Are you tired of paying a lot of money to buy books? Do you know that millions of books are available online for free? Do you want to know the secret to finding “free online books to read”? Do you want to read free ebooks online and listen to free audiobooks?
You’ve come to the right place.
You are reading: Free books online to read for adults
A man who doesn’t read doesn’t live. it is true because one can only truly experience the joy of this beautiful world when he reads.
A man may live only one life, but a reader lives as many lives as the number of books he reads.
only through books can you travel across the seven oceans and see the seven wonders from the comfort of home.
reading is cheap and reading is stimulating. It has been scientifically proven that readers are naturally more empathetic and intelligent.
while books are man’s best friend and everyone should read them. Not all of us are equipped with the proper means and resources to purchase books on a regular basis.
This becomes even more difficult when one is looking for books that are popular in international markets but quite expensive in Indian markets.
Fortunately, the internet has proven to be a great help to readers. And if you know where and how to look, you’ll find not thousands but millions of books that you can read for free.
In the post, we will tell you 11 ways to read free books online – ebooks or audiobooks that you can easily find just by clicking a few buttons on your mobile or pc.
These are platforms, mostly apps and websites that cater to the needs of millions of readers around the world. And now, all this knowledge is available for your perusal.
read below for 11 ways to read free and cheap books online.
table of contents
1. giant book app
cost – currently free
juggernaut is an Indian publisher that has made a name for itself in the Indian writing and publishing space. Based in Delhi, the publisher places a heavy emphasis on short books by Indian writers.
They also have a digital writing platform that allows for a hassle-free self-publishing process for writers.
Some of the famous authors who have published include William Dalrymple, Raghuram Rajan, Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, Twinkle Khanna, Sourav Ganguly, Perumal Murugan, Meena Kandasamy, and Thant Myint-U.
juggernaut has a collection of thousands of books and has an annual membership costing 300 inr which allows access to the books on their platform.
his books are intended for all types of readers: children, children, young adults and adults.
They also have certain special sections like Hindu Fables, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Harvard Business Review Ascend Series, Kids Corner, Romance, Thriller, History & politics.
Given the recent covid-19 pandemic, the publisher has made its books free to access for all readers.
This free offer is only temporary and the company will withdraw it when it deems it feasible. but even so, 300 inr ($4) a year is too good to be true and presents a very effective way to access cheap books.
2. project gutenberg
cost – free
the gutenberg project was born as a result of a voluntary effort to digitize and archive cultural books.
founded by an american writer named michael s. hart in 1971, it is also known for being the oldest digital library in the world.
The sole purpose of the website is to create and encourage the distribution of electronic books. Of the more than 60,000 books currently available on its platform, most of the books are free.
The project focuses on public domain books for which no exclusive copyright applies. books are available in a wide variety of formats ranging from html, pdf, mobi, epub and plucker.
Although most of the books are in English, there are also books available in other languages.
3. file.org
cost – free
popularly known as the internet archive, the platform is an American digital library whose mission is to ensure universal access to all knowledge.
Their focus areas include music, websites, apps, software, movies, and books, among other things. is known for being one of the largest book digitization projects in the world.
The platform has a collection of more than 2.5 million rupees and mainly focuses on public domain books, especially American books.
4. network galley
cost – free
netgalley is an exclusive and unique platform that serves as a bridge between readers and writers. This platform is a boon for book readers who can get access to early reader copies.
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is a website that allows you to create a free account and request books to review. You must create a profile that includes your tastes and preferences.
This application will primarily benefit readers who can review books. If you have a blog, website, goodreads account, or youtube channel where you post book reviews, your chances of getting noticed and approved increase exponentially.
But even if you’re just a reader who’s willing to provide honest feedback on every book you read, that’s fine.
You can request a book from a large number of books that are available to read. if an editor likes your profile, your request will be approved. and you will be given a set time to read and review a book.
The most critical part of your profile is the review rate, which is a ratio of the books you have reviewed to the books you have downloaded.
The best part of this website is that it includes books from some very popular authors like Jodi Picoult, Kevin Kwan, Karen Mcmanus, Ruth Ware, Meg Cabot, Lisa Jewell, and Shari Lapena, among many others.
5. librivox
cost – free
librivox is a very popular audiobook app among students. The advantage of this app is that all the audiobooks are available for free.
The project is run by volunteers from around the world who volunteer to serve as recording artists for the various books available on the app.
The main focus of the app is on public domain books that do not have exclusive copyrights.
These include mostly classics and many scholarly and research books that are hard to find on many paid audiobook platforms.
Another factor that sets librivox apart from other audiobook apps is that there are often multiple narrators for a single book. thus giving the listener a wide variety of voices to choose from.
6. kindle reading app
cost: free and paid
kindle reading app is probably the best on the market when it comes to reading e-books. reading comfort and ease of use are simply unbeatable.
Readers have the option of purchasing a kindle ereader, which is a special device for reading electronic books. or they can also download the free version of the app on their mobiles from the google play store or the apple app store.
The application can also be downloaded very conveniently on PC. Usually, Kindle eBooks are supposed to mean paid books, but often that is not the case.
there are many ways to find ebooks on kindle available for free. one just has to know how to find them.
One way is to go to your amazon account and in the search box type ‘free kindle ebooks’ or ‘free kindle ebooks’.
another way is to go to the kindle store and sort the books by price from lowest to highest. and viola! you can download hundreds of books for free.
It takes a bit of patience, as you’ll have to carefully search for the books you’d like to read, but it’s worth the effort.
The recommended course of action is to first download the app on your mobile device or PC. and then if you like it, you can choose to buy the kindle e-reader.
7. wattpad
cost: both free and premium
wattpad is an application intended for both readers and writers.
is a highly interactive platform that allows writers and readers to interact with each other like never before.
is a very popular platform in international circles and now wattpad is also making its way into the Indian reading and writing scene. It currently has 80 million readers all over the world.
wattpad has certain genres that set it apart from other platforms and apps.
For example, there is a separate section for fanfiction that allows writers to write and readers to read fanfiction written about their favorite characters or even celebrities.
The content is visibly diverse and includes sub-genres such as werewolf fiction, teen fiction, adventure, vampire fiction, etc.
The application can be downloaded on both mobile devices and PC and is currently available for free.
however, it offers some exclusive paid content for those who opt for the premium version.
8. anybooks app
cost: 620 inr/- as a single payment
A very popular app among regular readers, anybooks was a free platform until recently.
However, just a couple of weeks ago, they put a one-time charge on the app which is available on the google play store.
For a one-time charge of 620 inr ($9), the app provides access to thousands of books from around the world.
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has many well known and popular books whose imported editions are very expensive in india. the platform has books of all genres.
and the app interface is quite similar to the kindle mobile app with options to adjust brightness, font size and font style.
reading comfort is quite good and there is special eye care and night reading mode for the convenience of readers.
9. storytel app
cost – 299 inr/- per month
Next on the list is the storytel app, which is an audiobook app.
The company was founded in the year 2005 and eventually became a big phenomenon in many countries such as Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.
storytel finally entered the Indian market in 2017.
Currently, the subscription is available for 299 INR/- for 1 month (auto-renewal and regular version) and 599 INR/- (3 months and no auto-renewal).
The application offers thousands of books of all genres and for all ages.
has audiobooks for kids ages 0-3, ages 3-6, ages 6-9, etc. also has audiobooks for teens, young adults, and adult readers. the platform also has many electronic books.
The best thing about storytel is its focus on content in regional languages.
In addition to the popular English, the app also has a lot of content in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali.
They have a separate section for non-readers and new readers who are not in the habit of listening to long books. To meet the needs of such readers, storytel has a large amount of bit-sized content ranging from fifteen minutes to 1 hour.
storytel also features a lot of original content that is only available on their platform.
for this, they turn to popular authors like ravinder singh and many others.
They also bring in many celebrities from bollywood and hollywood to narrate their content.
These include Soha Ali Khan, Konkana Sen Sharma, David Attenborough, Benedict Cumberbatch, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Michelle Obama, and Kate Winslet.
10. free ebook downloader
cost – free
This is an application available on the Google Play Store that provides access to thousands of free PDF eBooks in all genres.
the advantage of the application is that there are many books available for download.
but the downside is that the application interface is not that great and requires a lot of effort on the part of the reader.
11. kindle unlimited subscription
cost – 169 inr/- per month
This is not an app or a website, but a reading subscription plan that allows subscribers to access hundreds and thousands of books of all genres for free.
This is kind of an update to your normal kindle app because there are so many popular books that are available on the unlimited kindle platform.
Currently, the subscription is available for a monthly fee of 169 Indian rupees, but annual plans are also available for those who want to go long term.
The reason we recommend Kindle Unlimited is because it allows access to hundreds of books by many popular Indian writers such as Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Chetan Bhagat, Christopher C. Doyle, Vineet Bajpai, Agatha Christie, Ajay K Pandey, Khushwant Singh, Jim Corbett, Savi Sharma, R.K. narayan, devdutt pattanaik and many more.
also offers many books in Indian languages like Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil and Malayalam.
while also featuring many popular series like harry potter and amar chitra katha.
The only thing that differentiates it from other platforms is that Kindle Unlimited allows you to borrow books and not keep them permanently. you can only download and read 10 books at a time.
extra tip:
There are a few other websites where you can find books to read online for free.
- manybooks
- open library
- kobo
- national digital library of india
Which of these apps/websites do you use to read free books online? Or have we missed the list of some wonderful platform that you know?
let us know in the comments below.
frequently asked questions
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