Internet, Networking, & Security > Around the Web 125 125 people found this article helpful How to Find Public Domain Books Online 12 sources for free, public domain books By Stacy Fisher Stacy Fisher Technology Educator Emporia State University Stacy is a professional technology educator with over 25 years' experience. She has published hundreds of articles, co-authored a book, and has appeared on national and local TV. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on February 16, 2023 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Around the Web Browsers Cloud Services Error Messages Family Tech Home Networking 5G Antivirus Around the Web Need some new reading material? Public domain books, which are free to download and are no longer under copyright, are a great way to explore everything from classic novels to computer manuals. Here are 12 sources for free books or e-books in the public domain that you can download or read in a 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 12 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. Search tool is too simple. 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. Every book is read through the website, so you don't need to download anything. Visit Authorama 02 of 12 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. There's a LibriVox mobile app that lets you listen to all your favorite titles on the go. Visit LibriVox 03 of 12 Google Books What We Like Powered by the largest search engine. Mobile app optimized for e-readers. Searches the book text, too. What We Don't Like Must search; can't just browse for free books. Google Books has a nice selection of public domain eBooks mostly in the classical literature genre. Search Google Books or use the main Google search engine to find all manner of public domain books. You can also use Google Scholar to find public domain works. From there, select the hamburger menu in the upper left corner and choose Advanced Search. In the Return articles dated 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. You can read these books in your browser or through the mobile app. Visit Google Books 04 of 12 Project Gutenberg What We Like Includes thousands of non-English books. Easy to browse alphabetically and by subject. What We Don't Like 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. There are handy Top 100 pages if you're not sure where to start. Most books can be read online or downloaded. Visit Project Gutenberg 05 of 12 Feedbooks What We Like Download in the popular EPUB format. Offers obscure science fiction. Several categories to look through. What We Don't Like Mostly European and American literature. 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. A mobile app is available if you want to read from your phone or tablet. Visit Feedbooks 06 of 12 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, and there are tens of millions of results for eBooks and texts, so be sure to check back often for new reading material. Visit Internet Archive 07 of 12 ManyBooks What We Like Attractive and easy to browse. Huge collection of genres. Read online or download. What We Don't Like Books may be inappropriate for some. Small selection of non-English books. Must log in to download. 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. Browse by author, language, genre, and more. This is one of the most user-friendly sites on the web for finding and downloading free books. Visit ManyBooks 08 of 12 LoudLit What We Like Powerful readings of classic poems and short stories. A great resource for English teachers. Easy to read along as you listen. What We Don't Like Small collection compared to similar sites. Very bare-bones home page. Can't download the whole book at once. 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 12 Online Library of Liberty What We Like Material you won't find anywhere else. A treasure trove of political history. Several format options when downloading. 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, free markets, and peace," all in the public domain and free for download. Categories include history, economics, art, law, religion, and more. Visit the Online Library of Liberty 10 of 12 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 website is extremely well organized into collections of classical literature from authors like William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and lots more. Visit Classic Literature Library 11 of 12 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. Read classic Christian writings from hundreds of years of church history. You'll find everything from research materials to Bible studies. There are also MP3 versions of some books, as well as PDF, ePub, and PNG formatted publications. Visit CCEL 12 of 12 The Library of Congress What We Like RSS feed to subscribe to updates. Read in your browser. What We Don't Like No download option. Scanned pages make some books hard to read. The Library of Congress uses Read.gov to host a long list of classic books you can read online. The books are organized in sections like kids, teens, and adults, and they're all listed on a single page for easy browsing. Visit The Library of Congress Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit