Yes. The keyword here is LEGAL
7 of the best places to grab free books
If you’re on social media, and you’re reading a post about free books, then you’ve probably heard the drama in the book world about Z-library. This post isn’t about that subject, so I won’t go into detail.There are too many posts pointing to this illegal site, and frankly, I don’t want to add to the conversation.
That being said, we’re here to discuss ways to get your book-loving hands on free, yes, FREE BOOKS. You may think this is impossible to do legally. While it does require some work, you can go to sleep at night knowing you aren’t contributing to a major problem causing indie authors (and traditionally published one too) a lot of heartache.
If you’re on social media, and you’re reading a post about free books, then you’ve probably heard the drama in the book world about Z-library. This post isn’t about that subject, so I won’t go into detail. There are too many posts pointing to this illegal site, and frankly, I don’t want to add to the conversation.
That being said, we’re here to discuss ways to get your book-loving hands on free, yes, FREE BOOKS. You may think this is impossible to do legally. While it does require some work, you can go to sleep at night knowing you aren’t contributing to a major problem causing indie authors (and traditionally published one too) a lot of heartache. Again, we aren’t here to discuss how downloading illegal copies of books hurts authors (we’ll talk about that another time) we’re here to find out about free books.
Let’s get right to it.
The one place that pops up every time I have done a Google search, is Project Gutenberg. This site has a ton of books to choose from and all for free. Now, lets be real, this isn’t going to provide you with the latest bestsellers, but the catalog of free books is astounding. Users can search via top books downloaded, author name, or book name. The library of books is classics, but if you’ve been putting off reading Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility Project Gutenberg is for you. With over 60,000 titles, I’m sure there is something to read.
There are other free open Library’s like Open Library, but Project Gutenberg is the most well-known.
Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, & Amazon Prime
We all know Amazon offers books. Most of us know that there are thousands of free books offered daily. Because Amazon has so many books to offer, finding one that you want to read can be overwhelming. That’s where book lists come into play. Websites, like Bookbub offer a free book list subscription delivered right to your inbox. The beauty of this is that they do all the hard work and send books you may want to free right to you. All you have to do it choose your favorite genres and they send you deals. The best part? Many of these books are free and they are from well-known, Booktok famous authors! While not all the deals are for free books, it does include a list of deeply discounted specials for as low as .99 cents. All you need is the Kindle app, an email address, and you’re ready to go.
Kindle Unlimited isn’t free. It’s actually a luxury if you’re on a tight budget. But, did you know, they offer a 30-day trial? Imagine an entire month to read that ever growing TBR list? With a little bit of planning, you can read all the highly talked about books. Sometimes, Amazon’s KU offers an incentive for people to stay (or return) to KU by giving you a few months free.
Prime Reading is something we don’t talk about enough. Many of us have Amazon Prime. Did you know there is a huge collection of free books included with Prime? It used to be Prime members received a book or two every month from a small catalog with their monthly subscription, but now Amazon has extended their library and you can read an unlimited number of select titles. If any of these titles have an audio book, it is free! Now, if paying for Prime is still an obstacle, Amazon offers student, SNAP, Medicaid, and other qualifying government assistance programs a discounted rate.
Local Library
It doesn’t need to be said that your local library has books. That’s a given. What you may not know is there are apps that link to your library (with your library card or a temp card) and offer thousands of digital books. This includes audio books.
Hoopla – Offers 7 free books/audio books a month
Libby/Overdrive – Offers 10 free books/audio books a month
The Nook app is much like Amazon’s Kindle Reading app, but it’s Barnes and Noble’s e-reader app. Just like Amazon, Nook offers thousands of free books daily. While the catalog isn’t as extensive as Amazon’s, there are many books to choose from, many new releases as well.
THAT’S A LOT OF BOOKS
Now, let’s say you have an extensive TBR list, and you want to read the most recent bestsellers. If you have the Libby and Hoopla apps, that is an automatic 17 books for the month. The downfall is that there may be an extensive wait, but putting the book on hold means when it’s available, you’ll have it for 2 weeks in that 30-day period to read it. And, it doesn’t count towards your borrowed books until you actually borrow it.
If you have Prime, that’s another unlimited number of books available each month. Don’t forget to include the Free Books offered through Amazon and Barnes and Noble and I would bet you have so many free books, your TBR just grow and grows.
Best Wishes and Happy Reading!
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