Do More › Web & Search How to Find Public Domain Books Online 14 sources for free, public domain books Share Pin Email Print Web & Search Best of the Web Search Engines Safety & Privacy Running a Website by Stacy Fisher Updated December 12, 2019 74 74 people found this article helpful Need some new reading material? Public domain books, which are absolutely free to download and are no longer under copyright, are a great way to explore everything from classic novels to computer manuals. Here are 15 sources for free books or ebooks in the public domain you can quickly and easily download to your PC to read right in your web browser. Most of these sites also make their content offerings available to download for a wide variety of e-book readers, such as a Kindle or a Nook. 01 of 14 Authorama What We Like Alphabetized list of books. Includes modern texts and speech transcripts. What We Don't Like Selection is rather limited. Few books by authors outside Europe and the U.S. Authorama offers a wide variety of books from a great selection of authors, including Hans Christian Anderson and Mary Shelley. If you're looking for the classics, this is a good place to start. Visit Authorama 02 of 14 LibriVox What We Like Listen before you download. Record and share audiobooks. What We Don't Like No alphabetized list of books. Limited to pre-1930s texts. Audiobooks are a great way to get your reading in, especially if you're in your car a lot, and LibriVox looks to fill that need with hundreds of freely available audiobooks. Volunteers sign up to read chapters of public domain books, and then those chapters are placed online for readers to download for free. Be sure to look for the LibriVox app to add to your mobile device so you can listen to all of your favorites on the go. Visit LibriVox 03 of 14 Google Books What We Like Powered by the largest search engine. Mobile app optimized for e-readers. What We Don't Like Mobile app lacks support for bookmarks and personalization options. Read Our Article on Google Books Google Books has a nice selection of public domain e-books mostly in the classical literature genre, but search Google Books or use the main Google search engine to find all manner of public domain e-books. You can also use Google Scholar to find public domain works. In Google Scholar, select the hamburger menu in the upper left corner and choose Advanced Search. In the Date/Return articles published between field, type in 1923 in the second date box, which will return public domain works. Double-check each piece of content to make sure that it does indeed fall under public domain. Visit Google Books 04 of 14 Project Gutenberg What We Like Includes thousands of non-English books. Very easy to browse books alphabetically and by subject. What We Don't Like Website supports only English, French, Portuguese, and German. Search feature has a learning curve. Project Gutenberg is one of the oldest sources for public domain books on the web. More than 60,000 books are available in many different formats (PC, Kindle, Sony reader, etc.). It has one of the widest selections you'll find of freely available books on the web. Visit Project Gutenberg 05 of 14 Feedbooks What We Like Send books directly to your tablet, phone, or e-reader. Offers obscure science fiction. What We Don't Like Mostly European and American literature. Browsing interface is confusing at first. Feedbooks offers free public domain books as well as original works from authors uploading their books to the site, which is a great way to discover new, up-and-coming authors. In addition, if you've been itching to publish a book, Feedbooks is a good source to get the word out. Visit Feedbooks 06 of 14 Internet Archive What We Like Very thorough search filter. Borrow newer books for free. What We Don't Like Challenging to navigate, interface is overwhelming. Mostly academic and educational texts. The Internet Archive is an amazing resource for public domain books, with sub-collections such as American Libraries, Children's Library, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. More collections are added on a regular basis, so be sure to check back often for new reading material. Visit Internet Archive 07 of 14 ManyBooks What We Like Attractive and easy to browse. Blog contains book suggestions. What We Don't Like Books may be inappropriate for some. Small selection of non-English books. ManyBooks offers more than 50,000 free public domain books for download. The site is organized so you can find books as easily as possible. Filter by Authors, Titles, Genres, and Recent Additions. This is one of the most user-friendly sites on the web for finding and downloading free books. Visit ManyBooks 08 of 14 LoudLit What We Like Powerful readings of classic poems and short stories. A great resource for English teachers. What We Don't Like Small collection compared to LibriVox. Very bare-bones homepage. Similar to LibriVox, LoudLit partners great literature found in the public domain with high-quality audio recordings, both available for download right to your PC or e-reader. Visit LoudLit 09 of 14 Online Library of Liberty What We Like Material you won't find anywhere else. A treasure trove of political history. What We Don't Like Selection has a narrow focus. An unabashed political agenda. The Online Library of Liberty offers readers "individual liberty, limited constitutional government, and the free market," all in the public domain and free for download. Visit the Online Library of Liberty 10 of 14 Questia What We Like Great resource for students and writers. Browser-friendly e-reader. What We Don't Like Subscription needed to access journals and magazines. Distracting advertisements. Questia offers books, journal articles, magazines, and newspaper articles, all in the humanities and social sciences. Questia is especially useful for anyone needing scholarly resources since all the materials are reviewed by collection librarians. Visit Questia 11 of 14 ReadPrint What We Like Create a profile and communicate with other readers. Well-organized database of famous quotes. What We Don't Like Focus on popular British literature. The "groups" social feature doesn't always work. Books, essays, poems, and stories are all available at ReadPrint, with an advanced search feature that lets you find books, quotes, authors, and groups. ReadPrint was named one of Time Magazine's 50 best websites. Visit ReadPrint 12 of 14 Classic Literature Library What We Like Partners with Project Gutenburg. Impressive author biographies and bibliographies. What We Don't Like Site is cluttered with ads. Only features British and American authors. This site is extremely well organized into collections: Classic American Literature, Classic Italian Literature, the complete works of William Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Fairy Tales and Children's Literature, and lots more. Visit Classic Literature Library 13 of 14 Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) What We Like Excellent resource for seminary students. Includes biblical commentary you won't find elsewhere. What We Don't Like Narrow focus. Tons of ads. Read classic Christian writings from hundreds of years of church history. You'll find everything from research materials to Bible studies on this site. The site also has MP3 versions of some books, as well as PDF, ePub, and PNG formatted publications. Visit CCEL 14 of 14 O'Reilly Open Books Project What We Like Great tool for learning software development. Wide selection of out-of-print books. What We Don't Like Selection is limited to a single broad topic. Very few texts in languages other than English. Technical audiobooks are available from the O'Reilly Open Books Project, mostly focusing on programming languages and computer operating systems. O'Reilly makes these books available for a variety of reasons, including historical relevance and general education. The publisher is also proud to be part of the Creative Commons community. Visit O'Reilly Open Books Project Continue Reading