I read a lot. Some of it online – news stories and such – and a lot offline, as in “real” books. Like most people, I read most books once and then never again (there are exceptions, of course), so for me used bookstores, libraries (whether a public library or my Dad’s massive collection of books), make a good supplement to my own bookshelves.
Still, I found myself wondering the other day if there were good, legal ways of downloading books off the Internet. I think I’ve found a few.
Before we go too far, however, I should clarify something. When I talk about free books on the Internet, I’m not talking about someone on Craig’s List offering to give someone else his book collection if only the recipient will come and get them. I’m talking about e-books, as in Electronic Books. These are typically formatted in either PDF (portable document format), or else one of the common e-book formats, such as PDF, LIT or sometimes even basic HTML.
I’m not talking about audiobooks (although there are places where you can get those), and although I’ll touch on it at the end, I’m not really talking about something like Project Gutenberg either. What I’m really looking for is a free, legal way to download current (or fairly current) books onto my computer for reading at my leisure.
Okay, now that we’ve covered that, I’ve really found three websites that make the downloading of free books easy, and there’s actually a lot of titles, a wide variety of genres, and the quality is quite good. So, without further ado… here we go, in no particular order.
Baen Free Library – This is actually the free book site I’ve known about longest (and probably used the least over the past few years. The Baen Free Library was initially an experiment between science fiction author Eric Flint and Jim Baen, to see whether a book being available online for free would increase or decrease its sales. Judging by the fact that the library has been in “business” since 1999, almost ten yaers and more than 100 books later, I would say the outcome would tend to favor the “more exposure leads to more sales” argument. Regardless, there are currently more than 100 book avaible completely for free. No signups necessary, no restrictions (no DRM to lock you into a particular e-book reader of operating system), and in fact, the books can be downloaded in four or five formats. The value of the Baen Free Library will vary from person to person, likely first determined by whether a person enjoys science fiction and fantasy, and then whether the reader likes the included authors. In addition to Eric Flint, you can find books by Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Fred Saberhagen, all big names. So give it a try, maybe you’ll find something you like!
Fictionwise – Of the three free e-book “vendors” I’ll discuss in this article, Fictionwise is the one I have the least amount of experience with. In fact, I came across this site the other day, and it was that which led me on my search for other free e-book sites. Fictionwise currently has a couple dozen free novels, from authors such as Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, David Baldacci and Jules Verne. There are also a few items from Pocket Oxford, such as samples of the Pocket Oxford Spanish Dictionary and the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary. The free e-books at Fictionwise are, more than likely, of the “first one’s free” variety. Fictionwise is in the business of selling e-books, as is Baen, of course, but carries a wider variety of offerings, including everything from children’s books to historical fiction to Star Trek novels to a wide range of non-fiction. Still, the free e-book section is well worth a look.
Wowio.com – Of the three free e-book websites I’m discussing in this article, Wowio is by far the newest (and in my mind, most interesting), of all the websites. Not only does Wowio carry classics, by such authors as Jane Austen and Kurt Vonnegut, but also graphic novels, self-help books and more. The interesting thing about all the books available on Wowio is that they’re supported by advertising. Now, don’t start thinking that these books will be like watching a television show online from one of the networks, with commercials interspaced in the episode. With Wowio, you’ll get a PDF file (no other formats available, sorry), and typically the first or second page of that PDF file is an advertisement for whoever is sponsoring that book. Verizon Wireless seems to be doing a lot of sponsoring of the Wowio project (or maybe it’s simply the books I’ve picked have been sponsored by them), for what that’s worth. While Wowio might not have the most flexibility in terms of putting your free e-book on a ton of different portable devices, it really does have a lot to offer. In addition to a wide variety of book offerings, the PDF format offers one big advantage, and that’s in terms of multimedia. Just as an example, I downloaded the “deluxe” version of “War Of The Worlds,” and was blown away. Not only does that version include the full text of the novel, but it also includes “extras” such as photos and essays about the importance of the novel and of the radio play, but it also includes video newsreels about the events, in addition to an interview between Orson Welles and H.G. Wells, not to mention the full audio of the original radio play! So all in all, I think Wowio is a fantastic place to get free e-books.
At the beginning, I mentioned that I wasn’t going to talk about the Gutenberg Project. Well, I’m not going to… much. The Gutenberg Project, for those unfamiliar with it, was started years ago in an attempt to scan and convert to text as many books that had outlived their copyright as possible. At the moment there are tens of thousands of books available, in everything from plain text to html to audio versions. It’s a fantastic resource. You won’t find much of anything modern there at all (typically books will be at least 75 years old), but for the classics, it really can’t be beat.
So… there you have it. Three fantastic places on the Internet where you can find current e-books, free of charge, and download them legally. And one amazing resource for practically any “classic” you can think of. So head over to one of those sites, pick a few books, download them, and get reading!
