Project Gutenberg: 50+ Years of Free Public-Domain eBooks, Still Growing

Project Gutenberg continues its decades-long mission of digitizing public-domain literature, offering free EPUB and Kindle downloads with no registration or apps required. The catalog leans heavily on works whose U.S. copyright has expired, maintained by a volunteer corps that handles scanning, proofreading, and curation through partners like Distributed Proofreaders.

Recent expansions include a substantial audiobook push: alongside the long-standing human-narrated LibriVox collaboration, a 2023 partnership with Microsoft and MIT produced nearly 5,000 computer-generated audiobooks, dramatically broadening listening options. The site continues to surface popular classics — Frankenstein, Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice — while quietly adding obscure titles across languages and genres.

Operating since 1971, the project remains donation-funded and volunteer-driven, with discovery aided by curated reading lists, category browsing, and search by author, language, or subject. It stands as one of the oldest and most durable open-content efforts on the internet.