Great Public Domain E-Book Sites Every Reader Should Visit!
As a writer and an avid reader, I not only enjoy books, but I recognize the importance of having access to them on a regular basis. I personally don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have books available to me. Now, with the Internet growing more and more each day, I find that my reading time is being taken up by blogs and web sites.
Recently, however, I started to miss reading my books and my novels. As much as I love print copies of books, the reality is that it is so much more convenient these days to look for e-books that can fill that void. The problem is that a lot of the mainstream e-book sites charge for books, which to be honest, in this economy, is not what I’m looking to spend my money on. But I did a little research and found a list of sites that have what’s called public domain e-books. Those are free to download and enjoy, and there are many titles to choose from, no matter what the genre.
Here are a couple of the ones that I found that I was really excited about!
Gutenberg.org, home of the first online project to bring free digital books to the masses, has been around for a long time, and its library is composed of over 25,000 public domain books for you to enjoy. It includes books in almost every language, ranging from classics like Machiavelli’s The Prince to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. It might be difficult to find more contemporary titles, but this is definitely a good place to start should you be in the mood for some literary genius. Especially useful for high school students needing to read something for class!
Manybooks.net is a wonderful resource if you’re looking for digital books for your PDA, iPhone or eBook reader. It’s pretty amazing where technology has taken us; once upon a time, cell phones were completely separate from organizers, which were an entirely separate thing from books. My, how times have changed! Now, thanks to sites like Manybooks.net, you can turn your PDA phone into a book with the push of a button or a touch of a screen. This particular site has everything from romance and non-fiction to suspense and pirate (yes, I said pirate) tales.
Now, here’s one that I was fascinated by, not so much because of the books that it carries, but because of the aim of the site itself. The free e-book site Read Easily was created specifically with the needs of the visually impaired in mind. The print of the e-books is large enough so that anyone who has problems reading the small print in regular books can enjoy the same books that we all have access to. This is a great site for the elderly especially, and there are some well-known classics in their library, books like Huckleberry Finn and A Tale of Two Cities and The Count of Monte Cristo. I was quite intrigued by the home page which, in addition to introducing visitors to their free services, gives statistics for visual impairment worldwide and why the web site is so important.
I was very happy to find these sites and many more. Go here for a list of some more sites that might keep you reading.