In Part 1 of this series, we covered some fantastic resources for digging up free books online. Here are 5 more great sites – each with it’s own distinct flavor.
6. Find Specialized IT Books With FreeComputerBooks.com
I think the name of the site says it all. What I like about this site is that all their books are very specifically tagged so you can zoom down on whatever topic you want very quickly.
7. Get Someone to Read Books to You at Librivox
Too lazy to read? Get Librivox to read it to you! These guys are undertaking a collaborative project and working with volunteers to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the Internet. They also offer podcasts for their recent work too, so you can get books on your MP3 player with a snap of your fingers.
8. Skip the Book and Get Free Study Notes with CliffsNotes
Yes – CliffsNotes, the all time favorite resource for literary study guides, are now GIVING away their a lot of their literary material. A truly excellent resource if you’re cramming for a test.
9. Save Money on Textbooks With WikiBooks
WikiBooks is yet another awesome project by the Jimmy Wales and the WikiMedia team (The same guys who brought you Wikipedia) with a mission to create a free collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit.
They currently have more than 25,000 books on a variety of topics, and can rival many public libraries. One thing to be wary off is that the books can be edited, defaced, or maliciously changed by anyone. While this same possibility is true for Wikipedia, their large base of editors and volunteers ensure that any bad behavior is kept in check. This project would have a much smaller base, and thus may not correct mistakes as fast.
10. Receive Books In Small Parts via Email Using DailyLit
No time to read? DailyLit breaks down big books into smaller chunks so you can read it in palatable parts.
Why read books by email?
“Because if you are like us, you spend hours each day reading email but don’t find the time to read books. DailyLit brings books right into your inbox in convenient small messages that take less than 5 minutes to read. This works incredibly well not just on your computer but also on a Treo, Blackberry, Sidekick or whatever the PDA of your choice. In the words of Dr. Seuss: Try it, you might like it!” via Daily Lit FAQ
Get more excellent resources in part 1 or look through the ultimate list of free books
Know any other good book sites? What’s your experience with books online? Tell us in the comments!
[tags]ebooks, freebooks [/tags]
April 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
paperbackswap.com
Exchange books for the cost of media mail only- typically $1.59 for an average paperback. Points system, club keeps good track for you. Free.
April 7th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I really love
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
It’s a lister rather than having many books on its own servers, but it has a huge number of books to search including those from Gutenberg, government sites, and many more places. It’s the first place I go when I want to see if a book is online.
April 7th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Baen Free Books – free science fiction and fantasy novels
http://www.baen.com/library/
April 7th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
paperbackswap.com is great! it works in a fashion similar to bookmooch, but with a much more established system and more comprehensive book listings!
April 7th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Realtime Publishers – Free IT books by well-known authors
http://www.realtimepublishers.com
April 7th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Podiobooks.com has dozens of free audiobooks that you can subscribe to with iTunes or any other podcatcher.
http://www.podiobooks.com
April 8th, 2007 at 12:26 am
One of the best is manybooks.net. Try it. 1000’s of books covering many types of literature. Best site since the demise of blackmask.com
April 8th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Check out http://www.bookrags.com/browse/ebooks/ They have all the Gutenberg books formatted in HTML, and also (if you dig around) a lot more summaries than Cliffs Notes.
April 8th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Very nice very nice… keep em coming :)
April 8th, 2007 at 3:38 am
http://www.chmpdf.com It’s hard to beat, especially for software development and computer related books (Apress, Addison-Wesley, McGraw-Hill, MS Press, etc.) from 1990 to 2007!!!
April 8th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Radio and vacuum tube books from 20’s to 50’s
http://www.pmillett.com/tecnical_books_online.htm
April 8th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Has anyone mentioned http://manybooks.net/ ? That has everything. All kinds of classics, and many by philosophers, in pdf format.
April 8th, 2007 at 10:33 am
whoops, someone beat me to the manybooks suggestions. Well, I highly agree with Tony Bryan!
April 8th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
great site with a decent selection of web books, just need a .edu email address to join easily, if you don’t they want a credit card that wont be charged ever. and if you join reference my email jhanse14@stumail.jccc.edu
April 8th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
^^^^^!!!! ugg that site is http://www.wowio.com !!!!
April 8th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
^^^^^!!!! okay sry i cant delete my last posts its lame. my reference email is jphansen@ksu.edu sry to bloat up the postings
April 9th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
http://www.chmpdf.com and http://www.flazx.com are too good sites for computer and it books..i think they are the BEST sites
April 10th, 2007 at 1:10 am
http://www.whatsonmybookshelf.com
April 10th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Thanks for the tips guys! Will be adding it to my “ultimate list post”
April 10th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
http://www.bookins.com
i am addicted!!!! it is an AWESOME system, and has tons of books to chose from.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:01 am
http://www.archive.org — almost 200,000 public domain books lovingly scanned in. Many, many of the classic novels and reference works from pre-1923.
April 13th, 2007 at 2:43 am
http://www.bookmooch.com/
BookMooch.com is a site where you trade books with other members. There is no cost to join and the only costs associated with trades is shipping charges when you ship a book, which is cheap with Media Mail.
More info: http://www.bookmooch.com/about/
Great Sites to Trade Used Books – FREE All you pay is Postage
http://www.paperbackswap.com – Paperback & Hardback books
http://www.frugalreader.com -Paperback & hardback books
http://www.titletrader.com – Paperback ,Hardbacks books , Cd’s , DVD’s , Games , Mags , VHS
April 13th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Enjoyed reading your post.
For everyone’s info, we at Bookyards ( http://www.bookyards.com ) have compiled a good collection of free digital libraries with books available for downloading for free. Just go to Bookyards “Library Collections – E Books†at http://www.bookyards.com/links.html?type=links&category_id=1780
There are approximately 550 digital libraries separated alphabetically and by category, with over 500,000 unique ebooks
Bookyards is a free online library located at http://www.bookyards.com
April 15th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
how about a search engine which searches all hiqgh quality ebook sites (such as flazx.com, chmpdf, gigapedia.org, etc.)?
Check out http://ebooksearchr.googlepages.com/
May 19th, 2007 at 11:46 am
How about a library? You know, if anyone here goes outside at all
May 27th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
I believe this is the best:
toebook.com
May 30th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
سلام ، مرسی ،خیلی خوبه .
اما چرا ؟
Ùقط به یک زبان !!
June 10th, 2007 at 12:17 am
I tried paperbackswap.com and it was terrible. People asked me for my books which I mailed out immediately but I had trouble finding books I was interested in and then the people I requested books from didn’t respond. The site is difficult to navigate and slow as well. It is a great idea but it was too much hassle for too little benefit. I spent the money to mail out five good books and got only one book (in terrible condition) before I gave up in frustration. Just my experience-ymmv.
June 10th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Thanks Daria – this is certainly a good warning to whoever wanted to try the service. I hope future usage of that service (or others) would be better!
June 12th, 2007 at 7:59 am
http://www.girlebooks.com doesn’t have a large catalog yet, but all the books are free, professionally formatted (with a linked table of contents) and available in several ebook formats.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:24 am
A site dedicated to building a catalogue of 20th Century classics, predicated on the principle that “intellectual property” impoverishes.
Free ebooks by Asimov, Burgess, Eco, Cherryh, Fowles, Greene, King, and many others. Over 280 titles at last count.
Welcome to my shelves!
http://www.truly-free.org
http://www.burgomeister.org
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:12 am
If you are lucky to live in or near Baltimore there is a wonderful place called the Book Thing that lets you get as many free books as you want. Yep walk right in and walk out with free books. Great place!
September 26th, 2007 at 6:22 am
The best website is BookMooch. In less than a week, I’ve mailed four books to two different people, received one, and requested two others. Sometimes it can be a bit slow, however. A wonderful website for catalogueing books is LibraryThing.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Many free books are avelaible at http://www.freebooks.bindaltech.com
October 24th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Also Many free books are avelaible at http://www.freebooks.bindaltech.org so read and enjoy
November 5th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
abdo
November 15th, 2007 at 2:05 am
This website (www.BindalTech.org) is being updated almost every week, so keep visiting and enjoy new books every week.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:13 am
I wish to add my blog (http://freakyky.blogspot.com) to the list. I started it only two days ago, so I only have 13 ebooks on it but my goal is to reach at least 250 ebooks, I’ll add daily at least 10 new ebooks ranging from Tolkien to Harry potter to Agatha Christie, and more depend peoples requests (IT, food, magazines,…).
I’ll try to put some audiobooks as well (I’ve got 14Go of them on my PC, and I want to share them with others), and later also some Mangas (I’ve got about 10Go of them). But I’ll do the ebooks first, so check my blog (http://freakyky.blogspot.com) daily for new ebooks and don’t hesitate to comment and make request (I’ll do my best to find what you’re looking for).
Freakyky
March 12th, 2008 at 2:00 am
I really liked your list. I posted your list on http://listdid.com. Feel free to post your future lists on my website.
Thanks,
Aaron
March 12th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
great post. the comments were useful too ! the ones with the links ^^
June 4th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
One more:
http://www.ebooks-for-all.com
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
i am really surprised that no one mentioned http://www.freebookspot.com a really good collection…in terms of range and updating..and it is absolutely free allowing downloads through rapidshare.one got to check it out!
August 24th, 2008 at 4:20 am
plz go to
http://www.sharelp.com
April 5th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Now I’ll never have to buy books :D
Nice links.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Check out http://www.ilikefreebooks.com for free books in many categories!