50 Books to Read for Free Online -

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Below is a comprehensive list of the best free books to read online. Every book on this list can be read for free on Apple iBooks. If you haven’t used Apple iBooks, it’s a fantastic place to read. It’s an app preinstalled on Macs, iPads, and iPhones. Chances are you already have the app (it’s an orange icon with a book). If you haven’t yet become acquainted with it, you should! iBooks is essentially a digital library and bookstore. Anything you could buy at a bookstore will be available. They offer many great books for free.

Ok, so what is this list about?

These are 50 of the best free books you can read online. Most are considered ‘classics’. Whether you’re a novice reader just starting out or a seasoned bookworm with a thousand books already read, chances are you have read or will read a classic novel, play, poem, or story at some point. These books are often the subject of lively discussion among readers, on TV shows (like You and Gilmore Girls, among others), movies, and in other books.

Why I read the classics:

As someone who loves to read, I believe it’s important to diversify my literary tastes. I’ll admit that there are some classic novels that I couldn’t quite get into, and ultimately ended up not finishing. However, I tend to gravitate towards genres that I enjoy, such as fantasy and romance, which ensures that I’ll appreciate the overall plotline. Despite the fact that many of these books were written long before my time, I find it easy to connect with the characters. There’s a certain level of insightfulness that can only be found in classic literature, which is why I take pleasure in reading them. Additionally, there’s a sense of excitement that comes from understanding references to old books or plays that others may not be familiar with. It makes me feel like I’m part of a secret club, and I enjoy that feeling.

Why you should read the classics:

If you’re an aspiring writer, you may discover inspiration in classic literature. Contemporary novels, films, and plays frequently draw from these timeless works. The themes are often heavy, dealing with subjects like death, love, tragedy, pride, and greed. Despite being set in a distant past, these ideas remain relevant and impactful in modern times.

A fascinating study conducted by the University of Liverpool revealed that when volunteers were reading the classics, like Shakespeare, their brains “lit up” during scans. However, when they read modern translations, their brain activity was significantly reduced. Reading the classics can make you smarter!

Image of classic novels to read for free

How to read classic literature:

Classics usually require some effort to fully comprehend and appreciate. When I was in college, and I read Beowulf, I was extremely anxious. I had no idea what was happening, and when I looked around the class, I felt like the odd woman. All my peers seemed to understand what was happening, but I would re-read the same sentence three times and still be clueless. So, I came up with some tricks and I’m going to share them with you.

Here’s what I recommend:

Have a notebook or notepad app open and as I said above, take notes. Especially characters. Many older texts have similar or even the same names for characters and that is a huge source of confusion. If you have a list you can pop open when you get lost, that will ground you and bring you right back into the story.
Translators. There are tons of free English translators online, there’s even a Shakespeare translator! This can help so much. I like to translate the words or phrases I don’t understand, then as I see them repeated in the book, I begin to translate in my mind automatically and I can start getting through chapters quickly. I know earlier I mentioned the study done by university of Liverpool, but you cannot read something that you cannot comprehend so sometimes translations are necessary.
SparkNotes. I know, I know, SparkNotes has a bad rap. But if I’m reading a particularly difficult passage in a book, I will go over to SparkNotes and read an overview just to really cement in my mind what was happening. My English professor told us that it was ok by her if we did this, so we had all the permission we needed.

With those tips in hand, I am confident you can get through any classic book you choose, even Beowulf. And, after you’ve read the book, it doesn’t hurt to watch the movie version if it exists and see the actions played out. This will help everything coalesce and you should have a true understanding of what the book or play is about. I find watching the movie version especially helpful with Shakespeare.

Breakdown of the list:

The list below is quite long, and I haven’t even read all of them yet. I chose these particular books because they’re all well-known, and many have been turned into movies, plays, or shows. The sub-genres are all different, but every work below is fiction. Almost all of these can be enjoyed as an audiobook, but you will likely have to pay for that version. However, I’ve included notes for any that have free narration on iBooks.

50 Books you can read for free online

Wuthering Heights – Emma Brontë
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte * audiobook available for free!
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen *audio version also available for free – read by Kate Beckinsale!
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Count of Monte Cristo—Alexandre Dumas
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
Macbeth – William Shakespeare
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
A Christmas Carol -Charles Dickens
12 years a slave – Solomon Northup
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Gone with Wind– Margaret Mitchell
Persuasion– Jane Austen
Emma – Jane Austen *audio version is also available for free!
Northanger Abbey– Jane Austen
Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
The Picture of Dorian Gray– Oscar Wilde
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer– Mark Twain
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Robinson Crusoe– Daniel Clarke
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Catch 22– Joseph Heller
The Man in the Brown Suit– Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie
Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
A Room with a View – E.M. Forester
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
Julius Caesar – William Shakespeare
The Pearl – John Steinbeck
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy
Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Although this is a long list, there are more books available for free on iBooks! Crazy, I know! I have read so many free books this way and saved myself hundreds of dollars. While I do own physical copies of all of Jane Austen’s books, having access to all my books on my phone at any time is truly amazing. Reading a book is a better way to pass the time than endlessly scrolling through social media. I hope you can find a book to try from this list or search iBooks for a book you’ve been wanting to read; it might just be available for free! I’m always discovering new free books and adding them to my library, so I will try to update this list yearly.