03 April 2020 Kathmandu
You don’t need your tablet or e-reader to read books online, your internet browser will do. It is hassle-free and you can choose from thousands of collections of books. Thankfully, we have a lot of sites that provide free books to read. No cost or charges – you can read online or download them.
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are” – Mason Cooley
Where To Read Books Online For Free?
There is no charge for some books that you can find online. And they are often simple to find.
Some authors who have written books have no problem giving them away for others to read for free.
Meanwhile, some websites buy the rights of these books in order to give them away for free. It depends on the author if they are willing to sell or offer books for free.
There are many websites that allow you to download e-books or read them on their website itself. And you don’t have to spend a single penny for them.
We have mentioned some of the websites where you can read books online for absolutely free of charge. Let’s take a look at them.
Top 10 Sites To Read Free Books Online
1. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a great site to read books of different categories. In fact, it is the mother of all eBook sites.
It started in 1971 and has over 60,000 free eBooks currently. This site focuses on the world’s great literature with older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.
You can find the right book for yourself if you are a fan of classic literature. And, you can download as many as you wish!
Project Gutenberg
The best thing about this website is that it doesn’t require signing up or charge any registration cost.
In the ‘bookshelves’ section, you will find books categorized in alphabetical order.
You also have the option to choose free epub and even Kindle eBooks.
Downloading books from Gutenberg is completely free. However, users can donate to the site which is absolutely voluntary. There’s no pressure.
2. Open Library
One of Internet Archive’s project, Open Library, focuses more on library records. It is actually a very popular free online library of Internet sites.
The ultimate goal is – “One webpage for every book ever published.”
You can read entire books online free of cost on this site by clicking on the Read icon next to the title.
This digital library claims to have over 6 million authors and 20 million books that you can search for.
Internet Archive’s Open Library
There are millions of books and choices for you. And, you can download these books in one of the formats – EPUB, DJVU, MOBI, and PDF.
Moreover, you can search for a particular book by entering your favourite line from the book.
3. Smashwords
Next on the list is Smashwords, a top free eBook publishing platform. Specifically, if you are looking for some best works by Indie authors, then Smashwords is the right place for you.
They also help authors with massive distribution of their eBooks to the largest retailers and even digital libraries.
It definitely has some interesting collection of free books to read. With over 70,000 books with no charge, you will be able to find a broad category and genres on this site.
Smashwords
Make sure you click the Free tab before searching for a book of your favourite genre. You can download free ebooks in various formats such as EPUB, MOBI, PDB, and TXT.
To read online, scroll down on the book detail page and look for a table with the available reading format. Then, click on Online Reading to start reading.
As simple as that!
4. Manybooks
Well, for some platforms, their name does enough justice to their work. And, Manybooks doesn’t disappoint either.
As the name implies, it has many books or collections of books to read online free or download on your device.
ManyBooks
This site has a database of over 50,000 free books with many of them having an old classic theme. However, there are a few contemporary titles as well.
You can browse by some popular genres on their homepage – romance, action & adventure, mystery, fantasy, horror, fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, etc.
You can read books online on this website or download them in either EPUB, MOBI, PDF or TXT formats.
Furthermore, it has a recommended and Featured Authors section to help pick books for readers. Also, you can browse by “Editor’s choice” for an expert pick by the editors.
5. Feedbooks
Feedbooks is a noteworthy site to find public domain books for free. With a clean user interface, this website has a well-maintained category of free and premium books.
There are categories like Short stories, Mystery, Fantasy, Action, History, and much more.
Feedbooks
You can browse some of the Best Sellers, New Releases, and Free Original Books as well. The download page for each book displays helpful information – synopsis, word count, reading hours, publishing date, etc.
You can download some interesting free books online from Feedbooks in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF format.
Click Here to check out Feedbooks
6. E-Pustakalaya
Now let’s talk about a digital library where you can find free books to read in Nepali. E-Pustakalaya contains full-text documents, books, images, videos, audio files, etc. that can be accessed through an internet browser.
OLE Nepal started E-Pustakalaya back in 2008 with the aim to improve children’s reading skills. In fact, it is a perfect platform to find free books online for kids.
OLE Nepal’s E-Pustakalaya
Adults and teachers have also benefitted since this site went live in 2009. You can get various teaching resources, educational materials in agriculture, literature, technology, etc.
Furthermore, you can access E-Pustakalaya from your android device through its app.
7. Scribd
Next on the list is basically YouTube for documents. Scribd claims to bring together the best of the written words to help readers become their best selves.
It has a large offering of free books but only after registration. You can subscribe for a 30-days free trial by logging in.
Signing up doesn’t take much time. Besides, it’s worth it!
Scribd
Moreover, you can also listen to different audiobooks and get access to documents that may not be available elsewhere.
The platform’s mobile app is also available on both iOS and Android.
8. Google Books
The most popular and easy-to-access site of all – Google, has its own platform for free books online. Many people turn to Google Books when they want to read books online for free.
There are a number of free books and also, book previews that you might have to pay for.
Google Books
You can type in an author’s name or book’s title to start your search. To narrow down your result, you can also use advanced search tools.
This option will help you find the book, document, magazine or newspaper quickly. You can choose the relevancy date or view for the search.
Click Here to check out Google Books
9. Goodreads
Goodreads is a popular site for documents, books, quotes, and other materials. It is a similar site like Amazon that sells books but also has a free eBook section.
There is no huge selection for free books but there are some broad categories to choose from.
Goodreads
All you have to do is sign up and create your profile. Then, the site will allow you to search and explore for your favourite books.
The free books to read will have a free online tag next to them.
10. Wikibooks
When you see ‘wiki’, you already know it’s the real deal!
Wikibooks is the best place to find non-fiction content for study and research purposes. The site hosts an extensive collection of ebooks on subjects like Humanities, Engineering, Computing, Science, Languages, and other topics.
With clean design and interface, navigating around the website is easy. You will be able to find your favourite content quickly, thanks to the multiple category arrangement.
Wikibooks
There is also a search option available that allows you to make a site-wide search.
It displays its featured books first as a suggestion among the Wikibooks community. You can either read books online or choose to download PDF files for offline use.
Final Say
As you can see, it’s indeed easier to read entire books online free.
People don’t have to go to bookstores and spend money on the content that is available online. Also, it is a very productive way to pass time and learn something.
The websites that we have mentioned in this article are some of the best places to find educational material. There are many other sites that offer both free and premium books if you are willing to buy any.
So, which free book site do you prefer?
You can let us know in the comment section.
