I love books. I always have. But it’s the 21st century, and the old hardcovers/paperbacks/audiobooks just aren’t going to cut it anymore. I’ve embraced the digital revolution in my mail, my banking and my horoscope, and now it’s time to bring it to my reading as well.
So if you’re like me and you have an eReader, mobile device or computer that you’re ready to fill up with your own digital library, here are four sites that can start you off for little or no money.
Gutenberg.org
Gutenberg.org is THE place for free ebooks online. Their selection includes 36, 000 different titles that can be downloaded onto your computer, eReader or mobile device. Not only are these books free to read, but almost all are public domain in the United States, so you can make verbatim or non-verbatim copies of these works. Gutenberg.org also has a network of affiliates that carry 100,000 more titles, although not all of these are free.
Feedbooks.com
Feedbooks.com is another site that has free ebooks available for download. Unlike Gutenberg.org, however, you can buy recent titles like any other commercial site. There is another perk here, too. Feedbooks.com allows unknown writers to publish their own works, so if you do some browsing, you can often find a diamond in the rough from an author wanting to share their work.
Questia.com
Questia.com is an online research library with thousands of books and articles. The majority of the materials are available by subscription only, but they offer an encyclopedia and 5,000 other books with no charge. You can preview a sample of many of the books and articles, and a special feature allows you to search the catalogues of your local libraries for physical copies of a particular book.
LibriVox.org
LibriVox.org is one of Gutenberg.org’s affiliated sites dedicated specifically to audio recordings. All of these are free, and there are several options for listening. LibriVox gives you detailed instructions on how to download the works to your device.