With the advent of the Kindle and the iPad, many people are becoming more receptive to the idea of reading books in an electronic format. However, there have been websites to read books online for free for several years now and the choices are expanding dramatically.
The Google Books Project
At the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2004, Google unveiled a massive project then known as Google Print, which morphed into Google's Library Project and eventually became Google books.
The project involves the scanning of actual pages, maintaining the look of the printed page online.
Books that have entered the public domain, either through dedication or the lapsing of copyrights, are available for viewing online or download, as are books which the copyright owner has given permission to be viewed. Books that are covered by copyright are still scanned and small, two to three line snippets of text are visible although the full text of the book is searchable.
According to an interview with PBS in December, 2009, Google had scanned 12 million books and the goal was to scan up to 40 million.
Google Books also has digitized a number of magazines.
Microsoft Live Search Books and Internet Archive
In 2006, Microsoft announced plans to conduct a project similar to Google, called Live Search Books, but abandoned the project in May 2008. Those books are now available on the non-profit Internet Archive, which is the second largest book scanning project and has over two million texts, in addition to almost 900,000 books from Google's digitized collections.
In addition to the books, Internet Archive offers an archive of websites, videos, audios, and documents from federal court cases.
Library of Congress NDLP
The Library of Congress is also building a collection of digital books, although at a much slower pace than Google Books or Internet Archives. Their collection is accessible through a section called "American Memory".
Other Websites to Read Books Online for Free
There are a number of private websites offering online books for free as well.
Due to the relative ease of online publishing of books which have an expired copyright, a number of websites offers classic novels online and available for an instant read. These include ClassicBookShelf.com and PageByPageBooks.com as well as others.
PublicBookshelf.com has chosen a niche marketplace, allowing people to read romance novels online free and has over 500 novels from which to choose.
ChestofBooks.com has a good variety of topics, although the number of books isn't as large as the main players in the area.
Independent Author and Publisher Websites to Read Books Online for Free
In addition to the "digital libraries", many authors and publishers have begun publishing entire books online and allowing free access as a marketing and promotional venture.
FreeOnlineReading.com provides links to a number of these, as well as to other locations which allows online reading for free.
Simon and Schuster has started a website called PulseIt.com, which allows access to a library of teen books which can be read online and then reviewed. The website also has a social network area and a section with author's profiles and interviews.
Although printed books and sites which charge for books will be around for the predictable future, online book reading for free is a growing segment of the internet and, with the size and capabilities of some of the players in this market, can only grow and become more reader friendly.
Resources
Library of Congress American Memory
Robert Bennett - Robert Bennett is a part time traveler, a more than full time dad, and has recently started in the exciting world of freelance writing. In ...
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