Losing yourself in a well-written book is extremely satisfying to the soul. The challenge, however, one might face in today’s situation is the restrictions on travel to libraries and bookstores to get the right book. An escape strategy for voracious readers is to switch to digital.
Going digital will not only make you follow the lockdown norms but would be better for the environment as a whole because of the lack of paper involved. The advantage that digital ebooks have is that one can find them for free! This might not include recent titles but one can definitely find the older classics and great authors like Austen, Dickens and even Shakespeare!
Here’s a list of websites that you can access to find free books without breaking any law. You can access these books on your Kindle or with a Pdf reader on your phone.
1. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library that one can access. The entire platform is run by volunteers and anyone can access it for free. The website provides more than 62 thousand books and even audiobooks. The books can be downloaded in various formats suitable for your device. One can even find books in other languages like German, French, Italian, Spanish and more.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/
2. Planet eBook
This website is a delight for the lovers of classics. It consists of all the fine gems of English literature from Austen to Wilde. The absolute best books are selected for the readers and are available in various formats. ePub, Mobi and PDF formats are available with a user-friendly guide on downloading and uploading the various formats to your device.
https://www.planetebook.com/ebooks/
3. Bartleby.com
Bartleby is another great digital library for readers interested in classics. A must see offer on this site is the Harvard Classics Shelf. It consists of the best works of the 20th century with 30 authors from seven nationalities. It also has a great collection of textbooks on Literature, Politics and Sciences.
https://www.bartleby.com/index.html
4. Bookboon
Bookboon is a great free library for someone who is interested in reading textbooks and nonfiction. With more than 5000 books it covers many branches of knowledge. It consists of Personal Management, Engineering, Marketing, Statistics, Leadership Books, Marketing and Sales, and more books that will help you expand your knowledge.
5. Librivox
Free doesn’t just mean you only have ebooks to choose from. You can also choose from a wide range of audiobooks on Librivox. It consists of more than 14 thousand audiobooks in English, German, French and more languages. Here’s a list of all the great narrators you can choose from to have a great listening experience from Librivox –
https://readaloudrevival.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/best-librivox-narrators1.pdf
Reading is a delightful endeavour. It can set your anxieties and worries free. It can stop time and let you travel to places you couldn’t currently go to. It makes you appreciate a person and time beyond measure. It allows you joy like no other. And now you can do all this and more for free.
