Did you know that you can access thousands of computer science books over the internet, for free? You may not be able to read the latest title on the nonfiction bestsellers list. But, you can read a lot of classic computer sci books without paying a dime.

Why would anyone post the full-text of computer books, at no cost? Some authors choose to make their books available after the publication goes out of print. Some publishers put books online after the book has been in stores for a year or two. This makes it possible for independent learners to study anything from PhotoShop to C++.

Here are a few of the best places to find free online computer science books…

FreeTechBooks.com - This website is a great place to start. It has hundreds of links to websites hosting free, full-text books. The links are neatly organized by topic, and the site is regularly updated with new additions.

ORielly.com - O’Reilly’s open book project makes dozens of high quality computer science books available for free. Most books are in PDF format.

ACM.org - The Association for Computing Machinery offers PDF versions of classic computing books. The books were chosen by a vote amongst ACM members.

NAP.edu - The National Academies Press allows users to read several of their for-sale computer science books over the internet.

WikiBooks.org - If you’re looking for a textbook, WikiBook has a lot to choose from. Not all books are complete, but there’s still a lot of good information.

TechBooksForFree.com, FreeSoftWareBooks.com, and IntelligentEdu.com - Similar to FreeTechBooks, these websites publish lists of links to free computer science books. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the other sites, take a look at their massive book lists.

The above sites have more than a thousand free online computer science books. Happy reading!