Need some new reading material? Public domain books, which are absolutely free to download and are no longer under copyright, are a great way to explore everything from classic novels to computer manuals. Here are 15 sources for free books or ebooks in the public domain you can quickly and easily download to your PC to read right in your web browser.
Most of these sites also make their content offerings available to download for a wide variety of e-book readers, such as a Kindle or a Nook.
Authorama
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Alphabetized list of books.
Includes modern texts and speech transcripts.
Selection is rather limited.
Few books by authors outside Europe and the U.S.
Authorama offers a wide variety of books from a great selection of authors, including Hans Christian Anderson and Mary Shelley. If you're looking for the classics, this is a good place to start.
LibriVox
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Listen before you download.
Record and share audiobooks.
No alphabetized list of books.
Limited to pre-1930s texts.
Audiobooks are a great way to get your reading in, especially if you're in your car a lot, and LibriVox looks to fill that need with hundreds of freely available audiobooks. Volunteers sign up to read chapters of public domain books, and then those chapters are placed online for readers to download for free.
Be sure to look for the LibriVox app to add to your mobile device so you can listen to all of your favorites on the go.
Google Books
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Powered by the largest search engine.
Mobile app optimized for e-readers.
Mobile app lacks support for bookmarks and personalization options.
Google Books has a nice selection of public domain e-books mostly in the classical literature genre, but search Google Books or use the main Google search engine to find all manner of public domain e-books.
You can also use Google Scholar to find public domain works. In Google Scholar, select the hamburger menu in the upper left corner and choose Advanced Search. In the Date/Return articles published between field, type in 1923 in the second date box, which will return public domain works. Double-check each piece of content to make sure that it does indeed fall under public domain.
Project Gutenberg
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Includes thousands of non-English books.
Very easy to browse books alphabetically and by subject.
Website supports only English, French, Portuguese, and German.
Search feature has a learning curve.
Project Gutenberg is one of the oldest sources for public domain books on the web. More than 60,000 books are available in many different formats (PC, Kindle, Sony reader, etc.). It has one of the widest selections you'll find of freely available books on the web.
Feedbooks
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Send books directly to your tablet, phone, or e-reader.
Offers obscure science fiction.
Mostly European and American literature.
Browsing interface is confusing at first.
Feedbooks offers free public domain books as well as original works from authors uploading their books to the site, which is a great way to discover new, up-and-coming authors. In addition, if you've been itching to publish a book, Feedbooks is a good source to get the word out.
Internet Archive
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Very thorough search filter.
Borrow newer books for free.
Challenging to navigate, interface is overwhelming.
Mostly academic and educational texts.
The Internet Archive is an amazing resource for public domain books, with sub-collections such as American Libraries, Children's Library, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. More collections are added on a regular basis, so be sure to check back often for new reading material.
ManyBooks
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Attractive and easy to browse.
Blog contains book suggestions.
Books may be inappropriate for some.
Small selection of non-English books.
ManyBooks offers more than 50,000 free public domain books for download. The site is organized so you can find books as easily as possible. Filter by Authors, Titles, Genres, and Recent Additions. This is one of the most user-friendly sites on the web for finding and downloading free books.
LoudLit
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Powerful readings of classic poems and short stories.
A great resource for English teachers.
Small collection compared to LibriVox.
Very bare-bones homepage.
Similar to LibriVox, LoudLit partners great literature found in the public domain with high-quality audio recordings, both available for download right to your PC or e-reader.
Online Library of Liberty
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Material you won't find anywhere else.
A treasure trove of political history.
Selection has a narrow focus.
An unabashed political agenda.
The Online Library of Liberty offers readers "individual liberty, limited constitutional government, and the free market," all in the public domain and free for download.
Questia
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Great resource for students and writers.
Browser-friendly e-reader.
Subscription needed to access journals and magazines.
Distracting advertisements.
Questia offers books, journal articles, magazines, and newspaper articles, all in the humanities and social sciences. Questia is especially useful for anyone needing scholarly resources since all the materials are reviewed by collection librarians.
ReadPrint
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Create a profile and communicate with other readers.
Well-organized database of famous quotes.
Focus on popular British literature.
The "groups" social feature doesn't always work.
Books, essays, poems, and stories are all available at ReadPrint, with an advanced search feature that lets you find books, quotes, authors, and groups. ReadPrint was named one of Time Magazine's 50 best websites.
Classic Literature Library
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Partners with Project Gutenburg.
Impressive author biographies and bibliographies.
Site is cluttered with ads.
Only features British and American authors.
This site is extremely well organized into collections: Classic American Literature, Classic Italian Literature, the complete works of William Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Fairy Tales and Children's Literature, and lots more.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL)
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Excellent resource for seminary students.
Includes biblical commentary you won't find elsewhere.
Narrow focus.
Tons of ads.
O'Reilly Open Books Project
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Great tool for learning software development.
Wide selection of out-of-print books.
Selection is limited to a single broad topic.
Very few texts in languages other than English.
Technical audiobooks are available from the O'Reilly Open Books Project, mostly focusing on programming languages and computer operating systems. O'Reilly makes these books available for a variety of reasons, including historical relevance and general education. The publisher is also proud to be part of the Creative Commons community.
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