About this Selection

The following linked items are to web-based sources of eBooks and other media formats that are freely available to anyone. Most of these sites will require you to create a login account to gain full access to their offerings but the accounts cost you nothing. Some sites allow you to download their offerings to a connected device which allows you to read them off-line while others offer only read access to the offerings which require your device to be connected to the site. Some sites offer both methods depending on the book.

Lassen Library has no relationships with the offering organizations and cannot offer any assistance to you if you choose to make use of them.

The Internet Archive is home to millions of books, movies, TV shows, music, and other content. On its virtual bookshelves, you’ll find more than 20 million downloadable ebooks and texts that you can keep as well as 2.3 million titles that you can borrow by signing up for a free account with the site. A wide selection of audiobooks also are available.

The books are organized by collections and other criteria. You can narrow the focus by specifying a year, language, and other criteria. And you can search for books based on title, author, publisher, topic, year, and other factors. Ebooks are accessible in a variety of formats, including epub, Kindle, PDF, and plain text, while audiobooks are available as MP3 files and M3U files.

Open Library  A division of the Internet Archive, Open Library is devoted specifically to ebooks and audiobooks. The site offers more than 3 million classic books that you can read online or download as epub or PDF files. Acting as a real library, Open Library also features more modern books that you can borrow for 14 days and read online. The state of California is a lending partner and has provided access to a lending library of more 200,000 eBooks.

Standard Ebooks  is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, free of cost and that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks. 

Project Gutenberg is an online library of free eBooks, offering a vibrant and growing collection of the world’s great literature. Project Gutenberg eBooks require no special apps to read, just the regular Web browsers or eBook readers that are included with computers and mobile devices

No fee or registration. Everything from Project Gutenberg is gratis, libre, and completely without cost to readers.

PDF Books World library is a high quality resource for free PDF books, digitized versions of books attained from the public domain. The PDF books offered cover many subjects for readers of all ages including fiction, nonfiction, academic and children's writings. The books are offered in separate editions optimized for devices of different screen size like PCs,tablets and mobiles.The books are not just simple PDF files but professionally created PDF editions with features including legible font sizes, table of content, Illustrations and internal reference links. The books can be read with limited functionality online. Membership registration is required to download PDF books to your device.

ManyBooks is home to more than 50,000 ebooks—those in the public domain and ones that are self published. You can browse by a variety of genres and subjects, including biography, cooking, fiction, health, history, philosophy, politics, science fiction, and travel. You can also search by title, author, or keyword.

You can read books in the web browser of your connected device without registering an online ManyBooks account. To download books to your device you will need to create a free ManyBooks user account. After creating the account, you are prompted to choose your favorite genres and file formats, which the site uses to help you find future titles. You are also able to sign up for a daily newsletter offering free and discounted ebooks. Select a title that interests you to see a synopsis and brief excerpt. You can then read it online or download it as an EPUB file or other format.

enki Library.  eBooks made available by a partnership between Califa and Bibliolabs. This service is available to every California resident. Books can be read in the browser of your connected device but are not downloadable. Compatible with iOS® & Android™ (Using BiblioBoard Library, BiblioLabs, LLC)

Create a profile account to access features such as Save Favorites, Create Bookmarks, Add Notes and Sync Preferences.