Thousands of books have past their copyright terms and are now available online, free of charge. Many of these books can be downloaded to your computer or a handheld device.

Below are several of the best collections of online books. If you are interested in helping online libraries expand, you may also consider virtual volunteering with one of these organizations.

Project Gutenberg – The first online library with over 19,000 free ebooks in several languages.

Bartleby - Internet library with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reference works.

The Online Books Page - Links to over 25,000 books online, searchable by author, title, subject, keyword, and more.

Internet Sacred Text Archive - Extensive collection of achieved religious texts and mythological works.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library – Hundreds of classic Christian texts available to read online and to download in Word or Pdf format.

Free E-books - Downloadable ebooks in Pdf format. Focus on non-fiction, how-to books.

Daily Lit – This site will send you books by email. Choose from hundreds of titles, and receive a readable “chunk” of literature daily, on weekdays, or three times a week.

Many Books – If you’re looking for a book in a specific format, give this site a try. You can download their almost 15,000 books in formats made for PDAs, iPods, ebook reader, and more.

Read Print - Classics online with author biographies and an extensive Shakespeare section.

“A very good model for resources for do-ers is the public library. Unlike schools, it does not say we must use it, or that bad things will happen to us if we don’t, or wonderful things if we do. It is simply there, for us to use, if, when, and how we want. If we want to use it, it does not test us at the door to see if we are smart enough, or claim it is better than other libraries because only the smartest are let in. It does not tell us what to do once we are in. It does not test, grade, rank, or keep files on us.”
-John Holt, Instead of Education pg38