Search for Free Books

Thursday, February 26, 2009

How To-52: "How to Find Free eBooks"


How to Find Free eBooks


from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Some people who love books lack the storage space or the cash to build a real world class collection of books, but there are a lot of resources out there to help readers out.

Steps

  1. Develop a wish list of books you hope to locate electronically.
  2. Go to 'Project Gutenberg'[1]. It is a very good source for books, offering books whose copyrights have expired.
  3. Download the Project Gutenberg list of books. It will open in notepad.
  4. Use the search tool and key in the name of the book. Remember, notepad can only search up to down, not down to up! Don't get discouraged. Gutenberg doesn't only have old books. You can find P.G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, and all sorts of classics.
  5. Visit FreeBookSearch to search all of the major digital libraries and books sites with one search.
  6. Visit Archive.org. (Also known as "The Wayback Machine") you need to search for old URLs - The Internet Archive does not do keyword searches.
  7. Download a p2p networking program for newly released books, such as bearshare, ares, limewire, Bit Torrent, eMule etc. and search and download your desired books.
  8. Browse the web page of your local public library[2]. Many public library systems now offer online electronic books or electronic audio books that you can listen to in MP3 format. While you can't always keep the book forever, you can at least keep it long enough to read/listen to it.
  9. Check out Children's Books Online for classic old children books. It's free, it's legal, and it's a great cause.
  10. To find Audiobooks (Books on Tape, etc.), try an AudioBook Search.
  11. If you are looking for self help ebooks (books on self improvement or self growth), try SelfMadeEasy.com They have a rotating selection of books that people can download for free.
  12. Here are some additional links to find free book downloads
  13. GetFreeEbooks.com
  14. Ebook88.com
  15. eBookPalace.com
  16. Free-eBooks.net
  17. Virtual-ebooks.com
  18. eBookDirectory.com
  19. eBooked.co.uk

Tips

  • Use of Project Gutenberg can be somewhat tedious and tiring because a massive selection of books are available, and if you are not searching for something specific you may find the database somewhat daunting. But the database is a zipped, downloadable file, so you can look through it at your convenience.

Warnings

  • File sharing networks may have file names written wrong. So be sure of what you are downloading.
  • Using P2P programs carry a certain amount of risk in their use. Keep that in mind.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

  1. http://www.gutenberg.org

  2. http://www.publiclibraries.com

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Find Free eBooks. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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