7 places where you can download books legally

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Free and paid resources with extensive collections of works.

1. Liters

Platforms: web, Android, iOS, Windows.

The Litres store offers over a million books in Russian and other languages. 48,000 of them (mostly classics) are available for free. The rest must be bought.

You can download free and purchased books on the Liters website or using official applications. Almost every text is stored on the server in many formats, the store allows you to choose any. Most of the downloaded books can be read in both official and any other programs.

2. Play Books

Platforms: web, Android, iOS.

Google's Play Books service also offers an extensive online library, but is in no rush to donate texts for free. Here they take money even for classics.

You can purchase books only on the website and in the Play Books Android application. If you have an iPhone or iPad, the texts will have to be purchased in the browser: only then will they appear in the iOS version. Official applications of the service allow you to download books to your device to read offline.

3. MyBook

Platforms: web, Android, iOS.

The MyBook service provides access to 230,000 Russian-language books for the duration of a paid subscription. For 199 rubles a month you will unblock all texts, except for new products and business publications. For 549 rubles - absolutely all text books plus 40,000 audio versions. 48,000 classics and other works that have expired are available free of charge.

Books can be read online on the service website or downloaded using official mobile applications.

4. Bookmate

Platforms: web, Android, iOS, Windows.

Another subscription service, but with a larger catalog. According to the official description, Bookmate offers 12 million books in various languages, including Russian. 50,000 of them are available free of charge, the rest - for 399 rubles per month.

All texts can be read online on the Bookmate website and downloaded using the official apps. The subscription also includes access to digital comics. And for 499 rubles a month, in addition to comics and text books, you can also listen to audio versions.

Bookmate - read books and listen to audiobooks easily Bookmate

Bookmate. Books and Audiobooks Bookmate Limited

Bookmate Developer

5. Project Gutenberg

Platforms: web.

If you have long dreamed of reading Dickens' or Poe's original, the Gutenberg non-profit project site might come in handy. Here the reader is waiting for 60,000 books that have passed into the public domain. Most of them are English classics. Almost all texts are available in MOBI and EPUB formats.

6. Wattpad

Platforms: web, Android, iOS.

The Wattpad service allows everyone to publish books, so it is full of works by aspiring authors. If you are interested in such literature, you can read it for free on the website or in applications. But the service will be annoying with ads and will not allow you to store more than two downloaded books on your device.

To turn off ads and save texts without restrictions, you need to subscribe to the cost of 329 rubles per month.

7. Litnet

Platforms: web, Android.

Another samizdat platform where you can download books by independent authors. Litnet resembles Wattpad, but monetizes content differently. Local writers decide for themselves whether users can read them for free or not. Many authors put their work in the public domain. If you like a paid book, you will have to buy it.