# Free Online books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315 "2004-01-02T17:03:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/1 "2004-01-02T17:03:11Z")
I have to read some book of literary merit before Monday. Unfortunately, I don’t have any around my house that I haven’t read, and I have a late fee at the library, and don’t get paid until Monday. Are there any online (legit) sources where I can read books? ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/2 "2004-01-02T17:22:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chaoticdonkey \* > \*\*I have to read some book of literary merit before Monday. Unfortunately, I don’t have any around my house that I haven’t read, and I have a late fee at the library, and don’t get paid until Monday. Are there any online (legit) sources where I can read books? \*\* Yup , if you like Science Fiction [Baen library](http://www.baen.com/library/) Their ebooks have an RTF format , plus several others thats platform independent and then the classics [project gutenburg](http://promo.net/pg/) They have a number of books that date right up to the 20’s , so you should be able to find something that would suit your needs Declan ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/3 "2004-01-02T17:22:28Z")
[Project Gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.net/index.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![BlackPheonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BlackPheonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackPheonix)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/4 "2004-01-02T17:25:17Z")
Project Gutenberg is fairly decent. Any search on google should bring up a site but its only going to be books with expired copyright/express permission so you’ll have a limited selection. Getting books that you’d normally pay for is bad… but who am I to say? PM me and I can help you out. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/5 "2004-01-02T17:25:53Z")
Well, you don’t seem to be very choosy about what you read, so why not take a good play? [This site](http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare) offers Shakespeare’s complete works online (legally, since the Swan of Avon has been dead for a while). If you want it confused, take [Tristram Shandy](http://www.gifu-u.ac.jp/~masaru/TS/contents.html) by Laurence Sterne. Generally, just google for the title of the book you’re looking for. If it’s a true classic with expired copyright, chances are good to find it. I wouldn’t call this the ideal approach to literature, though. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/6 "2004-01-02T17:40:41Z")
Wow. That’s a cool site. Now, can you recommend some I could find there? I was looking for a certain Vonnegut book, but couldn’t find any on the Gutenberg site. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/7 "2004-01-02T17:55:13Z")
You’re really mostly going to be able to (legally) find books that are in the public domain. Classics mostly, that sort of thing. Vonnegut stuff is still in print and the publishers want their money. ---
**Author:** ![Gold\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Gold\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gold_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/8 "2004-01-02T17:59:06Z")
[Bartleby.com](http://www.bartleby.com/) also has a decent collection. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/9 "2004-01-02T18:20:59Z")
A Yahoo! search on [**online ebooks**](http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=fp-pull-web-t&p=online+ebooks) turns up a host of sites, some of which are very good. Bear in mind that Acrobat documents can be viewed as webpages, so you don’t have to download them and open them externally (if this is an issue). Be a little wary searching for “free ebooks” - I did this when I first got my PDA, and it was a nightmare trawling through the many ad-sites that use these terms as a hook - even in their domain name - but have absolutely nothing to offer. Some that are quite good include: [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ebooklist.html](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ebooklist.html) [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/aut/](http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/aut/) [http://www.blackmask.com](http://www.blackmask.com) [http://www.memoware.com/](http://www.memoware.com/) ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/10 "2004-01-02T19:03:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BlackPheonix \* > \*\*Getting books that you’d normally pay for is bad… but who am I to say? PM me and I can help you out. \*\* If you mean by giving me money to purchase those books, sign me up 😛 ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/11 "2004-01-02T23:35:06Z")
For all kinds of science topics, try the [reading room](http://books.nap.edu/info/browse.htm) at National Academy Press [Litrix reading room](http://www.litrix.com) has lots of public domain literature (including one of my favorites, [Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds](http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm) What a shocking bad hat! ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/12 "2004-01-03T01:03:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by istara \* > Bear in mind that Acrobat documents can be viewed as webpages, so you don’t have to download them and open them externally (if this is an issue). If the document can be seen on your screen it was downloaded to your computer. No way around that. If you can see a PDF document on your screen, you have Adobe Reader (or Acrobat or other reader) installed. No way around that because AFAIK the browser cannot display a PDF except using the Acrobat program as a plugin. Given the preceding I find it is a better idea to download the document to the desktop and open it using solely the Acrobat program. This way you get rid of the browser taking up screen space, memory space etc. You have the document on the desktop if you want to save it and keep it for another time. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-online-books/222315/13 "2004-01-03T03:18:55Z")
[www.blackmask.com](http://www.blackmask.com) , I think.