Finding free Kindle books is easy if you know where to look

• Libby and Hoopla
• Project Gutenberg
• Standard Ebooks
• Open Library

I’m never getting rid of my Kindle, and nor should you. But you don’t have to force me to admit that being stuck inside Amazon’s walled garden is quite annoying. The massive company seems to have its hands inside every cookie jar imaginable, made obvious by everything from the recent AWS outages to the knock on my door alerting me to (yet another) delivery.

Yes, Amazon’s convenience pays in more currencies than dollar signs, but the aim of that convenience is to keep you happy inside its seemingly limitless library — especially when it comes to Kindle e-books. Whether you want to access books that are unavailable via Amazon’s Kindle store or just want to change e-book suppliers, I’m here to tell you about five of my favorite places I get Kindle books — for free.

If you do not purchase e-books through the Kindle store, you can upload them to your Kindle device via cable, email, or Amazon’s own Send to Kindle portal. Just make sure to download files that are DRM-free so they won’t have any restrictions on them. Otherwise, Amazon may prevent you from reading them.

Libby and Hoopla

Via your local library network

Though they’re two different platforms, both Libby and Hoopla offer similar services: access to your local library’s online network of digital content. When you hook up your library card to the apps, you’ll be able to access hundreds of thousands of titles that include not just regular e-books, but also magazines, audiobooks, and more.

Libby uses a wait list system for when titles aren’t available yet, which gives you 72 hours to borrow, suspend (postpone), or cancel a book once it’s your turn in line. On the other hand, Hoopla gives you instant access to the items you want to read (or watch). It’s a different model that removes the ‘availability’ concept of a fully-digital copy of something. It does seem rather counter-intuitive that something digital only exists as one copy, like a physical book.

One of the biggest draws I have for these services is that there are no late fees. However, this is because the items you borrow are automatically returned at their due date. A sneaky way to keep them a little longer is to turn your device on airplane mode for as much time as you need to finish them. Don’t worry — this doesn’t prevent someone else from accessing the title, as the little loophole still provides the item to the next person in line, anyway. When you turn your Wi-Fi back on, though, it will disappear.

Hoopla also offers movies and music in addition to reading-based content, which Libby does not.

Project Gutenberg

Shall we enter the public domain?

Project Gutenberg is a resource gem. It was founded by Michael Hart — the original inventor of e-books back in 1971 — and is run completely by volunteers. The online archive hosts over 75,000 completely free public domain e-books, which means that they aren’t protected under copyright. Anyone can use, share, adapt, republish, or even copy them freely without asking for permission or paying any party royalties.

Written work is in the US public domain if it was published before 1929, so that means classic literature like Little Women, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and more are available right on Project Gutenberg for free — which is why I use it the most. The organization famously offers a variety of file types, which will allow you to get the e-books to your Kindle any way you want. I prefer downloading an EPUB file and using the Send to Kindle portal to get it to my Kindle Paperwhite.

Standard Ebooks

For trusted typography

Standard Ebooks is Project Gutenberg’s stylish little sibling. It takes works in the public domain (even straight from Project Gutenberg itself) and gives it fresh editing and formatting, even comparing original pages side by side to ensure that the editors don’t miss a typo or other error. One of my favorite traits of Standard Ebooks is their replacement of all straight quotes and apostrophes (“) with curly quotes and apostrophes (“). It’s one of those very slight touches that just elevates my literary reading experience. Plus, the final results are gorgeous.

Like Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks is completely volunteer-run and adheres to a very detailed style-guide to reduce outdated grammar, ancient ephemera, and even advertisements from publishers that haven’t existed in decades — plus anything else that might take away from your reading experience. Everything is completely free on it, too, which is surprising given the time and attention given to each and every text.

Open Library

Not just classics

Deviating from the public domain, Open Library is another online archive with a very ambitious goal in mind: creating at least one page for every book ever published — ever. As of right now, it has over 20 million records that include partial and full texts in a variety of formats, so you can sideload them to your Kindle (or other e-reader, of course).

Because it isn’t only public-domain titles, you can search for virtually any book — even if it’s the latest romantasy to hit BookTok. Even if Open Library doesn’t have a copy of the text, it will give you links to locate the book elsewhere. Public-domain books are available instantly, and other titles you may have to borrow. In essence, it’s like a Wikipedia for books — readers can even go in and edit or add data themselves.