There is always the complaint that college classes in turn lead to more money being spent on course books. While textbooks are the major money-depleting culprits, having to buy a stack of literature paperbacks are just as damaging to a student’s budget; especially if the student has no intention of ever reading the book again.

To cut book costs,—especially if you are attempting to buy textbooks conveniently by walking to the campus bookstore—checking for an e-book version of the material may very well help. To start the search for online books, here are a few places that are particularly keen on e-book distribution:

1. Project Gutenberg – The site’s sole mission statement is “to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.” Project Gutenberg is the largest (and the first) collection of free electronic books, with 30,000 free e-books and over 100,000 titles combined with its other affiliates. Any college student could easily find that most—if not all—of the Shakespeare’s works are there, along with other classics including Chaucer, Dante, and Dumas.
2. The Internet Archive – This site provides not only e-books, but other types of text, audio, printed images, and legally downloadable software. The site is comprehensive, and it also includes works in various languages. A special note of The Internet Archive is that it is also possible to find research material here. Books on psychology and medicine are abundant on the site.
3. The Online Books Page – Like the other archives before, this specializes in more e-books, as well as blogs and foreign language. The site is hosted by the library at the University of Pennsylvania, and features works by women writers and banned books online. This is another great addition to the list of sites with free e-books.
4. Literal Systemsand Librivox – These two areas focus mainly on transposing e-books into audiobooks. While they certainly do not have an extensive list like Project Gutenberg, there are surprisingly large amounts of e-books available for the general public. Those who retain information better by listening should definitely give audiobooks a try.