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Even if you have a long history of choosing hefty hardcovers and dog-eared paperbacks over e-books, life in quarantine may be giving you a new appreciation for your tablet’s ability to download a book the moment you decide to bump it to the top of your to-be-read list.
With the world of digital reading material at your fingertips and probably a little more time to bury your nose in a book than usual, your credit card could soon have a reason to protest—but it doesn’t have to. Discover five different places you can download free e-books online below.
1. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a digital library with more than 60,000 e-books in the public domain. You won’t come across the hottest new thriller on here, but you will find countless classics in every genre, available to read online or download as EPUB or Kindle files. Make your way through Jane Austen’s whole catalog, tackle Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, or get hooked on an Agatha Christie whodunit.
2. ManyBooks
ManyBooks is another site that features older books in the public domain, but it also includes e-books by self-published authors you probably haven’t heard of. It’s a great place to discover something new (or old), and the site layout is well-organized and modern.
3. Libby
You'll find the hottest new thriller on the Libby app, though you might have to wait your turn to check it out. The app, created by digital library company Overdrive, gives users access to their local library’s entire inventory of e-books (and, for some libraries, audiobooks, comics, and magazines, too). All you have to do is download the app and log in with your library card credentials.
4. hoopla
Like Libby, the hoopla app lets you check out digital content from your local library; however, there are a couple key differences between the platforms. For one, hoopla offers TV shows and movies in addition to e-books and audiobooks. Also, you don’t have to place something on hold and wait for another user to return their copy—every piece of content is available for you to borrow whenever you want. Instead, there’s a limit on how many checkouts you’re allowed per month, which varies by library.
5. Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a treasure trove of material both for research purposes and recreational reading. After you sign up for a free account, you can borrow up to 10 books at a time, each for a two-week loan period, though you might have to hop on the waitlist for popular works that aren’t in the public domain. The Internet Archive’s Open Library contains plenty of modern novels, like Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games and some Stephen King bestsellers, and it recently launched a temporary National Emergency Library with more than a million e-books that you can check out immediately—no need to join a waitlist. However, since the Internet Archive acquires e-books through donations, purchases, and partnerships with academic libraries, rather than licensing them directly from publishers, authors have spoken out against the National Emergency Library, explaining that its unlimited lending model prevents them from earning royalties on their work. If you're looking for the best way to support an author, we recommend sticking to library-affiliated apps like hoopla (or ordering a physical book from your favorite indie bookstore).