Six Absolutely Must Know Book Sites

Ah, summertime and lazy days are upon us.  And what better way to spend at the beach than with a solid, bound, piece of lovely literary works.  Yes, books.  If you’re like me, or just a little close, you spend more money on books than you may like.  As a way to stave off my addiction, at least for a little while, I’ve started using the resources below to swap, trade, rent, and download books for free or for just a tiny fee. 

Here’s a comprehensive list of services that I’ve used, or have at least investigated.  I could have easily added more links, but I wanted to offer the quality sites that I have had experience with.  If you have any questions, I’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy.

Librivox - http://librivox.org/
Librivox is one of my favorite sites. Their stated mission is to offer up all public domain books, for free, as audio files, allowing anyone and everyone to enjoy the classics. They support MP3 and OGG files. They also offer a podcast feature, where you can download only a few chapters at a time. Keep in mind that the readers are all volunteers, but I have yet to find someone I didn’t like listening to. ADDED BONUS: This is a non-commercial, purely volunteer project. There are no advertisements, fees, gimmicks, etc. JUST PURE BIBLIOPHILE LOVE.

Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org
Named after that awesome little printing press of religious freedom, this site is possibly the first to really open up the world of public domain books. They are entirely text based, but that shouldn’t stop ya from reading. They offer text, html, and pdf files for download, along with some experiemental file formats, which I haven’t looked into yet. ADDED BONUS: They have over 30,000 books online and they have been around long enough to be a first choice for free books.

PaperBackSwap - http://www.paperbackswap.com
Easily more of a commercial site than others listed here, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking it out. They have a similar swapping for credits concept – you earn credits for books posted and shipped. You do have to pay the postage, but that is pretty much the norm. As of now the site is free to join. ADDED BONUS: If you’re out of credits, but still want a cheap books, you can purchase additional credits from the site.

ManyBooks - http://www.manybooks.net
A cooler interface than what Gutenberg offers, I decided to give this puppy a try. First thing I noticed was the huge selection of file formats available – just about any ebook reader, palm pilot, kindle, etc., seems to be supported, as well as plain old text and pdf files. There was no registration required, and they featured books on the main page. If you’re looking for something, and you haven’t found it yet, browse on over at ManyBooks.net. ADDED BONUS: They have a nice recommendations section which includes what other collections users have created.

Half.com - http://www.half.ebay.com/
I must confess that I’ve only used this site for college text books, but for the past three years I have been extremely pleased. They offer up just about any type of media you can imagine – all of it from normal people to large independent sellers. It’s like ebay, minus the bidding, and only focused on books, dvds, etc. They makes sense though, since they’re owned by ebay. When you call up a book you are offered many choices and many prices, divided by “quality” of item – great, good, acceptable, etc. I have not found a single issue with this site yet. ADDED TIP: Just like ebay, try to purchase items from people with high approval rating and many transactions. ADDED BONUS: some sellers offer discounts on shipping if you order many items from them.

Powells - http://www.powells.com
Not exactly a place to get cheap, but Powell’s is independent, awesome, and has great online content. They’re based out of Portland, OR, and after viewing the site many times, I just love this place. For a great online experience, and the chance to give your money to someone other than Amazon or Barnes and Noble, this is a great place. ADDED BONUS: the do sell used books AND you can sell them yours (they even pay the shipping).