I decided to take a few moments on a slow news day to start a list of sites where I like to get free ebooks. This is not a comprehensive list, just the ones I like. I’m not including some sites like Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks.net because I don’t like the quality or selection.
Inkmesh
First on my list is Inkmesh. This is not a free ebook site; instead it is a search engine for ebooks. You can use Inkmesh to find free ebooks in all the major US ebookstores (Kindle, Kobo, B&N, etc).
Google Books
Next up is Google Books. This almost didn’t make my list beauase the Epub and Mobi format ebooks it has are horrible and should be avoided. But the source PDFs made during the scanning process are quite usable and often can’t be found elsewhere.
Feedbooks
And now we have Feedbooks, a digital publishing/ ebookstore site run by Hadrien Gardeur. This site has ebooks in many formats, including PD ebooks and ones uploaded by authors. It has an automated conversion that supports several common formats.
Smashwords
This is a new and fast growing self-publishing sites, and their ebooks are DRM free. But if you want to get ebooks from Smashwords then I’d recommend that you search for the ebooks through Inkmesh, the ebook search engine. It’s just easier, IMO.
Librivox
I’m throwing this one in just to see if you’re paying attention. Librivox is a community that creates audiobooks and releases them free under a CC license. I’m kidding. I like their audiobooks.
Fifth Imperium
This site hosts copies of the promotional CDs that Baen Books includes with some first edition hardcovers. I find it very useful as a way to grab a copy of an ebook I already bought (it’s faster than getting the same ebook from Baen). The selection is limited to Baen titles, but you get a pretty broad selection of formats.
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Thanks for the link to Inkmesh. I’m in the middle of a good book which I found via Inkmesh. I have a new ipad so it’s now a pleasure to read ebooks. I’m sure I’ll be a faithful reader of your blog
Have a very merry Christmas!
Thanks I got a lot of books off of these
Boogle books epub is horrible? That sounds crazy. What are they doing? PDf doesn’t come up well in some ereaders.
“and they only support Epub.”
You might want to revise that. Smashwords currently supports a lot of formats: mobipocket, epub, pdf, lrf, rtf and several more.
Fixed it. Thanks!
That was probably supposed to refer to another site. I wonder what entry got conflated with Smashwords’?
Cool! Thanks for doing the research, I will check out the links you mentioned.
Also:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/free-ebooks-excerpts-stories/
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/over-900-free-epub-ebooks/
Are these all legal copies or are some of these books still under copyright?
I know for a fact that that many under copyright books are available as free books and to download these is stealing from the author and this could cost the author thousands of dollars income yet people think it is OK to download for free book that are still under copyright.
They would object if someone came and stole 75% of their own annual income.
Yes if it is an older title and out of copyright then download it for free. If it is a current publication then before you download ask yourself if you really do want to steal the authors means of living.
These are all legal downloads, yes. I wouldn’t list these sites if the content were not.
Another free ebooks library: http://www.digilibraries.com
Over 20’000 eBooks…
Libboo is a social reading and writing community. http://www.libboo.com
You can create virtually any type of content: articles, short stories, novels, etc. It’s free to use and you can also read over 500 independently published works – what they call Libbooks. The cool thing is that members can for teams and work collaboratively to create and publish content in any E-book format: epub, etc.
CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHERE TO FIND THE EBOOKS FOR THE SLICK THAT IS SOLD AT BIGLOTS? I GOT MY DAUGHTER ONE AND NEED TO FIND THE SITE TO ADD MORE BOOKS FOR A LONG TRIP THAT IS COMING UP.
All of these sites have ebooks you can load on to your Slick. Download the Epub format.
But if you want to buy ebooks for your Slick, it’s supposed to work with Kobo. You’ll need to download the Kobo desktop app and install it. then set up an account with Kobo so you can buy ebooks.
I use http://www.hotfreebooks.com/, with lots of free books and a friendly interface. It has also a dictionary for unknown words, and an easy way to boomark lines.