Buying a book isn’t that expensive. But what if you buy lots of books? What if your house is filled with books and you have to squeeze between stacks of books to move around? Well, that you might mean you’re a hoarder, but it also probably means you’d like to know where to find free books!
The Library is, of course, the first place to find free books
Yeah, okay, I know you already know about libraries. But I had to list it because it really is a great way to read.
On to things you might not know about!
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a big site that holds tons of free and easily accessible media. Since we’re talking about books, they have a very large selection. From classics and out-of-print books to modern works, it’s always worth checking if they have something you want.
They’re less likely to have recent works-I’d say the chance goes up significantly if the book is from 20 years ago or more.
To borrow books you need to make a free account, and after that, you can usually check out the books for an hour at a time. If you’re not done reading it’s not a problem. Just click the little pop-up banner to renew for another hour.
Some books let you borrow for 14 days instead, and the most in-demand titles might have a waitlist.
You read the books in their browser reader, though there’s also a small number that can read in a downloaded PDF.
And check out the other categories too, like free black-and-white movies or free classic TV episodes. It’s a great site and more people should know about it.
Free books from Little Free Libraries
These little containers seem to be everywhere now. They always remind me of birdhouses somehow.
The basic idea is that people can leave or take books from the library whenever they want. What’s in there will depend on chance and the tastes of people in the neighborhood, but I’ve found interesting things in there before. It’s also an easy way to get rid of one or two books you’re tired of.
Project Gutenberg
The Project Gutenberg site holds over 70,000 free older books that are no longer in copyright. The familiar classics are there alongside obscure works.
Most of the titles are available in multiple formats. You can read them online in HTML format, but downloading something to an e-reader or reading program will be more comfortable.
Standard Ebooks
Since we mentioned classics I should bring up one of the easiest ways to use and read them. Standard Ebooks produces very nice looking and well-formatted versions of the classics. They take out typos, archaic spellings, and focus on making each book as smooth to read as any modern day ebook.
Their catalog is much smaller than Project Gutenberg (that nice formatting takes time and effort) but the whole experience of reading their books feels good in a way that’s not aways true elsewhere. The books are freely available in several formats. Check out their site here.
Free Kindle ebooks
The Kindle store on Amazon regularly has free titles to download. Just search for “free ebooks” or something of that nature and you’ll get pages of results.
Their free offerings include out of copyright work like you’d expect, but they also have a lot of modern books that authors release free to get new readers. Especially if you like the romance genre there’s tons of options here.
You don’t actually need a kindle to read them. Amazon has a free app for desktops or phones that will let you read the titles.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Do you have a child under the age of 5? If so, then they can get a free children’s book every month in the mail if you sign them up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. There’s no restriction on family income-it’s meant to be used by as many children as possible.
She founded the program because her family lacked books growing up and she wanted to spread the love of reading to children everywhere. By the time a kid finishes with the program they’ll have their own library to start with!
If you go to this link you’ll find the registration page for the program. It’s not available in every area, but the page will quickly tell you whether your area is included.
Mercury Magazines
Mercury Magazines is a company that is better known for giving away free magazine subscriptions. But they also periodically offer free ebooks, mostly geared towards business skills.
To get the offers you’ll need to be on their email list, so sign up at the above link by entering info like your name and employment status. Once you’ve done that, they should email you offers for magazines and books from time to time.
The offers are first come first served and they tend to go quickly, so snag it if you like it.
(Also this is truly a great source of entirely free magazine subscriptions, both print and digital.)
Do you know where to find free books?
If you have other sources, feel free to share them in the comments!