The best places for free books online
It feels like a dream sometimes when I remember that my family used to travel four to five hours by train in Eastern Europe to a different country so that we could access a library with books in our primary language. We could check them out for three months at a time before making the journey again. What a difference it would have made if we had known where to read books online for free.
Although I used to read voraciously growing up, being forced to read so much during college and grad school burned me out. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized how little I read anymore, and I decided to change that by making one single, significant New Year’s resolution: I committed to reading a book a week for the entire year. That’s right—I set out to read 52 books in one year, and I actually exceeded my goal with 62 completed books. Although I had collected a lot of books I’d never gotten around to reading (a habit called tsundoku in Japanese), I wanted to read some of the best books out there, and I needed more than the ones I’d picked up and put on my TBR pile.
If you’re an avid reader, you probably know that buying books can quickly get expensive—even buying second-hand. Fortunately for all of us, we now live in a world where affordable books are a reality. And I’m not just talking about Kindle Unlimited books, which are free with a subscription. You can actually find completely free books online.
Too busy with life to sit down and read? I could only have gotten through my Year of Books by listening to some of them. You better believe I took advantage of free audiobooks! I also had some friends who helped me figure out where to read books online for free so I’d stop emptying all the Little Free Libraries in my community. Read on for the top picks!
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Overdrive/Libby
Good for: Reading a wide selection of books
Overdrive may have started back in the ’80s, but it kept up with the times and now provides an app that lets you borrow books from your local library and then listen to or read them online, on your phone or an e-reader or tablet via the Libby app. I learned about Libby from a former colleague at Reading Is Fundamental who, besides being a rock-star full-time employee, was also a wife and hands-on mom of three without much extra time. She would listen to free audiobooks on her commute each day and gave me a personal tour of her app. I downloaded it that very day and have never stopped using it.
Pros:
- Web reader, plus easy-to-use app that works on any device and has amazing filters for browsing
- Ability to make a TBR pile, find practically all book genres you want, get on wait lists for high-demand books and keep a record of books you have read
- Selection of audiobook speeds, plus a sleep timer that lets you listen as you fall asleep (without missing the rest of the book)
Cons:
- Must have a library card to use the app (and don’t lose it; sometimes you need to re-input your library card ID)
- Available collection of books is limited to your library district’s digital catalog
- A VPN is necessary for reading internationally
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