How to Get Free Books: Part 4

Time for another edition of How to Get Free Books! This feature is dedicated to showing readers how to get free books (or at least cheaper books) to help supplement tight book buying budgets (without badgering publishers for copies).

Did you miss a post? You can catch up here, or scroll down to read the new stuff:
Inspiration
Part 1: Blogs
Part 2: Trading
Part 3: Libraries
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How to Get Free Books: Part 4, Project Gutenberg

Last week I talked about libraries. While that is a great source, I realize that some people don't have access to libraries. This applied to myself a few years ago. My first year of college I didn't have access to a library that had a good young adult section. Most of the books at my university library were school related, and let's face it, those don't make for good reading. So I was very excited when I discovered a site called Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg is a site of free eBooks that you can read on your computer. Or, if you're lucky enough to have a smart phone, iPod Touch, Kindle, Nook, Sony Read, iPad, etc. you can read the titles available at Project Gutenberg that way. Right now they have over 30,000 titles available, all for completely 100% free.

How is that possible? Project Gutenberg offers titles the are in the public domain, meaning their copyrights have expired. Most of these titles are fairly old, the type of books that are usually called classics.

Before you roll your eyes and move on because you aren't interested in classics, I suggest you take a look at what's offered. Jane Austen? Check. Charles Dickens? Check. Charlotte Bronte? Covered. And there's even lots of reader-friendly classics as well. Ever wanted to read all 14 of the Oz books? How about Alice in Wonderland, A Little Princess, Little Women, Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Wind in the Willows, The Jungle Book, or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? All here and completely 100% free.

And, if you like audiobooks, you can find audio versions of a lot of these titles here too. I love listing to audiobooks while I'm cooking or doing chores (like washing the dishes) and so this is a great resource for free audiobooks.

So if you're interested in having thousands of free books instantly available to you, definitely check out Project Gutenberg. You may be surprised what you find.