Free Downloadable e-Books

Thanks to Portland Public Library for the following information

The following is a short list of good sources for free e-book content. Sites have been marked with “ePub” if they will play on Nook, Kobo and other non-Amazon e-readers and “Kindle” if they will play on the Kindle. Ebooks available from these sites will also play on most computers and are available in other formats like pdf and html. Most titles will also play on iPhone, Blackberry, or Android smart phones e-reader apps. Other ideas to add to these lists? Email reference.desk@maine.gov.

Maine InfoNet Download Library

http://download.maineinfonet.org/

Nearly 2,500 e-books spanning best-selling Fiction, Non-Fiction, YA and Children’s content are available as downloadable eBooks. This is in addition to the ever-growing collection of downloadable audiobooks. Both the eBooks and audio books can be checked out and downloaded by library card holders of participating libraries across Maine, which includes Maine State Library. Requires active library card from participating Maine library. ePub

On the Maine InfoNet Download Library site look for the icon for "Additional eBooks, Always Available" free content (bottom left of Maine InfoNet Download Library home page). These titles will not count against your checkout limits. Most of the books are from the Project Gutenberg (see below).

Public Domain Books

Books in the public domain are those titles for which copyright has expired or been forfeited. These are generally widely available. Many of the e-book services listed below offer free access to public domain titles, some in addition to fee-based titles. This is a short list of some of the best known services.

• Project Gutenberg - www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
  Over 36,000 free public domain e-books available to download to PC, Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android, or other portable device.  ePub, Kindle
• ManyBooks - www.manybooks.net
  Over 29,000 free public domain titles; 35 languages represented.  ePub, Kindle
  Mobile version: mnybks.net ePub, Kindle
• Open Library - openlibrary.org
  A project of the non-profit Internet Archive. Claims over 1 million titles. Search for eBook specifically by checking the box that says "show only eBooks" under the main search box.  ePub, Kindle

Original Works

• Smashwords - www.smashwords.com/
  Many free e-books from independent authors and publishers.ePub, Kindle
• FeedBooks - www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain
  Includes free original books in addition to thousands of previously published public domain books. Not all books are free, but many are and fees are low for those that are for sale.ePub, Kindle
• Scribd - www.scribd.com
  Scribd calls itself the world’s largest social reading and publishing company, making it easy to share and discover entertaining, informative and original written content across the web and mobile devices. All html

Online Book Stores and Device/Format-Specific Services

Web-based bookstores offer a variety of options for acquiring e-books, from bestsellers to purchase to free e-books made available as marketing promotions, public domain offerings, or samples from independent authors and publishers. You will have to sign up for accounts with these services in order to access. Among the best sources for free content are:

• Amazon Kindle Store - www.amazon.com/kindle
  Amazon offers free titles for promotions each week. To see what’s available, go to the Kindle Store on the Amazon.com web site, select the ‘Discussions' tab at the top of the page, and look for “Free Books” in the Forums discussions list. A regular poster named Happy Reader “Joyce” posts a daily list of free Kindle books. Kindle
  • www.ereaderiq.com/free/ is an Amazon Affiliate Program member that offers a list (updated hourly!) of free titles for the Kindle. There were 825 titles recently listed on one day! Users can sign up to receive an email notification of new titles as they are added (see box at top right of web page). You can actually view this list on your kindle at m.eReaderIQ.com : Offer Recent Kindle Freebies and suggest FreeReadFeed - Free reads for Kindles
  • Prefer to have free Kindle books announcements delivered as RSS feeds to your online news reader? Add the following feed URL to your RSS reader: http://feeds.feedburner.com/addallamazon
• Barnes & Noble Nook Blog - Look for Free Fridays - http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/The-NOOK-Blog/bg-p/Unbound
  • Prefer to have free Nook books announcements delivered as RSS feeds to your online news reader? Add the following feed URL to your RSS reader: http://feeds.feedburner.com/addallbn
• Sony Reader Store - https://ebookstore.sony.com/category/free-ebooks
  Limited time offers and other selections from Smashwords.com (see above). Good user interface BUT you have to download the Sony Reader software to get the books. Kind of a pain if you already have Adobe Digital Editions. Better just to download from Smashwords directly into Adobe Digital Editions, if you’re already using that program
  to read/transfer books from Overdrive. ePub; Kindle versions also available through Smashwords.com

Index Sites and Other Helpful Finding Aids and Tools

• Inkmesh - inkmesh.com
  Calls itself a “Ebook search engine to find free e-books and compare e-book prices for the Kindle, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader and more!” A slick tool which indexes 34 major web sites for e-book title availability, both free and for sale, with info on Amazon ratings, device compatibility, price, etc.ePub, Kindle
• Pixel on Ink - www.pixelofink.com/ - Free & Bargain eBooks, visit Pixel of Ink throughout the day. Note: Though free at time of posting, prices may change at any time. Please verify that the “Kindle Price” is $0.00. If you see a price for “Prime Members” or “read for free”, then the book is NOT free any longer. Kindle
• AddAll - ebooks.addall.com/
  Indexes 30 sites. Includes free and for sale books. Especially useful for price comparison. Search results display in clearly readable grid format featuring sortable price and format fields. ePub, Kindle

Both sites also index books, audiobooks and magazines; Inkmesh covers Audible.com as well.

Blogs

• Books on the Knob - blog.booksontheknob.org/
  Bargain reads, free e-books and book reviews for the Kindle, Nook, kobo, Sony and other e-readers.ePub, Kindle
• dailycheapreads.com - www.dailycheapreads.com/
  Kindle specific. Free and cheap. Kindle.
  

Forums

• MobileRead - www.mobileread.com ePub, Kindle