye on this.

Steve
by Modeste SENOU (not verified) on 5. July 2012 - 14:52  (95762)

I'm very glad for this excellente web site.It afford me possibility to have very well ebook.I advice everybody to subscribe in it.At soon
by mr6n8 on 22. July 2012 - 16:22  (96511)

July 22, 2012, new sites added and links checked through LinkChecker.

73 new sites added, 2 sites links fixed and 8 sites removed (2 for WOT ratings) for a net gain of 65 sites.

If you find any links not working or sites not what they are supposed to be, please post here in the comments.

If you know of any sites that can be added to this listing please post here.

Thanks

Steve
by Carolina_D on 29. July 2012 - 4:43  (96812)

Wow. NEVER have I seen any list as comprehensive as this one. I can only imagine the hours upon hours (weeks upon weeks, months upon months?) of work it must have taken to do this. You must have an endless supply of patience. I, for one, as a voracious reader, thank you from the bottom of my heart for this resource. OF COURSE it is at the top of my bookmarks, filed under 'IMPORTANT'! Again, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...!
by mr6n8 on 29. July 2012 - 17:48  (96842)

Thank you for that.

I never imagined that this would have grown to what it has, size and responsibility wise. It started with 50 sites and I thought that was all there was.

Lots of hours looking and entering, but doing it little by little makes it seem not so bad.

Just added another 35 sites in this last week.

Thanks again.

Steve
by vm (not verified) on 31. July 2012 - 17:20  (96950)

u have not added site name holybooks.com . your site is just wonderfull .any type help u want iam ready for it
by mr6n8 on 31. July 2012 - 18:26  (96953)

With all the sites listed, easy to miss, but it is already in this listing
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/50-places-free-books-online.htm?...

I have missed it for the Religion page of free books and will add it there on next update.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-books-religion

Thanks
by Drake Christensen (not verified) on 2. August 2012 - 3:05  (97079)

NO on Scribd. It's renowned for hosting pirated works. And for making it cumbersome for rights-owners to pull down those works. There's no mechanism for preventing the works from being posted over and over again.

I was quite pleased that the author of this post did not include it in his original list.

Drake Christensen
by B_Me (not verified) on 3. August 2012 - 14:32  (97156)

*bows down to your greatness* Thank you so much! Your effort to put this together is greatly appreciated (since a certain site have recently gone down). Thanks again!
by Christopher Stewart (not verified) on 7. September 2012 - 12:48  (98912)

awesome list & work !

many thanks !

Chris
by Dennis Wm. (not verified) on 1. November 2012 - 2:18  (101674)

I recently was presented a Nook Tablet from my adult children as a birthday gift.

My question is this... What application(s) might be required on this Nook in order to read materials posted on your lists? I apoligize for the novice question, however, I have not even opened the device to perform the initial battery charge.

I appreciate the dedicated labor of love that you devoted to the collection. An amazing and very useful guide that will get me returning to reading to which I have let go for a while.

Thank you very much.
by mr6n8 on 4. November 2012 - 13:06  (101861)

The Nook reads ePub (and I believe PDF).

I have put up a separate page for sites that offer all their books in ePub.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/free-epub-books-online.htm

I suppose I should rename the page to include Nook in the title.

Steve
by Rosamary (not verified) on 5. November 2012 - 17:54  (101920)

It looks like the first free book place listed above - 1placeforromance - is gone. When I clicked on your link, the next screen read "this store is closed.

Thought you might like to know this.

Thanks.
by mr6n8 on 7. November 2012 - 13:38  (101995)

Thanks for the info. I will remove from here and the Free Romance Books Page.

Steve
by Jero on 7. January 2013 - 19:47  (104306)

Thank you, mr6n8 for this great list of sources! This took time you were willing to share with us, and I'm greatful. I.O.U.1
Jero
by mr6n8 on 9. January 2013 - 1:03  (104339)

January 8, 2013, 45 new sites added and 9 sites removed.

I use linkchecker to verify the existing links. Which means I do not revisit those sites. If you find a site that is not as it should be, please post a comment.

If you know of a site to be added to this listing, please post in comments or contact me (click on mr6n8 above) through the site.

Thanks to those who have posted thanks. I appreciate it.

Steve
by HowToLou on 27. January 2013 - 20:34  (104869)

There is a free video book at CatEyeBooks.com that is fun for kids. It has TONS of pictures, and is read aloud.