Good Online Sources for Free Books? 64
hydopower asks: "I recently stumbled upon a collection of online libraries. This was fascinating to me, but too many of them cost money or offer Google Print-like limited functionality. I decided to put together a list of sites that offer free books in a format that would allow a person to actually read through them. As Slashdot readers are known for being well read and for enjoying free things, I figured I'd tap into the knowledge pool here. Any suggestions?"
specific (Score:5, Informative)
There's one (Score:5, Informative)
Obvious: Project Gutenberg (Score:5, Informative)
Lots of literature. And most are just straight text so you can read them with anything.
Don't forget (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ [gutenberg.org]
gus
Baen Books (Score:4, Informative)
Free programming and computer science books (Score:2, Informative)
Linux Device Drivers: ahref=http://www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book/index.h
Also some for Samba, Subversion, CVS, etc.
free books (Score:5, Informative)
Creative Commons (Score:5, Informative)
I think that you'll like (Score:3, Informative)
OBI (Score:4, Informative)
Online Books Page [upenn.edu] From UPenn.
THE most complete listing I have seen.
Re:Baen Books (Score:4, Informative)
This site [dnsalias.org] and this site [ghostwheel.com] both host the first 6 cds as web browsable books.
This site [zlynx.org] contains torrents for all 7 cds.
Random suggestions (Score:5, Informative)
Eastern Standard Tribe [craphound.com] (CC)
A Place So Foreign (and eight more) [craphound.com] (CC)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom [craphound.com] (CC)
Lawrence Lessig:
Free Culture [free-culture.org]
Tech and science books:
Version Control with Subversion [red-bean.com] (CC)
An open source math book [caltech.edu]
Light and Matter [lightandmatter.com], a series of physics texts by Ben Crowell [slashdot.org]
Lists:
The Assayer [theassayer.org] is a place to find and review open books.
Re:Random suggestions (Score:4, Informative)
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect [kuro5hin.org]
Re:Baen Books (Score:1, Informative)
I think it is the next best thing to free as in beer and free as in speech, while still compensating the publisher and the authors.
As with the free library you are limited to what Baen books publishes (typically military Sci-fi) but you get what you pay for. Also excerpts are available for all the book so you can get a feel for the writers style and if you will like the book before you pay.
The Assayer (Score:5, Informative)
6 sources of some free ebooks and audiobooks (Score:3, Informative)
Fictionwise [fictionwise.com] sells ebooks, but they also have free novels, short stories and audio books from time to time. Currently they have 26 items available for free, including a lot of sci-fi.
Audible
Audible sells audio books, but they have some free items also. There is a new free item every week or so for subscribers.
ereader
ereader [ereader.com] has a few free ebooks [ereader.com]. During December last year, they had a different free ebook each day for a few weeks.
Audio Books for Free
AudioBooksForFree has free audio books, but in a very compressed format. You have to pay to get better quality, but for $100 you can buy everything.
Baen Books
Baen Books has a free library [baen.com] with sci-fi books.
Project Gutenberg
This one has been pointed out a few times, but it is the biggest. It is here [gutenberg.org] and here [promo.net]. I think the first one is the official site.