I think project Gutenberg has been around for a while. Internet archive is good too
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Project Gutenberg is old. I ran a Gutenberg mirror 35ish years ago.
Project Gutenberg is a collaborative project to make texts freely and widely available, to anyone in the world who cares to read them https://www.gutenberg.org/about/. The name comes from Johannes Gutenberg, noted for his invention of the moveable-type printing press, which dramatically reduced the cost of making books and made access to books a lot more feasible for the working class.
Project Gutenberg has a lot of old books because many countries have laws that restrict the free distribution of original work for a period of time after the work is initially published. These are called copyright laws because they govern who has the right to copy a work of art. In the US (and in other places, but I'm most familiar with US law so I'll use it as an example), copyright protections eventually expire and the work enters the public domain, meaning that it no longer has copyright protections i.e. anyone may freely copy the work, including Project Gutenberg. That's why they are able to make so many older books available for download.
EPUB is a file format that makes text files a little bit nicer to read than just plain text, especially if you're using an ereader, so Project Gutenberg will often provide the text in an EPUB format as well as in plain text.
You may also look into library networks. I have no idea whether it’s available where you are, but I started heavily using my local library’s ebooks online starting over the pandemic. I’ve read dozens of free books without ever actually going there. That being said, every place is different and I believe library access is fairly local - you may want to see if there is such a thing where you are
Also, if you want to be a good citizen and not block others from checking out ebooks, I hear there are things you can do. Things like using Calibre+obok (or DeDRM, depending on device) to rip them from the reader device and remove the DRM. Then you can return the ebook to the library so others can use it, while being able to read it at your leisure.
I wouldn't know, of course, but it seems like the polite thing to do.
Just wanted to mention that Standard Ebooks is another great source for public domain books.
To add a little context, Standard Ebooks takes a subset of books from the Gutenberg Project and edits them into a more attractive, modernized standard. They add covers, fix typos and OCR mistakes. The same basic text, but with a slightly higher format quality.
I can remember project Gutenberg as far back as 2013/12-ish when I had my first kindle, so it’s not just new. And that’s only when I became aware of it.
Project Gutenberg (a reference to the inventor of the printing press) specifically digitizes old books (this year published before 1931) because they are in the public domain and will not cause problems for the project to distribute. They are volunteer run and you can help by making sure the pages that were run through OCR are correct.
EPUB is a file format that is intended for digital readers. The main benefit (over PDF) is that it is reflowable, allowing the digital reader to change display format if you need something like larger text or a specific font while still “keeping your spot” in the document.
I used to proofread boons on Project Gutenberg in 2004 or so. 2006 at the latest. It's internet-old.
Edit As a proofreader with 20+ years of experience, I'll leave the typo.
I'm interested to try it. Too bad, I can't see an online community. Maybe this is just new, but I've heard of kindle long ago already.
I heard there might be some ways of getting epubs for books that have come out after 1931
Different countries have different lengths of copyright. For example, I know that you can get some books from the Australian Gutenberg website that are not allowed on the American Gutenberg website yet.
Yes, but not through Project Gutenberg. You want Library Genesis or Anna's Archive for that... if you're feeling nautical.
No, it's been around for awhile. In US law, any book over 95 years old is considered public property, and can be shared for free. So, there's volunteers that take old books and scan them, then put the digital versions online for everybody.
If you'd like to make digital copies of things from your native language/culture and add them to the collection, I imagine that'd probably be fine. I'm not part of the project though, so I don't know the details of how these are submitted/who you need to talk to/etc.
There are many downloads per month or per year though.
Yes, there probably are. Is that important?
other commenters have covered the first two parts of your question quite well already. old books written in the 1900s are books that were written between 1900 and 1999. back then, books mostly got printed on paper, which is kinda like a screen, except it only shows one thing, ever, so you need lots of these "papers" to show a whole book. these papers would all be attached together using string and/or glue. books covered a wide variety of topics. they could be educational or describe made up stories. they could be small enough to fit in a pocket, or so big you need two hands to carry them. notable trends in books during the 1900s included the flourishing of science fiction, a kind of made up story where scientific or technological advancements play a prominent role, buoyed by technological progress and optimism about the future in the first half of the 20th century. the 1900s also saw a great deal of attention put to comic books, which, unlike more traditional books, tell stories using small pictures with text to show dialogue, rather than just text. comic books were well known for their depiction of heroic characters with unusual abilities such as Wonder Woman, or Spider-Man.
I don't think we've quite reached the point in human development where we need to explain to people what books are.
well, they did ask though, and i thought it'd be fun.
You say that but I've repeatedly tried to double a tap words in books I'm reading to get a definition of the word.
I know there is a question mark at the end, but this is not an intelligible question.
I understand it perfectly, so maybe you’re just upholding your username.
Yeah maybe lol!
"What are old books" is not an intelligible question.
It must be scary, living in a world where you're constantly confronted by the fact that people exist who are "not like you".