Where to Find and Download Quality Free Books Online

Technology has indeed changed how we access and consume books. With just a click of a button, anyone anywhere can access and read any book online with little or no restrictions.

Platforms like Amazon, eBay, and iTunes house thousands, if not millions of books. Most of these books, however, come with a price tag due to copyright laws. Interested readers have to pay to be able to access them.

However, if you’re a book lover on a budget, there are other sites you can visit to access and download books for free. Here are five top ⁠free ebook download sites to find and download quality free books online.

Table of Contents

Top Free Book Download Sites

Project Gutenberg

Founded in 1971, Project Gutenberg (PG) is the world’s oldest digital library. The platform began as an initiative to digitize and store cultural works while promoting the creation and distribution of eBooks.

Today, the website has grown into one of the largest free digital libraries in the world. It houses over 60,000 free books, mainly in English, although non-English books are also available. Books are available for download in different formats, including HTML, PDF, MOBI, EPUB, and also in plain text.

To download, visit their website, where you can search by author, subject, language, title, type, etc. The website is free, so you do not need any registration or subscription fee to access available books. Also, every book on the site has a copyright clearance, so you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement.

Read also: Top 10 Websites to Download Audibooks of Your Favourite Books

Open Library

Open Library is another popular free book download website. It is also one of the largest free ebook download libraries online. The library currently holds over 3 million books that can be read online or downloaded as PDF or EPUB files. It also works with the Internet Archive, allowing registered users to borrow over 1.3 million modern copyright books for 14 days and read them online.

In fact, Open Library started as an initiative of the Internet Archive, a public digital library, to create a web page for every book ever published. Like the digital archive, most contents on the Open Library are in the Public Domain; the intellectual property rights are no longer applicable. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement when downloading them.

To access books on the Open Library, visit their website to sign up. You can also sign in directly with an Internet Archive account if you already have one. You can search for any book by title, author’s name, genre, publisher, or ISBN, and you can read online, download free public-domain books, or borrow copyrighted materials.

Feedbooks

Feedbooks is a free, digital ebook download library that houses over 100,000 public-domain books. They, however, also offer books for sale. In other words, it serves as a digital library where you can download free books and a publishing service platform. So, apart from the free ebook download feature, users can also upload personal book content for evaluation. This content can be published and shared upon evaluation if it meets the necessary criteria.

The website also has a feature that allows users to turn their RSS feeds, that is, webpage contents, into PDF files. These PDF files can then be viewed on a mobile device.

To access free books on Feedbooks, visit their website. You don’t have to sign up to access free books on the site. You can just search by name, author, genre, release date, language, etc.

Read also: Top 5 Books on Entrepreneurship You Need to Read

ManyBooks

ManyBooks is another excellent source for free book downloads. Established in 2004, this digital library houses over 50,000 books that users can download for free. You can download books in formats like PDF, HTML, Mobi, RTF, and other supported formats. The website also has an in-built book reader that users can use to read books online.

Specifically, ManyBooks works with other notable free book download sites such as Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive. The connection with old sites like these means many classic materials will be available on the site.

The site also has a feature that allows self-publishing authors to introduce their work to other users online. These books are uploaded to the website as long as they meet the required standards.

To access free books on ManyBooks, visit their website and sign up for free. The website also has a mobile app for download on the Play Store and App Store.

Read also: 12 Must-read Self-help Books for Self Improvement

LibriVox

If you are a lover of audiobooks, LibriVox is for you. The website currently houses about 20,000 audiobooks, available for free downloads. Audio recordings of free books are recorded by volunteers worldwide, which is more enjoyable than computer-generated voices. Although this method is prone to human error, LbriVox always ensures that each recording is thoroughly listened to and vetted by volunteer listeners to reduce errors to the barest minimum.

The audiobooks are available in multiple languages, including English, French, Russian, etc. The website also has a collection of dramatic audio recordings and plays where different readers read each character in a book, which adds more fun to listening.

To access free books on LibriVox, visit their website and search for any books you choose. You can search by title, author, genre, language, etc. You can also search by keywords or the reader’s name. Audio recordings can be downloaded as zip files, requiring you to unzip the file into mp3 format after download.

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Conclusion

There are many free book download sites where you can download any free books. Apart from the five top sites discussed in this article, other notable ones include BookBub, Smashwords, Google Books, Library Genesis, OBOOKO, and many more. Note that downloading from legitimate sites is essential to avoid copyright infringement.

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Edited by Oluwanifemi Akintomide.

About Author

Inioluwa Olutayo: Olutayo Inioluwa Emmanuel is a versatile, creative, results-oriented content writer with over five years of experience. He excels in creating engaging short-form and long-form content, blending creativity with strong research skills. Adding to his strengths, Olutayo strategically employs SEO best practices to enhance visibility and engagement.