# Books on the 'net w/searchable text

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-on-the-net-w-searchable-text/83562>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-on-the-net-w-searchable-text/83562 "2001-09-24T21:05:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dasceder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3d9bf3/32.png) [@dasceder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasceder)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-on-the-net-w-searchable-text/83562/1 "2001-09-24T21:05:37Z")

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I need to do a quick text search through a book (ala using F2 in MSWord). Are there any 'net sites that provide books that can be downloaded and searched or am I looking at a long night?

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**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-on-the-net-w-searchable-text/83562/2 "2001-09-24T21:55:04Z")

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Two sources for downloadable classics online:

[The Gutenberg Project](http://promo.net/pg/)  
[The Internet Classics Archive](http://classics.mit.edu/)

Because of copyright rules, no modern texts are available.

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**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-on-the-net-w-searchable-text/83562/3 "2001-09-24T22:06:27Z")

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For modern titles, try either [netLibrary](http://www.netlibrary.com) or [eBooks.com](http://www.ebooks.com). You’ll need to pay for the books just like at a bookstore, but they’re downlodable.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-on-the-net-w-searchable-text/83562/4 "2001-09-25T02:49:54Z")

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If it’s a famous book in the public domain, you may not need to download it. I’ve had good luck searching at [http://www.concordance.com](http://www.concordance.com)