9 Answers2026-03-19
The title is pretty obvious, and so is the challenge. I'd approach this in a very methodical way. So the Wikipedia page for Dian Hanson for example lists a digital ISBN for Bestsellers, so that would be the first thing to search for. Academic databases like JSTOR or ProQuest can sometimes have amazing and unexpected cultural artifacts. I'd search for the book and look at the citations for any articles written about the book on the subject. Sometimes the links to the digital archives where the article was first published can be very high quality, even if they aren't free to access.
10 Answers2025-08-01
Buying a book at a local, independent store as opposed to a big box store is a great way to support the community. Recommending a book to someone else by suggesting they get it from the library is also good. But downloading a pirated PDF of the book? That’s like sneaking into the back door of the restaurant, eating a whole meal, and then leaving without anyone seeing you or paying you. The restaurant gets no benefit from your having been there, and if too many people do this, the restaurant goes out of business. Similarly, many authors, even those who are published by big publishers, operate on the edge of poverty, and it is the big sellers like Maas that fund the publication of the mid-list authors that a publisher takes on risk with. Killing this revenue stream will hurt all of these people.
10 Answers2025-07-06
I’ve been a student for years, and I totally get the struggle of finding affordable textbooks. The 'Brief Bedford Reader' 15th edition is a fantastic resource, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to download it for free from sketchy sites. Instead, check out your university library—many have digital copies you can borrow. Amazon and Chegg also offer rental options that are way cheaper than buying. If you’re tight on cash, look for used copies on eBay or ThriftBooks. Piracy isn’t cool, and those sites often have malware. Trust me, I learned the hard way after my laptop got infected last semester.
6 Answers2025-07-05
In terms of comparing new, used, rental, and even e-textbooks, sites like Chegg, Textbooks.com, and CampusBooks offer the ability to search for the same book across multiple online retailers. Importantly, the sites aggregate new, used, rental, and e-textbook listings from various online bookstores, so you can compare prices from multiple sellers in a single search. The prices may not always be the cheapest available online, but it’s a good place to start. In some cases, renting the e-book directly from the publisher (Norton) may even be cheaper than renting through an online aggregator, so be sure to click on through to the publisher’s website to compare prices. In just a few minutes, you could save yourself $30 or so by avoiding the campus bookstore, which is generally not the cheapest option for textbooks.
9 Answers2025-11-24
Are there any free ebook curation sites that have this book? That would be a really nicely packaged up ebook on one of the following free sites: Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks or Free-Ebooks.net. Almost all of the titles on these free sites are public domain or have been added by the authors themselves and these sites have very clean interfaces and safe downloads. Even if the book is not free it is often worth a search on these sites to see if it has recently gone free even if it is not a newly published title.
I’ve seen many books offered for free for short periods of time as part of a marketing campaign, often through platforms such as BookFunnel and StoryOrigin which enable authors to give away free review copies or reader magnets. Sometimes free books are promoted via authors’ own mailings, or indeed via Facebook groups or mailing lists for specific genres. It’s worth joining such groups or lists as you can get to hear about free books in your genre before they are promoted more widely on the web.
5 Answers2025-08-13
For someone who is constantly traveling, I prefer to have 10 PDFs on one tablet instead of lugging 10 heavy books with me. For in-depth studying, however, I do miss the ability to bookmark a page in a physical copy of a book. Free PDFs are great supplements to what you’ve already purchased. For example, the e-book that I had purchased was missing an index, so I was able to search for what I needed in a free PDF copy of the book. My ideal would be for publishers to offer a digital copy with every physical copy that they sell. Until that day comes, it’s best to use both formats wisely.
3 Answers2025-08-15
The famous Codex Gigas is online. You can find a full digital scan of the National Library of Sweden’s copy on their website. It is not a PDF but it is much better than that for studying the art and text of the manuscript as you can zoom in and out on every page.
For download, check the Internet Archive, which has loads of public domain books online. The Codex Gigas should be there under the codename “Devil’s Bible” — be cautious though because there are partial and lower quality scans floating around out there. If you’re interested in medieval history, the ‘Codex Gigas’ is a great starting point, featuring an impressive, full-page image of the devil, and even more fascinating stories surrounding the manuscript’s creation. Be sure to get your content from trusted sources though, as there are plenty of questionable downloads floating around.
10 Answers2025-07-28
By free, I really mean free. Lots of "free" textbooks, etc., are actually just old or pirated versions of paid work, posted by unaffiliated or even scams sites. So, scan of of a reputable publisher like McGraw Hill (often in textbook reserve rooms at the universities' libraries) would be your "free"est option. Heavily scanned pages are blurry, etc. The worst part is that lots of the "free" options can have hidden viruses. But scanned copies of books are all you get for free with really good textbooks. Take pictures of the chapters you need with your phone at the library and you're done.
Your prof may have an extra copy of the eBook code from their rep. Be nice to them after class and explain your financial constraints. They may be able to get you temporary access to the required eBook or even better direct you to an alternative resource that the prof knows about.
4 Answers2025-08-07
I get free legal thrillers from BookBub – many free books are offered on a daily basis. Occasionally a publisher such as Tor will make an eBook free to download for a period of time. Open Library at Archive.org is also a good source of free eBooks – you create an account and then borrow books. This is all to be done within the bounds of the authorized distribution of the copyrighted work.
8 Answers2025-07-29
The Archives of Nethys is the legally free resource for Paizo's SRD, posted on the website. It has all the rules. That Paizo can make money selling the nice hardcover edition of the rules and the nice adventures while at the same time making the rules themselves legally free for use by anyone, to play any game they wish, is cool. The website is a little bare, but completely functional. I have it bookmarked on every device I use. The best way to get information on anything at the table during play is to use the website – far better than to have to search through a PDF during the heat of combat. And while there is no free PDF, what Paizo has done is to provide something far more useful to actual players. Use the website – it’s the right way to do it.