“Thursday’s Things” is a roundup of book-related links I’ve come across while wandering down the rabbit hole that is the internet.

I’m on a book buying ban for this year’s #ShelfLove Challenge.  The Boyfriend and I are also packing up the apartment to move across the country, so any new books I acquire have to be free and digital. Since this month’s discussion for #ShelfLove is all about where we find free books, here is a list of 20+ websites where I have gotten my book shopping fix for free:

• The Online Books Page – There are over 2 million free books on this website, thanks to the University of Pennsylvania.
• Read Print – Here are a few thousand more.
• The Baen Free Library – and here are even more.
• Bookyards – …and some more.
• International Children’s Digital Library – Looking for free kid’s books?  Here ya go.
• Storyline Online – How about famous actors reading children’s books aloud?  There are tons of videos on this non-profit site.
• Library of Congress – Of course, there’s always the Digital Collection of the Library of Congress.
• Planet eBook – Need to find that Classic you’ve been meaning to read since forever ago?  There are over 80 Classic Lit books on this site.
• ManyBooks – This site boasts that they have over 33,000 free books.
• Project Gutenberg – Most serious readers know about this one, but I have to list it because this is the go-to place for the Classics, and it will save your wallet if you’re a Classic literature addict or a member of The Classics Club.
• Internet Archive – I LOVE this website!  It’s got so much more than free books, so make sure you’ve got some time to kill because you might not leave this site for a while.
• Open Culture – This site has a ton of free downloadable media, including ebooks and audiobooks.
• Open Library – You don’t have a library card?  First of all, shame on you!  Second, go to the Open Library and sign up for a free account.  Third, start borrowing ebooks to your heart’s content.
• LibriVox – Free audiobooks.
• Lit2Go – Another site for free audiobooks, but many of the books also have a free downloadable PDF.
• Free Classic Audiobooks – in case you need yet another site for finding free downloadable audiobooks.
• Classic Short Stories – Look through the list to find the short story you want to read, and click on it to download.
• East of the Web – This site has short stories you can read online, but you can also click on the “Printable Version” link and then save it as a PDF.
• Nightmare Magazine – This is a Horror and Dark Fantasy short story magazine I recently discovered.  You can read the short stories online or download the audio/podcast.
• Storynory – This is a Children’s audiobook site that, amongst so many other kid-friendly downloads, includes Classic Children’s literature.
• Kiddie Records – If you’re looking for children’s records from the 1940s and ’50s, this is the site to check out.  The downloads, including a Winnie the Pooh story, are all free.
• BookBub – This is actually a website/newsletter to find out about the free (and on sale) books being offered under the genres you’re interested in by major booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  I’ve discovered quite a few free books that I felt were worth downloading, but be careful since there is the temptation of .99 books.