5 Websites to Find Free Books

Netgalley is a website where you can get free advanced copies of different books in exchange for feedback to the publisher through their site. You can read books from your favorite authors before they hit the shelves, and for free. I've read books like Defy, Don't Even Think About It, and The Kiss of Deception, and I have been pre-approved for books written by bestselling authors like Janet Evanovich.

However, you need to keep submitting feedback if you want to be approved for the books you request. Publishing companies won't approve you if your feedback percentage is low. Even though sometimes there are books put up that you don't have to request and everybody can read, you have a wider selection of books to go through if you keep your profile looking good.

Booktrack is one of my favorite places to read books online. If you want to read something that really brings you into the world, this is it. Self-published novels and stories are mixed in with public domain books and short stories to read, all with unique soundtracks to go along with it, made by the author, the booktrack team, or just soundtrack enthusiasts. As you read, you can adjust your reading speed so the background music will by in sync with the words you read as you read them. So when the protagonist hears a scream, you hear a scream. When a door slams, you hear that. It is the most unique reading experience I have ever had, and it is a lot of fun. And it is free to sign up and start reading stories from all categories.

For those who like teen romances, Swoonreads is the way to go. There are hundreds of romances available on their website in all different genres, including Inspirational and LGBT. Anyone can post their book on the website, so the quality is sometimes questionable, but I've read several good books on there, my favorites being Child of Destruction and Shades of Alabaster, among others. After reading, you can leave comments for the authors and other readers to see, as well as Swoonreads employees out to choose the next book that they want to publish. So not only can you get a good read, but you can help decide which books are worthy to get a Swoonreads publishing deal.

Smashwords is an online marketplace for ebooks. It's sort of like Amazon, but they don't try to hide the ebooks marked "free". In fact, you can do searches on their website just for free ebooks. The books can be both fiction and nonfiction and come in all different lengths. When browsing for my next free read, I prefer Smashwords over other online marketplaces because it's easy to find free books, and you can get them in many different forms, including, PDF, Epub, and Kindle.

This is one of the best sites for those who like the classics. Project Gutenberg has over 20,000 books on their website that are in the public domain and therefore free. You can read them online or download them onto your computer. I don't think the website is the most easy to navigate, and the formats for the books can be weird, but you still get the entire text in readable form. Sometimes, there are also really cool things, like pictures of the first draft of the A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and letters written by Beethoven.