Victorians! discussion

All the books we are reading here in Victorians! are public domain books, meaning, they were published in a time to which current copyright laws no longer apply. Ideally these books, if obtained in ebook format, should be of no charge. We all know this is not always the case. Here is a link to a webpage that has aggregated a number of websites where free public domain titles can be accessed

https://www.ebooksall.com/25-sources-...

Also, when looking on Amazon it is increasingly more difficult to find the free downloads, and for the more popular titles they have been disappearing for some time. However, there is a go-around worth trying right here on goodreads. If you go to the desired book (page), there is a link to all the other editions for the particular book. Click on it and scroll if an ebook freebie is available. For the Amazon titles that's usually pretty easy to spot, for they have a tan top and solid other color bottom (green, red, blue) cover page. Unless they have discontinued the link, you may still be able to obtain the freebie through the "back door."

Please feel free to add other sources for public domain books you are aware of. We are literally a global community here - so awesome!!! - and the sources that may be available for one geographic region may not be available to another. So let's help each other out!

Great list, thanks Kerstin!

Thanks very much for the link. It is often frustrating to search through the kindle lists looking for a free copy of a public domain book.
I use a free piece of software called ‘Calibre’ which is designed to manage an ebook collection on a pc/mac or laptop.
Calibre will search for an ebook on the net, tell you if it is free or not, download it and transfer it to your e-reader. It will even convert the ebook to the format your e-reader recognises. It is fairly easy to use. The only drawback is that the ebooks in the lists can vary in quality so I usually stick with Project Gutenburg and the Internet Archive.

You can even use Calibre to create your own ebooks.

Here is the link to the software

https://calibre-ebook.com/

Thanks, Trev!
I must admit I haven't used Calibre in years. Using it as a resource to find e-books is an excellent suggestion.

Kerstin wrote: "Thanks, Trev!
I must admit I haven't used Calibre in years. Using it as a resource to find e-books is an excellent suggestion."

Went down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one. Before I use up more time on it - this post is quite old - is Calibre still a thing...its a leggit site not a hooky pirate site? Just asking.... Dont like downloading when I'm not certain. Thanks.

Pippa wrote: "Kerstin wrote: "Thanks, Trev!
I must admit I haven't used Calibre in years. Using it as a resource to find e-books is an excellent suggestion."

Went down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one. Bef..."

Here is a recent review of Calibre. I have it on my laptop and PC and have used it for years without any problems. I don’t have the technical knowledge to know about its origins etc.

https://technicalwall.com/tutorial/ho...