I’ve purchased an ebook and have received in return a web page, or some kind of pointer in email, that I’m supposed to do something with. It tells me the ebook is a “PDF”, whatever that is. For the life of me, I can’t figure out the instructions.
ePub is a standard e-book file format that is supported by all popular e-book reading device including the Sony Reader, BeBook, IREX Reader, iPhone and the Nook from Barnes & Noble’s.
Amazon Kindle reader uses a proprietary format (AZW) and cannot read ePub files directly though there are free tools to convert ePub into MOBI (or even PDF) which is a format that your Kindle can read.
Other than hardware devices, you can also read .epub books on your desktop or mobile phone using free e-reader software like Mobipocket, FBReader (for Linux), Aldiko (for Android) or Adobe Digital Editions.
Download Books in ePub Format
If you are looking to download classic titles in ePub format to read offline, the best place is Google Books (select the “public domain only” option).
Google Books has more than a million public domain (out of copyright) books in the EPUB format that are completely free and they aren’t protected by DRM so you can read these ebook titles on any device / computer without restrictions.
Project Gutenberg and FeedBooks are some other useful sites that offers most of their titles in the EPUF format.
Read ePub e-books inside Firefox
Firefox users can download EPUBReader, a free add-on that lets you read the contents of any ePub book right inside their favorite browser without requiring any special software.
ePub is basically a zip file that contains a collection of text files and images. This add-on will simply uncompress that zip file and display the contents inside your browser.
In regular course, if you click on a link that points to an ePub file, Firefox will prompt you to to save that file onto the hard-drive but with this add-on installed, the ebook will directly open inside your Firefox tab like any other web page.
Additionally, you can open any ePub file that’s on your desktop using the File -> Open File menu in Firefox. All the ebook are automatically stored in your Firefox profile under a separate sub-directory.
How to Create ePub eBooks
If you want to publish your own books or blog in ePUB format, the easiest option is that you compose the text in Word (or Google Docs), save it as an RTF file and then you use Amazon’s Stanza program to convert that document into an ePUB ebook.
Before publishing, you should also use the EpubCheck tool from Adobe to make sure that the markup in your ePUB file is valid after conversion.
Alternatively, you may use the free Calibre program to convert virtually any document format into ePUB in a batch. Calibre is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. And for editing ePUB files, you should try Sigil – a WYSIWYG editor that also runs on Windows, Linux and Mac and support the.
Download Google Books with Sony Desktop Reader
While you can download ePUB books directly from the Google Books website, Sony offers an excellent desktop application (for Mac and PC) that is nice integrated with Google Books and you don’t have to own the Sony Reader for using that application.
You can then search public domain titles on Google Books directly from the desktop and save them to your local library in ePUB format.
Related: BlackBerry as an Ebook Reader
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Free ebooks are available on every different subject you can think of in both fiction and non-fiction. There are free ebooks available for adults and kids, and even those tween and teenage readers. If you love to read but hate spending money on books, then this is just what you're looking for.
It may seem overwhelming when you think about how to find and download free ebooks, but it's actually very simple. With the steps below, you'll be just minutes away from getting your first free ebook.
For other ways to get free books, see our list of the best places to download free audio books.
What You'll Need Before You Can Get Free eBooks
Before downloading free books, decide how you'll be reading them. A popular way to read an ebook is on an e-reader, such as a Kindle or a Nook, but you can also read ebooks from your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Most ebook files open on your computer using a program you already have installed, but with your smartphone, you have to have a specific e-reader app installed, which your phone probably doesn't come with by default. You can use an e-reader app on your computer, too, to make reading and organizing your ebooks easy.
These are some of our favorite free e-reader apps:
- Kindle Ereader App: This app lets you read Kindle books on all your devices, whether you use Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, BlackBerry, etc. A big advantage of the Kindle reading app is that you can download it on several different devices and it will sync up with one another, saving the page you're on across all your devices.
- Besides being able to read most types of ebook files, you can also use this app to get free Kindle books from the Amazon store.
- Nook Ereader App: Download this free reading app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows computer. You can get use it to get free Nook books as well as other types of ebooks.
- Kobo Reading App: This is another nice e-reader app that's available for Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, iPad, and Windows and Mac computers.
- Apple iBooks: This is a really cool e-reader app that's only available for Apple devices.
How Do I Download An Ebook From Amazon To My Ipad
Where to Get Free eBooks
Now that you have something on which you can read your ebooks, it's time to start your collection. If you have a Kindle or Nook, or their reading apps, we can make it really easy for you:
Below are some of our favorite websites where you can download free ebooks that will work with just about any device or ebook reading app.
- Project Gutenberg: More than 57,000 free ebooks you can read on your Kindle, Nook, e-reader app, or computer.
- ManyBooks: Download more than 33,000 ebooks for every e-reader or reading app out there.
- FeedBooks: Select the Free Public Domain Books or Free Original Books categories to find free ebooks you can download in genres like drama, humorous, occult and supernatural, romance, action and adventure, short stories, and more.
- Bookyards: There are thousands upon thousands of free ebooks here.
- GetFreeBooks: Download original ebooks here that authors give away for free.
- Obooko: Obooko offers thousands of ebooks for free that the original authors have submitted.
You can also borrow and lend Kindle books to your friends and family. Here's a guide on how to share Kindle ebooks.
Make Sure the Free eBooks Will Open In Your Device or App
Every e-reader and e-reader app has certain types of files that will work with them. When you go to download a free ebook, you'll want to make sure that the ebook file you're downloading will open.
Below are some of the most popular file types that will work with your device or apps. See this eBook file compatibility chart for more information.
- Kindle/Kindle eReader App: AZW, MOBI, PDF, TXT, PRC
- Nook/Nook eReader App: EPUB, PDF, PNG
- Sony/Sony eReader App: EPUB, PDF, PNG, TXT
- Apple iBooks App: EPUB and PDF
If your device or app won't open the ebook file you have, you can convert it to a compatible format with a free file converter like Calibre.
How to Download Your Free eBooks
How Do I Download An Ebook On Kindle
If there's more than one file type download available for the free ebook you want to read, select a file type from the list above that's compatible with your device or app.
Use the download link to download the file to your computer. If the book opens in your web browser instead of saves to your computer, right-click the download link instead, and choose to save the file.
How to Open the Free eBooks
If you're downloading a free ebook directly from Amazon for the Kindle, or Barnes & Noble for the Nook, these books will automatically be put on your e-reader or e-reader app wirelessly. Just log in to the same account used to purchase the book.
If your books aren't from those sources, you can still copy them to your Kindle. To move the ebooks onto your e-reader, connect it to your computer and copy the files over. In most cases, once your computer identifies the device, it will appear as another storage drive.
If the ebook is in the PDF format and you want to read it on your computer, you'll need to have a free PDF reader installed on your computer before you can open and read the book.