The 20 Best Places to Find Online Books Free

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

Fortunately, the savvy reader knows that there are plenty of places online to legally download books without spending a penny. In this post, we'll give you 20 of the best places to find free books online so you can satisfy even the most grueling book addictions, without the guilt.

1. Project Gutenberg

Named after the original 15th century printing press (and not the beloved star of the Police Academy films), Project Gutenberg is a volunteer-run effort to digitize and preserve books. Most of the titles available on the platform are in the public domain, which means that they are no longer copyrighted and can be freely distributed. 

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2. The Online Books Page

If that's not enough books for you, The Online BooksPage, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, has a staggering listing of over three million free ebooks! Unlike Project Gutenberg, they don't actually host any of the books themselves, but provide links to where you can download them. And their website looks like something straight out of 1996. Can we really complain when we talk about so many ebooks at our fingertips? This is a great resource for classics and obscure titles that provide in-depth dives into arcane topics, although newer books may also appear.

3. Kindle Store

Giving away free books has proven to be one of the most effective ways to build an audience. And as the world's # 1 bookseller, Amazon has become the place where many authors choose to make their titles available for free. If you search for "Free Books'' in the Kindle Store, you'll see more than 80,000 results. Instead of working your way through them all, start by checking out their bestseller list for the top 100 free eBooks.

4. Smashwords

Like Amazon, Smashwords has a page where you can easily see all the books that authors have chosen to give away for free. With the ability to browse by categories such as "Newest", "Best Seller" and "Top Rated", and by filtering by the length and genre of the book, this is an easy way to instantly find free books. (Don't forget to reselect the "free" category at the top if you choose to browse by genre!) The best part? Most of the stories are available in a wide variety of file formats, and you don't even need an account to download them.

5. Book Bub Shot

Browsing the Kindle Store for great free books can sometimes be a hit. Amazon's algorithms are advanced, but they won't always get you the kind of books you're looking for, especially if you limit yourself to their free store. That's where Bookbub and similar promotional services come into play. When you sign up for a free account, you will receive an email every day with links to free books and new discounted books that are curated based on your preferences. How easy is that?

6. Robin Reads

a book promotion service along the lines of BookBub, Robin Reads is a great way to stay in-the-know on all the hottest new titles and discounts. With everything from romance to horror to non-fiction, there is sure to be something interesting in almost all of their everyday emails.

7. eReader News Today

Like Robin Reads and BookBub, eReader News Today is one of the more reliable promotional services. Founded in 2010, they've been doing deals longer than anyone else, so they know for sure where to find all the goods. Their daily book offers span 20 genres and almost always include at least one free book. 

8. FreeBooksy Book Promotion Services

Most others focus on both free and discounted books, but FreeBooksy is the largest site devoted solely to ebooks that don't require payment. Unlike some of its competitors, it seeks deals from all the major retailers, so even if you're completely loyal to Kobo or Nook, you're bound to find some great books for free. (Can you see we're desperately trying not to the word 'free'?)

overuse9. Manybooks

Combining an extensive database of free books with a newsletter of daily deals, Manybooks is a great way to keep up to date of new books without missing the many centuries of books already within reach. The site is comfortable and easy to use, and their selection covers a wide variety of languages ​​to choose from.

10. Free Goodreads Shelves

Sometimes the easiest way to find free books is to crowdsource them, and Goodreads shelves make this process easy. Browsing by Shelf collects all the books users have placed in shelves with the same name, and you can easily find shelves marked as 'free ebooks', 'free ebook', 'free' and more. Now, as this depends on users marking books themselves, it is possible that some of the books were on the shelf at a time when a book was once given away for free and now comes with a higher sticker price. They can also stockpile public domain books that you can find through sites like Project Gutenberg, but there's no guarantee you'll find them for free if you follow the link to them on Amazon. Still, it's a rich resource that can easily give you titles you won't find on other sites, so it's definitely worth checking out.

11. Riveted by Simon Teen

Riveted by Simon Teen is the online young adult community founded by the teen fiction arm of Simon & Schuster (though we are the only ones that keep that Steve Buscemi meme when we hear the name "Simon Teen"? ). Each month, Riveted offers a new set of free reads. Most of these titles are "extended excerpts" from YA novels, but they will also include some full short stories from emerging authors. And as a kicker, they offer a completely free ebook to all new subscribers. 

12. Harlequin Online Reads

The leading publisher of romantic 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 huge catalog 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 display titles based on how much time you currently have to read (yes, really!), this collection will let you know for sure what the exact romantic fix you're craving.

13. Tor.com

In addition to regularly publishing tons of free short fiction available, Tor.com also hosts an eBook of the Month Club. To participate, all you have to do is sign up (free of course), and they'll send you a link once a month where you can download their selection in epub or mobi format. You need to act quickly when these emails come in - the titles are only available for a few days - but this is a great way to get a regular sci-fi or fantasy hit from one of the biggest publishers in the genre. Their selections are always satisfying and include some of Tor's greatest titles, such as works by the likes of John Scalzi, VE Schwab, and more.

14. Libby / OverDrive

In the wise words of Arthur the Aardvark: "Having fun isn't hard when you have a library card!" So it is with Libby, the new app from OverDrive. OverDrive allows libraries to purchase ebooks to lend to their customers. Each "copy" of the ebook can only be checked out by one user at a time. The loan duration and the total number of titles you can have at the same time differs per library. Books can be checked out and downloaded directly through Libby, or downloaded to read through Kindle. Because only one person can view each copy at a time, there are often waiting lists of popular titles - sometimes important ones - so keep an eye out for that next time you read yours. However, the catalog available for each library is quite extensive, and if there is ever a title that your library hasn't purchased yet, there's a simple button to request it directly in the app.

15. hoopla

Another option for many library users, hoopla offers a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks and comic books, all from one convenient interface. Unlike OverDrive, customers are limited to a certain number of total checkouts per calendar month, as determined by your library. However, since there is no limit to the number of people who can read a book at one time, this is a great way to read new and in-demand titles - no waiting lists required!

16. Wattpad

Fans of fanfic have long been familiar with sites where users can upload stories chapter by chapter, but Wattpad brings that idea to life in the original world of fiction - with a few added benefits. Started in 2006, Wattpad is perfect if you're looking for a wide variety of different voices and unconventional stories that might be overlooked by major publishers. Brimming with talented writers and avid readers, it's a community unlike anything else in the reading landscape. Leave comments, follow your favorite authors and vote up the stories you like. With the free app you can keep track of even the best stories right from your phone.

17. PaperBack Swap

If you prefer old-fashioned paperback to reading ebooks, you'll want to take advantage of the many online book swap communities. PaperBack Swap is the most important of these. The idea is quite simple: you make a list of all the books you no longer want to keep, and if someone asks for it, you mail it to him or her. After that, all you have to do is choose one of the millions of books listed by other readers ... and wait for it to arrive in the mail. It's like having thousands of friends who love books!

18. Open Culture

In deOpen Cultuur, they scour the internet for the "audiobooks you need, the language lessons and educational videos you want, and lots of lighting in between". As a curator of free online learning resources, this sounds great to us! Their audiobook selection is top-notch too, including some surprisingly high-profile storytellers. (The Wizard of Oz as read by Tituss Burgess? Where do they even find these treasures?)

19. LibriVox

Let's face it, sometimes you just don't feel like staring at a screen for a second longer than you need to. When that mood strikes, or if you need something to keep you busy while doing chores, audiobooks are a welcome addition to any reading routine. LibriVox makes it easy to get into the habit by offering public domain books in dozens of different languages.

20. Story

Finally, in our rush to find free books, let's not forget the smallest readers among us! Storynory offers free audiobooks for kids, featuring everything from classics to brand new originals exclusive to the Storynory site. While the collection isn't quite as extensive as some of the sites on our list, the stories are charming and provide a welcome distraction when someone just doesn't want to settle down.