Panic spreads across the MHS student’s face. She starts rubbing her forehead with her thumb and index finger. All of her friends have a concerned look on their faces.
“How am I going to read all of ‘Jane Eyre’ in ten days? I don’t have any money to get a hard copy from Amazon in time and all the copies of it have been checked out of the library! And I don’t have a Kindle to get the free e-book version! Asking the teacher for a copy looks so bad. Oh my gosh, I’m going to fail!” The MHS student puts her head in her arms and whimpers.
Is there any hope for her? Will she fail?
If her friends tell her about the site Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org), there would be hope for the MHS student. Project Gutenberg is a site that provides over 40,000 legal and free e-books.
Project Gutenberg was one of the first free e-book sites to pop up on the scene and is also the most recognized. The site’s e-books are free because the U.S. copyright on the original books have expired.
Users who just want to explore the site’s catalog can use the numerous search options available on the site. To find a specific e-book, users put the name of the e-book hey are looking for in the search box, click on the result that matches, and choose which downloadable version they want. If a book is not available in a certain format, users can use the site convertfiles.com to convert the EPUB file to another provided file format — including a PDF file.
Other features of the site include the site’s news section. In this section, news about Project Gutenberg, E-book reading apps and new E-readers that are available is shared.
Any student who is looking for a free e-book version of a classic book can look no further than Project Gutenberg. Students who just enjoy literature in general may also find site to be helpful.
