E-books have made it possible for anyone to read on many different devices: on your phone, your e-reader, your laptop or your computer. You can carry your favorite books with you, read lecture notes and articles on the go—and also publish your very own fictional or scientific work yourself!
Getting e-books is becoming more and more easy as well. The biggest book distributors like Amazon or Barnes & Noble offer an online market for e-books, where you can purchase them along with the paperback or hardcover versions.
However, there are literally millions of free e-books available online, completely for free! Most of them are fictional stories, guides, or documentaries published by independent authors, or freely accessible lecture notes, text books and scientific papers by researchers and universities. In today’s article, we will present you with 24 websites where you can download or find free e-books in many different genres and categories!
Download E-Books Online
For your convenience, we have tried to sort the following websites into different categories. The first pages will contain all sorts of e-books for free download, containing fictional as well as non-fictional books.
1. Free-Ebooks.net – On Free-Ebooks.net you will find books beloning to many different categories, ranging from fiction to textbooks and academic work. They even provide some audiobooks, if you are interested in those as well.
Registering for a free account, you are able to download up to 5 ebooks per month in the PDF format. This free account is mandatory for any kind of download. A so-called VIP account (paid) will give you access to downloads in the EPUB and Amazon Kindle format, as well as the lifting of download limitations.
2. FreeBookSpot – The page provides books in many different categories in both fiction and non fiction. They also provide e-books in other languages than English, like German, French or Spanish.
Downloads are handled by different, third-party providers. In most cases, a slow download (linked to a certain amount of waiting until the link is available) is free. High speed download has to be purchased. Depending on the uploader, you will either receive the file directly in one specific format, or a ZIP archive containing the book in many different formats.
3. Bookyards – On bookyards, you can find books of different genres. They are all published by independent authors, thus it is also possible to find spam resp. advertisements. However, there are still quite some gems among the books listed.
Downloads are free and available in the PDF format only.
4. ebook3000.com – The books available at ebook3000.com range from fictional books over non-fiction to comics even.
The download of the books and comic is free. Depending on the book, the formats in which they are available may differ. Usually, they are provided in either PDF or EPUB, or CBR when it comes to comics. After registering for a free account, there is also a read online mode available.
5. manybooks.net – manybooks.com provides books in many different categories, fiction and non-fiction.
The books can be downloaded in many different formats, suiting your e-reader or e-book reader app. Furthermore, there is a possibility to read the books online in your browser. Both, the read online mode and the download are free and do not require registration.
6. Adobe Digital Editions – With Digital Editions, Adobe provides users with a versatile e-book reader. On the homepage of Adobe Digital Editions, they also provide a small library of sample e-books.
The download of the books in the library is for free, however they are only provided in the EPUB format.
7. SlideShare – SlideShare is a popular platform run by LinkedIn that allows users to upload slides and presentations. There, you can easily download lectures or other presentations on different topics, uploaded by other users.
To use SlideShare, you are required to register. You can easily login using your Facebook or LinkedIn account though. The downloads are all provided in PDF, and of course you can view the slideshows online as well.
E-Books On Specific Topics
The following websites provide e-books about certain, specific topics.
8. Project Gutenberg – As one of the most well-known distributors of electronic books, Project Gutenberg offers free scientific books and articles on their platform.
The books can be downloaded in in many different formats.
9. Planet eBook – Planet eBook is specified in classic literature.
All downloads are available in the PDF format.
10. Planet Publish – Just like the aforementioned, Planet Publish offers classic literature to it’s users.
Download are available in PDF only.
11. bookboon – On bookboon, you will find many different textbooks and books related to different business topics.
To be able to download the books, you are required to enter your e-mail as well as information about your studies or field of employment. Furthermore, by providing your e-mail address, you subscribe to their newsletter (which can be easily unsubscribed to again). Downloads are in the PDF format.
12. OnlineProgrammingBooks.com – As the name suggests, this website provides different books about programming in different frameworks and languages.
They also provide downloads in PDF only.
13. Tech Books For Free – If you are looking for different tech-related books you came for the right place.
Depending on the book, Tech Books For Free either links you to the original content to read it online, or provides a download link, either directly or using a third-party uploader. Depending on the book, the available format can differ.
Paid & Free E-Books
Some websites that offer e-books for purchase also have a list of books you can download for free. The following websites provide both: books you can buy and books you can download for free:
14. BookRix – BookRix offers e-books in many different categories ranging from fiction (Fantasy, Romance, Juvenile Fiction, Thriller, etc.) and non-fiction (Nature, Philosophy, etc.). The stories published are mostly by indie authors, however, you will find some classical literature as well. Section for free books: here
BookRix offers a read online mode to their users as well as providing downloads in the MOBI or EPUB format (or both).
Furthermore, they offer a community section for authors that want to publish their work on BookRix or talk to other authors. Community: here
15. eLibrary – eLibrary provides paid and free books in different categories. Section for free books: here
The free books can be downloaded as PDF.
16. Bean – Bean publishing is specialized in fantasy books. Some of the books they offer can be downloaded for free. Section for free books: here
For the free books, Bean offers a read online mode as well as a download in MOBI, EPUB or other e-book formats.
Read E-Books Online
Some websites do not allow you to download the books available, however, you can read them in your browser.
17. ReadEasily – ReadEasily provides e-books in different categories both from fiction and non-fiction, however, the books mostly belong to the classic literature genre.
EDIT: This service is unfortunately not continued anymore.
18. Issuu – On Issuu, you can read all kinds of magazines in different languages online.
For more see here: How To Read E-Books on Chrome & Firefox
E-Book Link-Lists & Search Engines
The websites listed in this category do not offer direct downloads of e-books. Instead, they function as either a big list of links that lead to downloadable or online-readable content, or search engines that will direct you to the pages that offer the download of different materials.
19. Book Gold Mine – The Book Gold Mine is a collection of links to scientific books, lectures, notes, etc. The links lead to the original and freely accessible content, oftentimes provided by either the authors or universities and research facilities.
20. The Online Books Page – A search engine for scientific work. You can find lectures and magazine articles on different topics here. The links lead to other distributors like JSTOR or the original authors.
21. eBookLobby – A small selection of books, providing more non-fiction than fiction. The links lead to other e-book distributors or the original authors of the books.
22. e-Books Directory – A search engine for different books of fiction or non-fiction. For some categories, they even provide links to freely downloadable audiobooks. Again, the links lead to the original sources or other distributors.
23. FreeComputerBooks.com – As the name suggests, the page revolves around books about computers, IT, programming languages and more. The provided links lead to purchase possibilities as well as read online modes or third-party downloaders, depending on the book itself.
24. Free Ebooks Download Links – A blog that lists scientific books about programming, biology, maths and more. The links provided lead to freely downloadable sources by the original authors.
Convert Your E-Books
Some of the pages listed above allow you to download the e-books in many different formats. However, not all sites proved to be as versatile. Thus, it may be necessary for you to convert your e-book into a format that your e-reading application or e-reader can support.
You may have to convert the downloaded books when:
- the download of certain formats is only available for paid account (e.g. Free-Ebooks.net),
- only PDF downloads are possible (e.g. PlaneteBook, bookboon, Bookyards, OnlineProgrammingBooks.com, Planet Publish, SlideShare),
- or the format you need is not available (e.g. BookRix, FreeBookSpot, Adobe Digital Editions, Tech Books For Free).
The format you have to choose depends on your e-book reader or e-reader app. Here’s a helpful article that tells you which formats are used by which e-book readers: Files Supported by Your eBook Reader
And where can you convert your files? Online-Convert.com provides many different and free e-book converters. There, you can convert your downloaded book to MOBI, PDF, EPUB, AZW, FB2 or other e-book formats.
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