These sites offer ebooks and other resources to download or read online. Many of the sources are public domain, Creative Commons, or open source books; others are under copyright, but have been published for free online by their creators for personal use.
Classics
- The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.
- Project Gutenberg: Tens of thousands of free books in English, Portuguese, French, and German.
- Classic Reader: Online library of thousands of free books by authors such as Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare and many others.
- Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.
- Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.
- Open Culture: Free ebooks, audiobooks, textbooks, language lessons, and more.
- Kindle: Free classics and others available for Amazon Kindle.
Textbooks
Children's Books
Philosophy, Religion, & Folklore
Drama, Poetry, & Art
More
- LibriVox: Free public domain audiobooks.
- Lit2Go: Free online collection of stories and poems in audiobook format with full text and PDF available for download.
- World Digital Library: Over 14,000 items from 190 countries.
Portions of this list adapted from "Free Books: 100 Legal Sites to Download Literature," http://iheartintelligence.com/2014/08/31/free-books-100-legal-sites-download-literature/.