The Free Library
Thousands of books available free and fully legally — either their copyright has expired (public domain) or they are published under open licences. We point you straight to the original source.
The best legal sources of free books
Every source is trusted and free — click to visit.
Project Gutenberg
The largest library of public-domain books — classic literature, philosophy, science and more.
75,000+ books
Standard Ebooks
Beautifully polished, professionally typeset editions of public-domain classics.
Thousands
Internet Archive
A huge digital archive of books, magazines and periodicals, with digital lending for many titles.
20M+ items
Open Library
An Internet Archive project cataloguing every published book, with links to legal free reading.
40M+ records
Wikisource
A free library of source texts — classics, historical documents, treaties and speeches.
Millions of texts
DOAB
The Directory of Open Access Books — peer-reviewed academic books from trusted publishers.
80,000+ books
OpenStax
Free, high-quality, peer-reviewed college textbooks in maths, science and economics.
University textbooks
HathiTrust
A digital library from major universities, with full access to public-domain works.
18M+ volumes
Free books we recommend
Great classics, fully legal to read.