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Free Ebook Sites


Athena

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I couldn't quickly find a topic on this (other than the Kindle specific topic), so I thought I'd make one. The idea is listing sites where one can download free legal ebooks (or that show links to them).

 

Such as:

 

Project Gutenberg

Amazon.com Free Kindle Books (US + certain other countries)

Amazon.co.uk Free Kindle Books (must be UK resident I believe?)

KoboBooks Free

Bol.com free ebooks

Kindle Buffet

Open Culture free ebooks (also Open Culture Free Textbooks and Open Culture Free Audiobooks)

Mobile Reads Free Ebooks

Smashwords Free Ebooks

Wikipedia Books

Free Ebooks.net

Book Boon

General Ebooks

Ebook 3000

Book Rix

Ebook Lobby

Ebook Mall

SFF PDF

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Please be careful with these sites. For example, one has the following.. 

 

 

Please note that General eBooks is just the search engine for eBooks hosted in public domain and book shops, we don’t host any files and we are not responsible for downloaded file content.

This means that although they are in fact 'legal', they may well be providing links to 'illegal' sites. I know from twitter that authors are often finding their books listed, when they have most definitely not given permission.

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I signed up with bookbub. I made note of my genre preferences and I get a daily e mail showing me free and short term discounted kindle books for that day.

 

(not that I need to add anymore books to my bulging kindle collection!)

I'll take a look, thanks :).

 

Please be careful with these sites. For example, one has the following.. 

This means that although they are in fact 'legal', they may well be providing links to 'illegal' sites. I know from twitter that authors are often finding their books listed, when they have most definitely not given permission.

That's good to keep in mind, Michelle. Personally I'd hate to do anything illegal.

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  • 11 months later...

Please be careful with these sites. For example, one has the following.. 

This means that although they are in fact 'legal', they may well be providing links to 'illegal' sites. I know from twitter that authors are often finding their books listed, when they have most definitely not given permission.

 

I have found my own books on illegal sites but that is not the worst that can happen. Apparently the sites sometimes carry viruses and unsuspecting readers can download a virus with their free books or find their pc is being used as a (forgotten the correct IT word) donkey to send out spam unknown to the owner. So Michelle is great to warn us all.

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  • 4 months later...

Does anyone have some advice for books in French that are free? My mum being French, she finds it very hard to read in English, but we always find that all the free books are in English except some French classics. The thing is, she would also like to read some more recent books (last 15-20 years). Does anyone have some advice on that? I know it is very specific, and I tried on French forums but to no avail. Thanks for your advice!

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I doubt you'll find free books from the last 20 years as they will still be within copyright.  You could try a library, but other than that I think you'll have to be prepared to pay for them, which is only fair as the author and translator need to be paid for their work.

 

You can search the Amazon Kindle store for ebooks in foreign languages and narrow it down to French, and then by genre, so you should be able to find something there. :)

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Of course you are right chesilbeach... I didn't really think it through haha. This is a silly question, but how long do books stay within copyright from the moment they are published? And if anyone knows a website for a bit older French books, fire away. I only know the amazon kindle store, but I am guessing there must be French equivalents to project Gutenberg and all the others.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Here in the UK books stay in copyright for 70 years after the authors death. I am not sure about the US - I think it depends on when the book was published. Much as we all like to get things for free, we need to remember that copyright is there for a reason - to protect the rights of the creator who has a right to be compensated for their work. When people ask me for free books (unless of course they are a reviewer) I ask them if they would be prepared to work for free, and if not, why are they expecting me to? Most of them soon change their tune when I put it that way.  :) 

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