websites to find free books

Welcome to Open Library

Read Free Library Books Online

Millions of books available through Controlled Digital Lending

Set a Yearly Reading Goal

Learn how to set a yearly reading goal and track what you read

Keep Track of your Favorite Books

Organize your Books using Lists & the Reading Log

Try the virtual Library Explorer

Digital shelves organized like a physical library

Try Fulltext Search

Find matching results within the text of millions of books

Be an Open Librarian

Dozens of ways you can help improve the library

Volunteer at Open Library

Discover opportunities to improve the library

Send us feedback

Your feedback will help us improve these cards

Trending Books

Preview Book

Classic Books

Books We Love

Recently Returned

Browse by Subject

112,367 Books

Science Fiction

19,068 Books

12,531 Books

Biographies

24,519 Books

9,199 Books

19,776 Books

32,875 Books

54,257 Books

2,148,638 Books

52,457 Books

141,950 Books

Mystery and Detective Stories

15,973 Books

2,581 Books

73,600 Books

88,761 Books

Around the Library

 Here's what's happened over the last 28 days. More recent changes .

About the Project

Open library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published. more.

Just like Wikipedia, you can contribute new information or corrections to the catalog. You can browse by subjects , authors or lists members have created. If you love books, why not help build a library?

Latest Blog Posts

• Improving Open Library’s Translation Pipeline - July 30, 2024
• Follow each other on Open Library - July 5, 2024
• Let Readers Read - June 17, 2024

Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Monday, Apr 20

The 21 best places to find free books online.

If you’re anything like us, you go through books fast . Sometimes it seems like an addiction you can’t keep up with — and if there’s one thing any bookworm can tell you, it’s that this habit can quickly get expensive.

Luckily, the savvy reader knows there are plenty of places online to legally download books without spending a single penny. In this post, we’re giving you 21 of the best places to find free books online, so that you can satisfy even the most debilitating of book addictions, guilt-free.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great books out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized book recommendation  😉

Which book should you read next?

Discover the perfect book for you. Takes 30 seconds!

1. Project Gutenberg

2. The Online Books Page

If that’s not enough books for you, The Online Books Page , hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, boasts a staggering list of over three million free ebooks! Unlike Project Gutenberg, they don’t actually host any of the books themselves, instead providing links to where you can download them. And their website does look like something straight out of 1996. Still, when we’re talking about this many ebooks at our fingertips, can we really complain? This is a great source for classics and obscure titles that offer deep dives into arcane topics, though some newer books can also appear.

3. Kindle Store

4. Smashwords

Like Amazon, Smashwords has a page where you can easily see all the books authors have chosen to give away for free . With the ability to browse by categories such as “newest,” “bestseller,” and “highest-rated,” as well as filtering by the book’s length and genre, this is an easy way to instantly find free books. (Just remember to re-select the “free” category at the top if you choose to browse by genre!) The best part? Most stories are available in a wide range of file formats, and you don’t even need an account to download them.

6. Robin Reads

A book promotion service in the vein of BookBub, Robin Reads is another great way to stay in-the-know on all the hottest new titles and discounts. With everything from romance to horror to nonfiction, there’s sure to be something interesting in nearly all of their daily emails.

7. eReader News Today

8. FreeBooksy

Most of the other book promotion services focus on both free and discounted books, but FreeBooksy is the biggest site that’s dedicated solely to ebooks you don’t have to pay for. Unlike some of its competitors, it seeks out deals from all the major retailers, so even if you’re totally loyal to Kobo or Nook, you’re bound to find some great books gratis . (Can you tell we’re desperately trying not to use the word “free” too much?)

9. Manybooks

10. Goodreads Free Shelves

Sometimes the easiest way to find free books is to crowdsource for them, and Goodreads shelves make this process easy. Browsing by shelf collects all the books that users put in shelves of the same name, and you can easily find shelves marked as “ free-ebooks ,” “ free-ebook ,” “ free ” and more. Now, because this is dependent on users marking ebooks themselves, it is possible that some of the books were shelved during a period when a book was once being given away free and now comes with a heavier sticker price. They may also shelve books in the public domain that you can find through sites such as Project Gutenberg, but it’s not a guarantee that you’ll find these for free if you follow the link to them on Amazon. Still, it’s a rich resource that may easily give you titles you don’t find on other sites, so it’s definitely worth a look.

11. Reedsy Discovery

Love indie books and want to read them for free, before anyone else does? That's exactly what you get if you sign up to become a Reedsy Discovery reviewer , as indie authors provide free ebooks in exchange for an honest review. Simply take notes of your thoughts as you read, and use them to write up a coherent review when you've finished reading. You'll be helping out the author as well as would-be readers, while getting a free read! Writing book reviews can also be an excellent way to break into the publishing industry if you're at the start of your career, but most of all they're great fun to write and read alike.

12. Riveted by Simon Teen

13. Harlequin Online Reads

The leading publisher of romance novels, Harlequin’s website also offers a huge collection of serialized stories from some of their best authors — for free. New chapters are posted every week, or you can browse a massive back catalogue of completed works. With filters such as “Fall in Love,” “Walk on the Dark Side,” and “Take a Trip Down the Aisle,” plus the ability to show titles based on how much time you have to read at the moment (yes, really!), this collection is sure let you zero in on the exact romance fix you’re craving.

14. Tor.com

15. Libby / OverDrive

In the wise words of Arthur the Aardvark, “Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card!” So it is with Libby , the new app by OverDrive. OverDrive allows libraries to purchase ebooks for lending out to their patrons. Each “copy” of the ebook can only be checked out by one patron at a time. Loan lengths and the total number of titles you can have at once varies by library. Books may be checked out and downloaded directly through Libby, or downloaded for reading via Kindle. Because only one person can check out each copy at a time, though, there are often hold lists on popular titles — sometimes significant ones — so be sure to keep an eye on that when you’re picking your next read. However, the catalogue available to each library is quite extensive, and if there’s ever a title your library hasn’t purchased yet, there’s an easy button to request it right in the app.

17. Wattpad

Lovers of fanfic have long been familiar with sites where users can upload stories one chapter at a time, but Wattpad brings that idea to life in the original fiction world — with a few additional benefits as well. Started in 2006, Wattpad is perfect if you’re looking for a wide range of diverse voices and unconventional stories that might get overlooked by big publishers. Chock-full of talented writers and enthusiastic readers, it’s a community unlike anything else in the reading landscape. Leave comments, follow your favorite authors, and upvote the stories you love. With the free app, you can even keep up with all the best stories right from your phone.

18. PaperBack Swap

19. Open Culture

In Open Culture’s own words, they scour the internet for the “audio books you need, the language lessons and educational videos you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.” As a curator of free online learning resources , this sounds great to us! Their audiobook selection is top-notch as well, including some surprisingly high-profile narrators . ( The Wizard of Oz as read by Tituss Burgess? Where do they even find these treasures?)

20. LibriVox

21. Storynory

Lastly, in all the rush to find free books, let’s not forget about the littlest readers among us! Storynory offers free audiobooks for kids, featuring everything from classics to brand-new originals exclusive to the Storynory site. While not as extensive a collection as some of the sites on our list, the stories are charming and offer a welcome distraction when someone just won’t settle down.

Still can't get enough books? Check out our list of the 115 Best Books of All Time . Or why not get paid to read, by applying to some of the legitimate sites that pay reviewers ?

Continue reading

More posts from across the blog.

The Essential Guide to Reading the Sherlock Holmes Books

Our guide to reading the Sherlock Holmes books, complete with suggestions about the order you should read them in, historical fun facts, and a peek into Sherlock's many literary afterlives.

40 Best Spy Novels of All Time

On the hunt for the sleekest spies in your midst? Look no further. We’ve put together this list of the 40 best spy novels of all time, just for you.

The 10 Best Post-Apocalyptic Books to Read Before the World Ends

We’ve all got books on the bedside table we’ve been meaning to read for months — but what if the apocalypse were tomorrow? Luckily for those who’d need some quick survival tips, we at Reedsy have compiled a list of the...

Heard about Reedsy Discovery?

Trust real people, not robots, to give you book recommendations.

Or sign up with an

Or sign up with your social account

• Submit your book
• Reviewer directory

Want to be a book reviewer?

Review new books and start building your portfolio.

• General Search
• Fulltext Search

Most Popular

To build up a library is to create a life. It’s never just a random collection of books.

• Official channel

• Our Mission
• Share your story
• Publications

Welcome to Project Gutenberg

Project gutenberg is a library of over 70,000 free ebooks.

Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for you to enjoy.

Kuolema Venetsiassa by Thomas Mann

Henkinen tarmo by Henri Bergson

Rabevel ou le mal des ardents, Volume 2 (of 3) by Lucien Fabre

Im Zauber des Tierlebens by Friedrich von Lucanus

Domestic medicine by William Buchan

Aircraft: its development in war and peace and its commercial future by David

The whore by Unknown

Kittens by Svend Fleuron

Army Boys marching into Germany by Homer Randall

Ancient Egyptian legends by Margaret Alice Murray

Some of our latest eBooks Click Here for more latest books!

No fee or registration! Everything from Project Gutenberg is gratis, libre, and completely without cost to readers. If you find Project Gutenberg useful, please consider a small donation to help Project Gutenberg digitize more books, maintain its online presence, and improve Project Gutenberg programs and offerings. Other ways to help include digitizing, proofreading and formatting, or reporting errors.

New donation option with Give Freely. More information… .

No special apps needed! Project Gutenberg eBooks require no special apps to read, just the regular Web browsers or eBook readers that are included with computers and mobile devices. There have been reports of sites that charge fees for custom apps, or for the same eBooks that are freely available from Project Gutenberg. Some of the apps might have worthwhile features, but none are required to enjoy Project Gutenberg eBooks.

50 years of eBooks 1971-2021. In 2021, Project Gutenberg celebrated the first eBook for reading enjoyment and unlimited free redistribution. This eBook was created on July 4, 1971 by Project Gutenberg’s founder, Michael S. Hart. Read more about this lasting innovation . Project Gutenberg is grateful to all volunteers who helped to reach this milestone anniversary. Project Gutenberg offers a vibrant and growing collection of the world’s great literature. Read, enjoy, and share!

Find Free eBooks

• Search and browse . By author, title, subject, language, type, popularity, and more.
• Bookshelves of related eBooks.
• Frequently downloaded : Top 100, or ranked by popularity .
• Offline catalogs : handy eBook listings and metadata to consult offline.
• Recently added . The latest new and updated eBooks.
• Visit self.gutenberg.org for free eBooks by contemporary authors.

Audio books

Audio books are a great way to enjoy and share literature. Project Gutenberg no longer adds new audio books to the collection, and suggests these audio book resources. These audio books are all freely available and in the public domain in the US. They may be easily played back on computers, tablets, mobile phones, and other devices. They may be shared non-commercially, without limitation except in countries where the printed source is still copyrighted. All of the sources listed below are digitizations of texts from Project Gutenberg.

• Project Gutenberg’s human-read audio books . 662 titles read by people, sometimes with sound effects or other enhancements. These are from a few different contributors.
• Project Gutenberg’s computer-generated audio books . 386 titles from 2003, using text-to-speech automation. These are listenable but relatively low quality compared to today’s technology.
• Human-read audio books from LibriVox . LibriVox is a volunteer community that produces high-quality performances that are done by many different volunteers. Follow the link to find audio books, and also to help create new audio books.
• The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection . Almost 5,000 titles from 2023, via a Project Gutenberg collaboration with Microsoft and MIT. These use neural text-to-speech technology for more natural-sounding computer-generated audio books. These audio books are also available on major music/podcast platforms as well as The Internet Archive . Project Gutenberg and partners were recognized by TIME for this work in their Best Inventions of 2023 .
• Frequently Asked Questions about Project Gutenberg.
• Help, How-To and FAQs : In depth information about many topics.
• Tablets, phones and eReaders How-To : Using tablets, Kindle, Nook, cell phone, and other mobile devices and readers.

How to Help

• Distributed Proofreaders welcomes new volunteers. This is the main source of new Project Gutenberg eBooks. Getting started is easy, and just a page a day will help!
• Fix and improve Project Gutenberg by reporting errors, bugs, typos, and suggesting changes.
• Record audiobooks with our friends at LibriVox .

Special Areas

• About Project Gutenberg .
• Donating to Project Gutenberg .
• Feeds of new eBooks.
• Linking to Project Gutenberg and roboting or crawling the site.
• Partners and affiliates .
• Permissions, copyright, licensing, and trademark information .
• What does free eBook (No Cost or Freedom?) mean?
• Terms of Use

Project Gutenberg eBooks may be freely used in the United States because most are not protected by U.S. copyright law. They may not be free of copyright in other countries. Readers outside of the United States must check the copyright terms of their countries before accessing, downloading or redistributing eBooks. We also have a number of copyrighted titles, for which the copyright holder has given permission for unlimited non-commercial worldwide use.

The Project Gutenberg website is for human users only. Use of automated tools to access the website may trigger a block of your access. This site utilizes cookies, captchas and related technologies to help assure the site is maximally available for human users. See full terms of use here .

Social Media

• News feeds of new eBooks

• Privacy policy
• About Project Gutenberg
• Contact Information

15 Of The Best Places To Find Free Books Online

There are millions of free books online. Seriously. Here are the best sites to find books to read online or download to take with you.

Nikki VanRy

Nikki VanRy is a proud resident of Arizona, where she gets to indulge her love of tacos, desert storms, and tank tops. She also writes for the Tucson Festival of Books, loves anything sci-fi/fantasy/historical, drinks too much chai, and will spend all day in bed reading thankyouverymuch. Follow her on Instagram @nikki.vanry .

View All posts by Nikki VanRy

Want to get your eyes on MILLIONS of free books online?

If you’ve been following along, you already know that you can find free audiobooks online  (woop woop!). We talked about options like LibriVox and MindWebs that are offering readers free audio books and short stories.

Now, we’ve got 15 more sites where you can read free books online when earbuds aren’t an option. You’ll get beyond the classics (though those are cool too), with free YA books, graphic novels, fanfiction, children’s books, and more.

And all together these sites have a lot of great books. A lot. Like, in the millions. Seriously. Your TBR list may be crying, but at least your wallet is happy?

Where can I download free books Online?

We give more details about each one below, but the following sites all offer (or curate a collection with) free books online:

1. Goodreads’ Free Shelves

While many of the books on the following websites are classic books and out of copyright, you can find more contemporary online books for free at Goodreads’ free eBooks shelves (either full or excerpts) or with the “ free-online ” tag.

2. International Children’s Digital Library

If you’re looking for free children’s books online, the ICDL is a nonprofit organization with a mission to: “promote tolerance and a respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children’s literature from around the world.”

You can read freely and anonymously on their site, or create an account to keep an ongoing bookshelf. And there are books from all over the world (you can even search by countries on the globe). Look for great free books online like:

Related: 25 Free Amazon Prime Audiobooks

3. Internet Sacred Text ARchive

Dedicated to religion, mythology, and folklore, the ISTA online collection provides access to hundreds of sacred texts online. It also promotes religious diversity, tolerance, and scholarship baked into its mission (which is pretty rad of course).

You’ll find versions of the  Bible,  as well as the  Talmud ,  Vedas,  and more.

4. ManyBooks

Just as the name implies, ManyBooks has loads and loads of online books for free. Over 30,000 in fact. The majority of their eBooks work for Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and other readers.

You’ll find thousands of books, both classic and contemporary here, such as:

5. Open Culture

Open Culture connected readers with a curated list of free audiobooks, and they’ve created something similar for free eBooks. You’ll find 800 free and downloadable eBooks through their site, ready to download for iPads, iPhones, Kindles, or to read in your browser directly.

Some knockouts include The Stranger  by Albert Camus and poems from Charles Bukowski.

6. Open Library

Open Library offers over 1.7 million free eBooks online to users. It’s part of the Internet Archive, which also allows users to contribute (and correct!) books. They both offer free versions of full books and links to access paid books elsewhere.

Books to read online include  Sherlock Holmes  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or  Matilda  by Roald Dahl.

7. Overdrive

The Libby App by OverDrive connects you with your local libraries to check out eBooks on your personal devices. You only need a library card and you’ll be able to check out classic and contemporary eBooks for free, anywhere and anytime. They host a catalog of over two million eBooks, as well as audiobooks. And, they’ve recently made it easier to transfer books onto your device.

Of course, since it’s connected to your library, you’ll also see free bestselling YA eBooks and other more recent bestsellers and other classics.

8. Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg continues to be a fantastic resource for classic novels and obscure older texts alike that are already in the public domain. The organization is run entirely by volunteers who digitize and then also proofread works. In all, they’ve added over 50,000 free books online.

Whether you’re reading them online or downloading them to your device, you can dig into classic books like:

9. Read Print

Read Print is a user-friendly website that allows users to read classics online. It also has a fancy bookshelf widget where you can track books read and books (so many books) that you want to read.

You’ll find free classic books like:

10. Riveted

Riveted offers YA books for free online, either full books or excerpts on a time-limited basis.

By signing into the site from Simon & Schuster and becoming a member, you’ll be able to read some sweet free books, download them to any device, join in giveaways, and discuss your YA favorites.

If you love all things science fiction and fantasy, check out Tor’s eBook club and weekly newsletters .

The publisher releases weekly original short stories from some of the biggest sci-fi/fantasy authors. And, seriously, receiving a smashingly fantastic short story in my inbox every week has been such a joy and has helped me find great new authors.

They also release the eBook of the Month club where you can get free access to one pick each month.

12. WikiSource

Got a jonesing for some original source material? Even if you’re not in academia, Wikisource is the ultimate place to do a deep dive on a topic. The site hosts almost 400,000 texts in English, with user-generated submissions allowed.

You can find texts from 1846 to 1941, from authors like Rudyard Kipling and Marie de France, on werewolves specifically. Or, discover new worlds with texts from Jules Verne and Philip Dick.

13. World Public Library

The World Public Library’s online Millennium Collection isn’t free, but for less than $10 a year for *ahem* millions of free books in over 300 languages, it’s basically free. They also offer free memberships for physically disabled or special needs members. You’ll find eBooks from all over the world, including:

Some of their knock-outs include  1984  by George Orwell,  Siddhartha  by Hemann Hesse, and  The Mahabharata  translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli.

Seriously, even more Free Books Online

These are mostly websites that share free books online that have at one time been traditionally published and disseminated. But, um, there’s the internet which means there’s more books available out there than you’ll ever have time to read.

Check out WattPad for stories by independent authors, historical fiction, fanfiction, and more. There’s also a huge active community over there to talk about books with. Here’s your beginner’s guide .

FanFiction.net is a hub for short story and novel length spin-offs of your favorite fictional worlds.

Phew, we’re not done yet.  BookRix is also a community of independent authors who publish free eBooks in any of your favorite genres. We’re talking fantasy, romance, sci-fi, children’s and more.

The Library of Congress also has a small collection of classic children’s books.

Finally, also make sure to follow your favorite authors on social media. They’ll often share links to eBook deals, excerpts to upcoming novels, giveaways, or free shorts set in the same universe.

Want To Find Cheap Books?

Other cheaper options ($10 a month or less) include Kindle Unlimited , some of the books on the Google Play store, Unlimited Library , and Scribd .

You can also follow along with Book Riot’s Deals of the Day “ Book Deals ” emails where you’ll get alerts about absurdly cheap eBooks and audiobooks.

Read Next: 50+ Ways to Get Free Books

It makes my heart swell a little bit that there are SO MANY places to find free books online. That’s a lot of literature, all with a simple internet connection.

You Might Also Like