Where Can I Read Indian Authors Books For Free?

There are lots of free websites where you can read books online without signing up to a website first. For classic books that are no longer copyrighted there’s the wonderful Project Gutenberg (long established) and ManyBooks (my current favorite with a great variety of free books of many different types in different formats too). For free audiobooks there’s Librivox, which features free public domain audiobooks for download, all of them read by volunteers. On the other hand, Open Library allows users to borrow digital books, many of which can be checked out by users without an account. Additionally, Classic Shorts offers short stories and essays that users can instantly read online for free without having to sign up for anything.

Recently finished ‘The Sialkot Saga’ by Ashwin Sanghi. Beautifully written love story amidst a historical epic. Author has done a great job of merging romance with the history of partition in a very new-school way. On the other hand, I’m stuck in Half Love by Shyam Selvadurai. The way he has written a queer romance set in the Delhi art world is beautiful. The tender and sensitive way in which he has portrayed closeted love to its utmost is breathtaking. Both these books are proof that in India, romance is no longer restricted to a bunch of saris and samosas. Both these authors are doing great work by breaking all sorts of stereotypes in these novels, page after page.

Within the romance novels field I currently specialize in translated novels originally published in other languages (Korean webnovels, Japanese light novels, Chinese danmei novels). Getting hold of a free legal copy of such a novel is not as easy as it is with English language novels. Most webnovels are serialized, and even completed ones are rarely translated and made available for free, especially when they are official translations. (Exceptions are made when there is an anime adaptation for example.) Once more, your best bet for accessing free translated romance would be your local library, as some systems have started adding titles from platforms such as OverDrive’s Global Chinese collection, or even partner with comic and app services that offer translated webnovels. Demand for translated novels is up in recent years, but as of now there is still not as much access as there is to English-language romance novels. Free samples of novels from official aggregator sites for translated novels are typically how you can look at free samples of a specific sub-genre before you buy it.

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.

The academia lit lover may find academic and literary novels released as open access by the publisher, including works supported by public funds. These are often released as PDFs directly off a publisher or author’s website. Unlike typical fiction released as open access, these titles are not promoted in the same way and thus are hidden from the general public. Yet, dense, award-winning literary fiction of the highest academic status is released for free. Unlike the numerous free titles on Amazon, these are released slowly and of high prestige.

Webtoon (comic & manga) and Tapas have very good dark modes built right into their apps. They are best known for their comic & manga, but also have a very large section of web novel, all read with vertically scrolling text. The apps are designed for long sessions of reading, so the dark themes are very integrated and comfortable to read with. Both Webtoon and Tapas offer free-to-read content, some of which is even available with no ads at all. While many of the stories are comics or manga, there is also a large collection of ‘web novels’ which are free to read online. They are usually written to be read in vertical, one handed, sequences of text, perfect for late night reading on your mobile.

For free Asian web novels, translation quality reads a million times better than garbage. High-quality translations of original works of fiction (even “free” ones like those found on Wuxiaworld or Volare, for instance) far outstrip heaps of locally-hosted “aggregated” copy—all “translated” via some half-baked program of semi-automated re-pulsing via interpolation of works from paying translation groups. Take the time to click on to the original translators and their providers—huge differences between extremely readable original translated chapters and mangled stuff “summarized” for your reading “convenience” by web novel “aggregators”.

For free e-books that are a mix of old and new, I recommend checking out the public domain books that Standard Ebooks has beautifully formatted for the modern reader. For free manga, MangaDex and ComiCake have plenty of fan-translated works available (just use an ad blocker and be aware that the legality of these is somewhat in question). For free audiobooks, the volunteer recordings at Librivox are great for listening to while doing other things. And many university websites offer free texts by professors and students, including literature and philosophy books at MIT OpenCourseWare. You can download these and then transfer them to your tablet using a cable or by emailing them to yourself.

For free access, check if your workplace or health provider includes free book loans in their wellness programs. My friend got her through our prenatal classes. You can also read the first chapters of a book on Kindle using the ‘Sample’ feature to see if you think it is worth purchasing.

I mentioned before that 'free' often means our attention is used to view ads. On web-based sites where you can read free novels online or even on your mobile Wattpad account, you will find ads such as banners and videos on the pages where you read. I have mentioned before that we have a browser extension that blocks ads on sites where we read online. However, these usually only take a few seconds to load and we can easily factor this in. Also, some apps have a free version and a paid ad-free version, and the paid version is only monthly! These are essentially payments for the content that you’ve read for free. If you’re reading authors who post on Radish or Dreame for example, they earn based off ad views as well as engagement with their free chapters. That means even though you’re not spending a dime and there are moments where you have to sit through an ad, you’re paying for the stories that you read in other ways.