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Reading Options & Kindle

Project Gutenberg offers over 75,000 entirely free ebooks. These are the ways in which you can read and enjoy them.

  1. Read Online
  2. Kindle
    1. Option A: Send to Kindle via Web (easiest)
    2. Option B: Send to Kindle via Email
    3. Option C: USB Transfer
  3. More E-readers
    1. Kobo
    2. Nook
  4. Phone or Tablet
    1. iPhone / iPad
    2. Android
  5. Computer
  6. Plain Text
  7. AI Help

Read Online

Every Project Gutenberg ebook has its own dedicated webpage. That means you can just go to the website of any book you like and start reading right away. On any device - smartphone, tablet or PC.

  1. Go to gutenberg.org
  2. Find a book you like
  3. Click “Read now!”

All you need is a functional web browser like Chrome, Safari or Firefox.

Kindle

Option A: Send to Kindle via Web (easiest)

Amazon provides a website that you can use to upload files to your Kindle.

  1. Download the EPUB3 file from Project Gutenberg
  2. Go to Amazon’s “Send to Kindle” page and upload the file.
    • In the US the page is amazon.com/sendtokindle. Outside the US use your country’s domain (e.g. amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr) or google for “send to kindle” + your country
  3. The book will appear on your Kindle shortly

Note: The “Send to Kindle” page also has additional sending options in its sidebar that you can explore.

Option B: Send to Kindle via Email

Each Kindle has its own email address to which you can send files.

  1. Download the EPUB3 file from Project Gutenberg
  2. Find your Kindle’s email address:
    • On Amazon’s website: Open Menu → Manage Your Content and Devices → Devices tab (small) → select Kindle and see info
  3. Add your email address as an approved sender:
    • On Amazon’s website: Open Menu → Manage Your Content and Devices → Preferences tab (small) → scroll down to “Approved Personal Document E-mail List” section and add your email address
  4. Email EPUB3 file as an attachment to your Kindle
  5. The book will appear on your Kindle shortly

Note: These methods work except for very old Kindles that can’t receive files wirelessly.

Option C: USB Transfer

You can also plug your Kindle into your computer and copy files directly to it. Modern Kindles (updated since late 2022) support EPUB files directly—just copy the EPUB to the Kindle’s “documents” folder. For older Kindles, download the Kindle/MOBI format from our download page instead.

  1. Download the EPUB file from Project Gutenberg (or Kindle/MOBI if your device is older)
  2. Connect your Kindle to your computer via USB
  3. Copy the ebook file over to the “documents” folder of your Kindle

Mac users: Newer Kindles (2024+) won’t appear in Finder. There are work-arounds, but it may be easier to just go with Option A or B above instead.

More E-readers

Most e-readers use EPUB3 as their standard format. So all you need to do is download the EPUB3 and transfer it to your device. If your e-reader is on the old side, or you’re trying to use Adobe Digital Editions you may have better luck with the EPUB file.

Kobo

Kobo makes things easy. When you plug it into your computer, it shows up as a USB drive. Then you just drag and drop your book onto it.

  1. Download the EPUB3 file
  2. Connect your Kobo to your computer via USB
  3. Tap “Connect” on your Kobo’s screen
  4. Drag the file into the Kobo drive that appears

Nook

Nook works much the same way as Kobo—plug it in and it appears as a drive on your computer.

  1. Download the EPUB file on your computer
  2. Connect your Nook via USB
  3. Tap “Connect” on your Nook’s screen
  4. Copy the file to the “My Files” folder on the Nook drive

Phone or Tablet

You can either read our ebooks directly in your browser or download the EPUB file and open it in a reading app of your choice.

iPhone / iPad

Apple Books comes pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad, and it can handle EPUB files. So you’re good to go right out of the box.

  1. Download the EPUB3 file from Safari
  2. When prompted, choose “Open in Books”—or save to Files first and open from there

If you prefer a different reading app (Kobo, Libby, etc.), that works too. Just use the Share menu to open the file in your preferred app.

Android

Getting started on Android is straightforward:

  1. Download the EPUB3 file
  2. Tap the downloaded file and choose which app to open it with

There are plenty of free reading apps to choose from: ReadEra, Moon+ Reader, Kobo, and Google Play Books (note: Play Books requires uploading the file to your Google library rather than opening it directly).

Computer

As mentioned, the easiest option is to open the website of a particular ebook directly in your browser and start reading right away (use “Read now!” button). But if you’d rather read offline, you can download the EPUB3 files and use a desktop reading app of your choice:

These are just a few options — there are many other EPUB reading apps available, for example Koodo Reader, FBReader, and Adobe Digital Editions etc.

Plain Text

Every one of our ebooks is also available as a plain text (.txt) file which means you can display it on any device that can open and display such a text file. You won’t get formatting or images, but this is the simplest option of all.

AI Help

Everyone’s setup is a little different and unfortunately we can’t cover every possible case here. If you’re still unsure how to start reading or you’re running into trouble, a chat with a trusted AI assistant can often help if you describe your particular situation to that assistant, e.g. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Okara.

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