This is a listing of 192 sites that legally offer free books (eBooks) for download or for online viewing.
Some time ago I went looking for some free eBooks and was surprised to find that there are many resources for this. I decided to put together this list of sites that offer free eBooks as a reference. Since there are so many, I was not able to check each one out thoroughly. So comments from you on any of these sites would be appreciated and added to the comments in the article.
I have tried to make certain that all of the eBooks at these sites are legally available for viewing/downloading. However, it is possible that I have made a mistake. If you suspect any of these sites of illegally offering copyrighted materials, then please let me know.
Putting this together was exhausting, but the list is not exhaustive, so I encourage you to post any sites that you know of that are not listed here.
The listing here is in alphabetical order. Given the size of this list now, it may be easier to search by genre. I have set up 14 pages here of different genres. If you do not see one that covers your interests, let me know and I may be able to put one together.
I have also put together a listing of sites that offer free and legal audio books at
Alphabetical Listing
1RomanceEBooks 
offers 27 free books from their romance collection for download in a variety of formats. These are not public domain offerings, but some of their usual offerings made available for free.
2020k Large collection, divided into categories and sub-categories for download in a variety of formats. Note: Many of the links to the Internet Archive from this site are not working.
AdaIC.org 
has several free books on Ada as well as textbooks and tutorials on Ada.
Alive and Free - Links to free ebooks of living authors
AllBooksFree A small, but unique, listing of free fiction ebooks, available for download, mostly in pdf.
AllRomanceBooks 
lists 169 free romance ebooks for download. Registration is required. I noticed that there appeared to be the 1RomanceEBooks and eHarlequin listings shown there, as well as quite a few others. Again, these are not public domain, but the free offerings of current publishers.
American Mathematical Society has a pretty complete listing of books involving mathematics.
Arthur's Classic Novels - Over 4000 novels covering a great variety of topics, nicely separated into categories and "best" lists. Some very interesting entries here. Available for online viewing.
Ask Sam - A small collection of classics, including Shakespeare, and legal, resource and government texts.
AssociatedContent 
has several cookbooks available for download in pdf. Most are short and specific (muffin recipes etc.), but the Chocolate recipe book is over 600 pages and the Blue Ribbon recipes are over 400 pages.
AstrologyWeekly 10 books for online reading and about 30 for download. All on astrology.
Authorama offers a few hundred books, searchable by author, for online viewing.
BABBooks 
is a children's site that has 25 free illustrated books available for online reading or listening.
Baen Free Library - A small library of downloadable science fiction novels in a variety of formats.
BaenCD - A small collection of science fiction books from Baen's promotional CDs. They are downloadable in a variety of formats as well as viewable online.
Baldwin Online Children's Projects 520 classic children's books in a variety of genres for online viewing
Bartelby - Harvard classics and encyclopedias. HTML only.
BBC (Dr. Who) for those who like Dr. Who, this is a collection of 8 books for online reading or download in a choice of 3 formats
Berkely SunSite Classics - A small collection of classics. HTML only.
Bibliomania - Over 2,000 classic novels, study guides, biographies and more. HTML only.
BlackMaskFiction 
offers 20 or so free detective stories that were originally published in magazines during 1925 to 1939 for download in pdf.
BookBoon 
offers a number of free textbooks on computer porgraming and other subjects for download in pdf. These are legal textbooks written for BookBoon which contain some ads within the books.
Book-bot 14,571 books available for online viewing in their easy to view reader. Very nice find by fellow editor Rhiannon.
BookBox 
is a children's site that has about 20 free books available for download in pdf (as a single page) and MP3. Also free games and coloring books.
BookGlutton is a collection of 1200+ books for online reading with the added feature of groups available for discussion of the readings. Nice combination of reading and socializing. Suggested by an anonymous poster.
BookPop 
is another children's site that has a number of illustrated books free for online reading. There are also some coloring pages for download. There are supposed to be music and story downloads, but I kept getting an error when trying to reach those.
BookRags - Small collection of free with many paid. Hard to find the free ones. Available in Word or PDF.
BooksShouldBeFree While primarily a good sized collection of audio books, each of the books is available for online reading or for download in text.
Bookstacks is a small collection (100+) of classic works available for online viewing, with many also available in Adobe PDF and Microsoft Reader versions. Nicely set up.
BookYards - 16,000+ books, videos, educational material.
Bored.com has over 15,000 books available for online viewing. Nicely divided into a good variety of categories.
BucaroTecHelp 
has an interesting collection of free business books available for download in pdf. These deal with internet business for the most part. You do have to view their news feed to be able to download, but registration is not necessary.
CandlelightStories 
has a good number of stories from the Arabian nights collection as well as other story books available for online reading.
CBeebies 
is a BBC site that offers a good number of free stories, in flash, for online reading and listening. Also, has games, music and coloring books.
Chessville 40+ ebooks on Chess available for download (mostly in PDF)
ChestofBooks Large collection, divided into categories, for online viewing. Nice collection.
ChildrensBooksForever 
has a nice collection of illustrated books available in pdf.
Children's Books Online is an excellent collection (600+) of illustrated antique children's books for viewing online. They are also available for download at a fee. This little gem was suggested by an anonymous poster.
Classic Authors.net contains the works of over a hundred authors (and short biography for each), with a varying number of works per author. Online viewing only.
Classic Book Library is a small collection (100+) of classic works arranged by genre. Online viewing only.
Classic Book Shelf Electronic Library offers the works of 50+ authors in varying amounts. Online viewing only.
Classic Literature Library Decent size collection that has complete works of a small variety of authors and works of others and a nice children's section available for online viewing.
Classic Reader offers thousands of free classic books for online viewing.
ComputerBooks.us larger collection, subcategorized and available for download in pdf
CrankyLibrarian 3011 books by 752 authors available for online viewing. Complete works of several authors and some interesting categories.
DailyLit - Read books online by daily email or RSS feed. Over 700 titles.
Developnew a good collection of free computer software books available for reading online.
Diesel eBooks - Offers 750+ ebooks formatted for Microsoft Reader and MobiPocket
DivineLifeSociety over 200 books on Yoga, religion and philosophy available in pdf or HTML
DoverCentreBooks 
has a very large collection of links to free online cookbooks, horror stories, meditation, spiritualism and fables.. They are sorted alphabetically and since they are to a variety of download sites, the availability of online viewing and download formats vary.
DragonBytes Nice collection of horror novels available for online viewing. Separate section for Vampire novels.
Earthbound The 5 book science fiction series of Earthbound available for download in lit .pdb .pdf .txt .rtf.
EasyMediaBroadcast 
offers a nice size collection of mostly classical works for download in TK3. You must use the TK3 reader, available for free at the site, for these books. Books are sorted by author and title.
eBookLobby - Small, but interesting and unique, collection divided into 13 categories
E-Books Directory 944 books in 344 categories available for download in varying formats.
eBooksforYoungReaders 
offers a large collection of free books for download nicely categorized into reading levels.
eBooksJustPublished Interesting collection of DRM free eBooks listed daily. Most are free.
eBookNook 
A good number of stories, mostly romance, but some children and vampire stories available for online reading.
eBooksRead Over 41,000 books available for download in pdf or text. Search by author or title
eHarlequin 
offers 17 free romance novels for download in several different format options. These are not public domain novels, but some of Harlequin's usual offerings.
eReader.com has a small collection of free ebooks for download, but a couple interesting entries. Registration required.
eServer - Over 30,000 works covering a variety of interests
eServer Technical Communications 
has 875 works in its software section and 161 in its webdesign section (although a number were no longer available) as well as some articles in its other sections.
eText.lib The University of Virginia online library has a large collection of works available for online viewing (some are available in Microsoft Reader). Even though a good number are limited to UVA students and staff, there is still a good amount of interesting material available to the general public. Suggested by poster mikedutch.
EveryonesReading 
is offering 10 free romance novels for download in several formats. These are one book from each of their series and are being offered to celebrate their first anniversary (so they may not be there long).
Federal Citizen Information Center offers informational booklets on a great variety of subjects. Many are free and most of the paid ones are available for a free download. Suggested by an anonymous poster
FeedBooks - Thousand of eBooks downloadable in a variety of formats
Fiction eBooks is a interesting small collection of works of fiction (including some Beatrix Potter illustrated childrens books) as well as some books for writers and works philosphy and sociology. Online viewing only.
FictionPress 
is a growing network over 1 million writers/readers, and home to over 1,200,000 original works by unsigned authors.
FictionWise has 35 books available for free download in a great variety of formats. Most are the usual classics avialble elsewhere, but there are a couple of unusual ones and a few reference books that might be interesting.
FindingFreeeBooks 
has links to free book offerings posted. Also worth checking out the limited time offers section. This is a nice spot to check as there are unique entries here.
Franklin - Thousands of free titles available in text and HTML format
FreeBookCentre links to thousands of computer ebooks divided into many sub-categories
FreeBookSpot - 5,000 free eBooks downloadable in 96 categories available for download in a number of different formats. Suggested by devinathann.
FreeBooksClub 1500+ books, in a wide variety of non-fiction categories, available for download. Registration required. Showing Account Suspended-will check to see if it renews.
FreeBooks4Doctors Over 650 works (in varying languages) dealing with medical matters. Available in pdf download.
FreeBooksforAll A fairly large collection of non-fiction books availabe for download (mostly in pdf)
FreeComputer Books - Free computer, math, technical books and lecture notes
FreeeBookDownloadLinks 
has a very nice size collection of links to free computer science books online. Download options vary as these are links to other sites.
Free eBooks Net - Free books and resources for authors. Also magazines
FreeOnlineBooks 
offers over 5,000 free books, mostly classics, for online viewing. Works may be searched by author, title, keyword, reading level and 15 genres. You can adjust the page width and font size and style. Registration is not necessary, but free registration allows some extra features.
FreeOn-LineBooks Interesting collection on individualist feminism and libertarianism available for online viewing.
Free Online Novels Interesting collection for online viewing. Several hundred novels separated into categories.
FreeQuickRecipes 
3 cookbooks available for download in pdf and a large amount of recipes for online viewing as well as other information on kitchen and diet
FreeRead a bibliography of Australian writers who died before 1955, with links to a good number of them for download or viewing.
Free SF Online 
over 2,000 links to science fiction books for reading online
FreeSFReader Collection of links for mostly science fiction, fantasy and horror novels and short stories, but also some other genres
FreeTechBooks - Computer science and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes.
FullBooks - Thousand of free full text books.
GenieBooks 
offers a few free children's books available for download in powerpoint.
GetFreeEbooks - Smaller collection of all free ebooks.
Globusz - A place for new authors to post their work and for readers to check them out for free
GoldenGems
a collection of little golden books and other illustrated books for children for online viewing and saving as jpg.
Google Book Search - Good selection of free ebooks available in a variety of categories.
GrtBooks - A large collection of great books and classics.
Gutenberg - Over 25,000 books for download there and over 100,000 available through their affiliates.
HealthRecipes 
8 cookbooks available for download in pdf
Heygidday Thousands of works in a great variety of categories available for download in pdf (zipped).
HorrorMasters 2100 classic horror novels available for download in pdf, plus links to horror novels at other sites.
HowTo offers around 150 free "how to" ebooks on a wide variety of topics. Suggested by an anonymous poster.
Infomotions - 14,000 listings from full classic novels to Western philosophy. HTML only.
InternationalChildrensDigitalLibrary nice collection of children's books from around the world in a variety of languages and nicely categorized, available for online viewing
InternetArchive - Over 500,000 texts available for download
Internet Sacred Text Archive very interesting and large collection of books on religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric available for online viewing.
Islaam Pure & Clear around 50 Islamic books for reading or download
Jody Kihara has made two of her books for children available for free download in PDF and apparently more freebies are forthcoming.
Kellscraft Studio Around 250 books available for online viewing. Kellscraft lists out of print, public domain novels, most published prior to 1923. Searchable by title, author and topic.
KiddoTime 
is a site for those learning to read. It has phonics, word, music and puzzle games. .
KidsNurseryRhymes 
a British site featuring over 1200 nursery rhymes for online viewing. Also has sing along rhymes (must have midi player-available there) and some nursery rhyme disco recordings available for download in MP3.
Kidspace A small collection of childrens books, available for online viewing, from the Internet Public Library.
LearningIsland Nice collection of children's books available for online viewing.
Librivox Although mostly know for its excellent collection of audio books. A poster named Les has pointed out that they also have links to online viewing sites for all of its large collection of audio books and also download links.
LilFingers Storybooks Small collection of books for very young children for reading and being read to.
Linux Online Around 25 linux, open source and programing, books for download or reading
Listverse 
has a interesting top ten list (though there are 11 entries) of free sci fi books on the web.
Literature.org has a collection of classics, arranged by author, for online viewing.
LiteratureNetwork has over 1900 full books and over 3000 short stories and poems by over 250 authors available for online reading. Searchable by author and they have a few unusual ones.
LiteraturePost 825 works from 71 authors available for online viewing.
Luisa Green 
offers 3 of her romance ebooks for free download in pdf.
Magickeys small, but interesting, and unusual, collection of childrens books for online viewing
ManyBooks - 22,000 books available for download in a variety of formats
Master Texts is a collection of 30+ authors for online viewing.
MedLine Plus is a great, trustworthy site for general health information, including tutorials, clinical trial updates and the latest news in medicine. You can also find plenty of books, including some intended for children.
MemoWare - Free books for PDA
Mises Institute Several hundred books, mostly on economics (and from a libertarian point of view) available for download as pdf. Some unique entries here. Suggested by poster, Bill Starr.
MIT Internet Classics Archive - Over 400 works of clasical literature available for download.
MIT OpenCourseWare 
offers a large selection of business courses in its Sloan School of Management section.
MobileRead - Forum listing thousands of free ebooks.
MobiPocket over 10,000 works, in a variety of categories, available for download in MOBI.
Molwick Small collection of scientific and educational books available for download in pdf
Munsey's - Over 18,000 ebooks available in a variety of formats
NetLibrary - Small selection of free. But annual membership is only $8.95 for over 500,000 works.
OnlineBooks4free large collection of links to other sites for online viewing or download. Nicely categorized.
Online Books Page from the University of Pennsylvania is a listing of over 30,000 free books on the web. Mostly this references to other sites, but they do have the Gutenberg listings available for download as well as some interesting special exhibits.
OnlineComputerBooks - Good selection of free computer books.
OnlineFreeeBooks - links to various ebooks (mostly pdf) in 9 categories
Online Library of Liberty hosts over an interesting collection of over 1,100 books available for online viewing and also for download.
OnlineSapiens has a small collection for online viewing, but a few unique entries worth a look.
OxfordTextArchive - Over 2,000 classical texts downloadable as ASCII or DOC
PagebyPage a few hundred works available for online viewing.
Payton Lee 
offers 17 of her romance works and several short stories for download in pdf. The downloads are at LuLu, which supposedly requires registration to download, but I was able to download and did not have to register.
PDFBooks - 4,700 pdf ebooks
PDFFreeBooks Small collection of children's books and two rare books on Syriac grammar and Arabic-Enclish lexicon. Available for download in PDF or DJVU.
PerseusDigitalLibrary - A large collection of classical texts broken down to time period written.
PlaneteBook - Free classical literature
PlanetPDFeBooks - Small collection of classical works.
ProgrammingeBooks 
has a very nice collection of downloads and links for a wide variety of programming languages.
Project Gutenberg Australia over 1600 novels and an assortment of other works available in varying ways, including test, pdf and online viewing
PublicBookShelf around 150 books in varying categories for online viewing.
PublicLiterature Has some unique public domain novels among its classic collection of around 100 books. Also has a large selection of writings submitted by authors which are free and legal to download, but not to distribute. All are available for online viewing and download in several formats.
PubMed Bookshelf is an engine which lets you search for books containing keywords of your choice and then browse them.
PubMed Central This search engine covers all the open-access articles [rather than books] available on PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's main scientific portal (where you can also find abstracts from many restricted-access articles).
Questia Online Library offers over 5,000 classic and rare works for free online viewing
QuickFound 
has links to many and varied free online cookbooks for viewing and for download in pdf. Definitely worth checking out.
Qvadis hosts over 6,000 free titles available in Palm Database (.pdb) format.
ReadBookOnline has a nice collection of classics available for online viewing.
ReadEasily - Small collection of works that has option for larger print. HTML only.
ReadPrint - Thousands of books, poems and short stories.
ReadTheseLips short fiction, poetry and other writings especially for and about lesbians.
RealTime - Free media for IT professionals
RIF Reading Planet 
has an interesting collection of books for online viewing that changes monthly. Also has activities and games as well as Asian/Pacific, Carribean, Hispanic and native American sections with books and activities.
RobertBurtonRobinson 
offers a number of free books and short stories for free online viewing and for free download in pdf.
RobertSchifreen 
has made his new book "The Web Book", which covers everything involved in setting up a website available exclusively to visitors here at Gizmo's.
RomanticMarriageStories 
features romance works about married life. These short stories present a high view of marriage and portray the fun a romantic couple can have in a happy and sexy marriage.
Sarah Reinke 
has made several of her romance novels, and some non-romance novels, available for download in pdf. These are for mature audiences and you must be over 18 years of age to download.
Scholastic Small collection of children's books available for online viewing (or read to you). Featuring Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Scifimatter 
has a nice listing of free sci fi books available on the internet. Some are already listed here, but there are quite a few unique entries.
SebastianSwan 
a collection of Sebastian Swan stories for online viewing.
SejarahMelayuLibrary 
is perhaps the largest public on-line collection of books and other documents on the history of the Malay archipleago and its surrounding region. Consisting of over 700 books and academic papers in electronic PDF format, the library is divided into seven broad sections:
SillyBooks 
has a number of free books available for online reading. There are also puzzles, games and contests.
Sloan St.James
has made 4 of her romance novels, including THE DARK PLAIN, an RWA award winning novel, available for download in pdf.
SnipFiles - Small collection of free ebooks and software.
specficworld 
has a small collection of free sci fi books available for download in pdf. Mostly short story collections.
Starfall nice little collection of works to help children learn to read
Starry FreeOnlineNovels small collection, but some interesting entries, available for online viewing.
StoryPlace Elementary
has six stories and related activities for online viewing geared for elementary school age children.
StoryPlace PreSchool 
has a nice collection of books and activities designed for pre-schoolers available for online viewing.
Suvudu 
offers the first book in some of their acclaimed sci fi series for free download. Interesting entries.
TechBooksforFree 
offers a wide range of free programming and computer books divided into nine main categories.
TechToolBlog Links to 345 online programing books
TheFreeLibrary 
has a large collection of free classic books sorted by author and searchable by author, title or keyword. There is also a small biography of every author along with the listing of that author's works on the site. The site claims to have over 5 million works. Online viewing only.
Tikiri 
has a nice collection of Sri Lankan stories available in English and Sinhala available as pdf.
ToddlerSchool 
has a small collection of illustrated books to read and listen to online. Also has educational games for younger children. Suggested by Sefi.
TopMystery A good amount of each of the few mystery authors listed are available for online viewing or download
Tor.com 
has a good number of Science Fiction & Fantasy stories available for download in pdf, mobi pocket, html or ePub. Also available for listening or download as MP3.
TrinityMoon 
a small collection of novels and short stories for online reading
Vitalita 
The Vitalita Culinary Group is offering two free vegan cookbooks for download in text. A Taste of Vitality and Desserts of Vitality include pictures of the finished dishes.
Web Literature has 6500+ works of over 350 authors available for online viewing. A nice feature is that they try to display the full works of the listed authors
WitGuides - Small collection of free ebooks in a variety of categories.
WordIQ Nice collection of over 10,000 books available for online viewing. There are some unusual entries here, but hard to find unless looking for specific title or author.
WorldofTales 
a collection of folktales, fairy tales and fables from around the world available for online viewing.
Wowio - Good size collection of novels and also comic books.
Libraries
On the advice of anonymous poster that most public library systems offer free ebooks, audiobooks, and music downloads to their customers for free, I did some checking and found that there are a large amount of offerings available through online libraries. It appears most, if not all, require a local library card. These are sites that have links to local library sites.
LibWeb is a good search source for local libraries online. A good selection of US and worldwide locations.
Public Libraries very good for US, looked not as thorough as LibWeb on worldwide.
Internet Public Library also has some links, but I found the above two to be superior set ups.
