17 Websites of Free Ebooks and Audio Books for Language Learners
You may not be able to go to a library, but a library can come to you. This is thanks to a wide range of websites that provide free ebooks in many languages online.
Table of Contents
German
- Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg has published more than 60,000 books about literature online, where you can also download them to read offline. Check out the list of the Top 100 popular books of the month if you don’t know where to start.
- Bibliothek Zeno
If you are a big fan of German literature, you must not miss the Bibliothek Zeno which includes plenty of German literature masterpieces as free ebooks.
- Vorleser
Just as its name implies, Voeleser is an audiobook website. You will find detective novels, poems and children’s literature amongst its selection.
French
- Ebooks libres & gratuits
Ebooks libres & gratuits is totally free! You can search books by title, author and genre.
- Litterature audio
Litterature audio provides a good range of listening materials with more than 6,000 audiobooks available, which can be downloaded as MP3 audio files.
- Gallica
Gallica is the digital branch of the French National Library (BnF). It provides access to many types of documents: printed documents (books, press and magazines) in image and text mode, plus manuscripts, sound and iconographic documents, as well as maps and plans. It is a good way to immerse yourself in the French language and culture.
Spanish
- Casa del Libro
Casa del Libro translates as the home of books and is the digital branch of the famous chain bookstore in Spain.
- 24symbols
24 Symbols is one of the most popular ebook websites in Spain. The app is beautiful, making sure you can enjoy reading ebooks on your computer, tablet or smartphone. They also have a recommended book list and a subscription option.
- Rakuten kobo
Rakuten kobo has a wide range of audiobooks. You can use it both on your laptop and smartphone. As well as the usual way of searching a book by title and author, you can also search for it by ISBN.
Japanese
- TADOKU
Tadoku has plenty of books for every level. At the lower levels, the books include many pictures, so you don’t have to constantly refer to a dictionary. You can download PDF ebooks or MP3 audiobooks. 無料の読みもの means to read for free, where the books are both beginner-friendly and high quality.
- Aozora Bunko (青空文库)
Azora is a digital library. Although the interface may be old-fashioned, the library contains many resources. There are more than 10,000 books in literature alone! Beginners can start with children’s literature, and you can even choose to read the books in their original vertical Japanese print layout.
Korean
- KYOBO Ebook
From comics to academic thesis, you can buy or rent ebooks from Kyobo, where there are also many free ebooks available.
- Naver Ebook
series.naver.com/ebook/freeList.nhn
Naver is a famous dictionary publisher for Korean language learners, but did you know that Naver also provides free ebooks? It has a wide and varied selection of books with more than 1,500 available for free. However, it is not all that friendly for beginners.
Chinese
- Haodoo（好读）
Haodoo is a traditional Chinese website which provides novels as ebooks and audiobooks in a wide range of genres, including Kong fu novels.
- Jiumodiary（鸠摩搜索）
Jiumodiary is a powerful search engine where you can find free ebooks, audiobooks and printed books, as long as they are available on the internet, by searching for the book’s title.
Portuguese
- LELIVROS
You will find popular novels such as A Song of Ice and Fire in Portuguese available for download at Lelivros. The site has many free ebooks for children, teenagers and beginner language learners.
- Amazon
Are you looking for some free Portuguese ebooks to read? All you need is the Kindle app on your computer, smartphone or tablet. Amazon has made over 50,000 ebooks free on their website. Enjoy reading from a wide selection from classic novels to books about food, travel, health and business for free. Many can also be read aloud to you by the Kindle app.
