Homeschooler's Free Reading Resources

As a homeschooling family, we spend a lot of time in books, reading, learning and discussing many issues. When the children were younger, I purchased many books to have at home for easy access. We also visited the library and would sometimes have as many as 50 books out on loan! As Zachary and Leah became older, we found that purchasing books became too costly. Being able to borrow books from friends also became handy.  Although we try to always purchase books used and sell them when they are no longer needed, we also try to take advantage of free readers we find online. Two good sites that we found helpful are Librivox and Gutenberg.

• LibriVox  LibriVox provides free audio books from the public domain*. They offer a few ways for listening the audio books, direct listening or downloading onto your computer. In the past we’ve listened to some wonderful books while keeping busy doing something else like knitting, crocheting, drawing, etc.. LibriVox is always looking for volunteers to read books to be added to their library.

• Project Gutenberg  Although Project Gutenberg does not offer audio books, they offer over 100,000 free ebooks that are available through their partners, affiliates and resources.Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 33,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android or other portable device. All of their online ebooks can be downloaded, you can choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats. If you would like to help out, you can help by contacting them.  They need help with digitizing more books, recording audio books, reporting errors or by making a donation. 

Here are a few more ideas that may be of help.

• Local Library   Depending what your library has to offer, you may find that you will have access to online ebooks as well as books found on the shelf. Our library’s digital library has an selection of at least another 85,000 books to choose from.

• IPL2  You will find that IPL2 not only lists Project Gutenberg, LibrVox but other places for online books as well. As always, be of discerning mind when visiting these sites as they may not all be what you are looking for.

• Open Library You will find geography and history related books to name a few.  As of the beginning of 2011, they have gathered over 20 million records from a variety of large catalogs as well as single contributions, with more on the way. Open Library is an open project: the software and data are open, the documentation is open.  They welcome your contribution. Whether you fix a typo, add a book, or write a widget--it's all welcome.

*Public domain works are not covered by intellectual property rights at all, if the intellectual property rights have expired, and/or if the intellectual property rights are forfeited.

If you have other sites that you have found useful, please do share, we are always looking for other great free reader resources.



Blessings ~ The Brunos


The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:
but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7

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