Do you love to read?

I do.

But with traveling a lot, a recent move and purge, and well, inflation, I haven’t been buying as many books as I did before. To begin, I started using my Kindle more, because as long as I have my phone I would have a book. Fortunately, I found there are many places online where you can download free eBooks. I thought I’d share a few popular sites for you to check out.

This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions are mine.
It is my Universe, after all.

Swipe This Out

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library. It was originally founded in 1971 (good year!) to help digitize and archive historical works. Hence, the name - Johannes Gutenberg began the printing revolution through the invention of the movable-type printing press. Currently, it sports a library of 70,000 eBooks - and they’re all free to download.

Now, most of these books are old works of fiction and non-fiction that have become public domain due to their copyright expiring, There are some newer books there, however, if you do a little digging around. 

Google Play Books

There’s a surprising amount of free books available via Google Play Books. Many first-time authors self-publish their books for free on Google Play Books in order to get some exposure and make a name for themselves. The quality of the books varies, but you are exposing yourself to fresh, new authors and may just find a real diamond in the rough. Plus, there is no real risk as it is free. Check out the reviews on more popular eBooks to see if a book is worth reading. 

Amazon Kindle Store

It’s easy to forget, but Amazon actually started out as an online bookstore. It still continues to be a great site for buying books, including e-books through its Kindle store. And yes, there are free eBooks to be found here too.

WHAAAAT?

Yes, it’s true.

Some are exclusive to Amazon Prime members or Kindle Unlimited subscribers, but others can be downloaded for free regardless of whether you have either a Prime or Kindle Unlimited account. 

BookBoon

BookBoon specializes in free eBooks for students and professionals. This is the place to find thousands of free textbooks and business handbooks. If you’re in college or you’re starting a business, look here.

Open Library

Open Library has an archive of over 1.5 million titles. Here’s where we get beyond public domain works, to access many modern releases that you can find on the site’s homepage including some of my all-time favorites like Stephen King and Harry Potter. Open Library behaves like a library in that you borrow books for a certain period of time before they automatically return to the library. Only one person can borrow each book at a time, but there are often multiple versions to borrow. 

LibGen

LibGen is one of the best book torrent sites and contains everything from comics to scholarly journal articles. These works are all free to rent. JWord to the wise, LibGen has been a subject of legal controversy due to the nature of its file-sharing content and is blocked in some countries unless you use a VPN. 

Internet Archive

Internet Archive is a non-profit online library. On top of being home to the famous Wayback Machine which archives old web pages, it also offers a plethora of free books, movies, and other media. Most of these books are public domain titles or books that have otherwise been published for free by the author.

For the Road

So, if you are looking to download a few books like me for a summer road trip, I hope this has made it easier and more affordable for you.